| Product: |
How To Write A Good Movie Review |
| Date: |
26/03/08 (177 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Always nice to get a crown.
Disadvantages: Get those crowns up!
In the week dooyoo are talking up their top movie writers on the community page it was disappointing to see yet another fall in movie crowns this month. In business if you pay more money out in one area then you have to cut your cloth accordingly in others. The silly 500 dooyoo mile rewards for the ludicrously low 150 word tally (it should be at least 350 now) has inevitably hemorrhaged hard cash from the site and so, as we expected, it's being deducted from cutbacks in crown awards, very noticeable in this section right now. So those who really work hard on their reviews have had to find that money to fund the new churners. The incentive on dooyoo is to increasingly churn now, as, indeed, some prominent members have now decided to do, which is all rather sad. We have to encourage quality as well as the click reads for the advertising revenue.
Where as the 'Speaker's Corner' section draws in new members to have a good rant on the dooyoo platform, you need equally popular sections like 'Film' vibrant that then matures them into better writers here to push for crowns and quality on site, as was the case with little old me. Now that the Speaker's Corner crowns have dried up to a dribbling tap in the Sahara Desert (only six in the last 30 days), it looks like dooyoo has now deemed it time to hit movies, the next most popular section that's not making dooyoo any real money we presume. According to my calculations, via the dooyoo drop-down boxes, there has been a 30% reduction in crowns in the last month alone. Yes, Dooyoo could well be making savings for the current economic climate but I suspect it's more about trying to get the good writers to write somewhere else that's more commercial on site and so good for them. I, like many others who take this place seriously, just can't write on something if they have nothing to say about it. I marvel at people who can write 800 words on a Mars Bar or some garden furniture but I just can't do it. I feel guilty enough as it is if I write a poor review and get paid for it. Its movies for me and many others and we need to get those crown numbers back up guys.
Weekly movie crowns, week 10 being the last one. The Guide's tallies are in the brackets.
12 Week (06) 18 crowns
11 Week (11) 28 crowns
10 Week (07) 20 crowns
09 Week (09) 18 crowns
08 Week (10) 17 crowns
07 Week (07) 28 crowns
06 Week (07) 26 crowns
05 Week (10) 27 crowns
04 Week (07) 25 crowns
03 Week (10) 31 crowns
02 Week (04) 24 crowns
I knew film crowns would be next for fiscal cuts when dooyoo decided they were only going to post up new film suggestions once a week, if that. 17 days and counting...This would mean a burst of films going up a couple of days after that and then film reviews tailing off. I think the reason for the change is because it's the most popular category on dooyoo now SC has been destroyed and so inevitably too many crowns and churn going there.
It's not the most scientific method of calculating this shortage of film crowns but it definitely shows a trend. The drops may not look too bad on paper but the crowns will go to the same writers and there will be handful left for the rest to scrap on. The guide's ratio of weekly crowns hasn't fallen. In fact its up to 50% this month. I see crowns as a way of keeping the general standard high, rather than to promote work and guides.
Writing for crowns...
Where as in speaker's corner I don't really write for crowns - basically having a rant and sod the rest of you, and if I get a crown its nice - in movies I'm more measured these days and do write for crowns. I think I'm worth them and hope that was down to you guys rather than dooyoo trying to shut me up moaning .After getting no crowns for 25 film reviews before Christmas I was a bit miffed and so had a good whinge to dooyoo. I was getting plenty of nominations but no crowns. Dooyoo said fair enough and admitted I may have been 'overlooked', backing that up by giving me 7 crowns for my next 25. I was very pleased with that rate and it does point to just how political crown awarding can be on dooyoo. One minute you're in and earning very nicely and the next minute your out. If you're not happy then let them know guys.
How to get crowns...
My mentality in the film section has always been that the same members will always get the crowns and it's my job to take them off them. The horror ghouls have quite rightfully dominated for a while now and it has been tough to penetrate their hold. But I promised myself I would smarten up my stuff and on the 25th of Feb (my birthday!) I sat proudly level atop the movie crowns list with 11 for the month. The playing field was level at the time and I made my goal, although I had to dribble around all ten outfield players before I could score it. I perhaps took the crowns for granted of late and let the new talent slip by like ships in the night, and like those equally tough to get mortgages in the credit crunch, I have to make sure I'm worthy of the crowns by improving again. I'm certainly not going to shut up and leave the crowns to the same gang, which for 6 weeks or so I was an honorable member of.
Till the day I die I will keep saying it helps to be a guide to get a crown on here. It's very rare a non guide's review equal to a guide's one is ever going to get the nod from dooyoo. And if dooyoo refuse to even consider me for a guide I will say it even more  If movie crowns are going to be rationed then its time to start shouting our corner guys!
How I write reviews...
Some people moan that my reviews can get rather political and abstract at times and drift off on all sorts of tangents. But I say that's the whole point of watching a movie and the director and actor want you to react to their film though your accrued emotions on the subject. If a documentary or film comes out on Iraq then all concerned want you to relate their work and to challenge the newsreel images and written media you have been plastered with. I will write about my interpretation of the film and what it means to me and what it may mean to you guys. Some people like to write informative film reviews and some people like to get themselves involved in the film! If a films undercurrent is about global warming then you will get a paragraph on global warming hype from me whether you like it or not.
I don't think I'm that good at film writing but I do think I make it interesting by making them contemporary and funny. Every movie has a reason to be made and I'm going to give my interpretation of that message. Human beings make those movies with the same emotions we put into watching them. My main aim is to get a following, twenty or so writers who like the same films I do, who will hopefully agree with my choices. I reckon made at least four regular film writers here suffer 'Shooter' (I liked it). I want them to read me as they know I'm pretty accurate on what's good or bad and they know I'm the type of writer who won't be bluffed by movie hype or reputations.
For example...American Beauty is a cliché ridden piece of Hollywood tedium and fooled the world into liking it because the hype was spot on and so the emperor had no clothes, the movie really about the director and stars self-indulgence confronting their closet homosexuality through the medium of film. One day in the future all those critics who drawled over it will come around and realize I was right. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE! A film has to make money, not friends.
Presentation...
The title is critical for me and if it's smart then you know the review will be. Ailran had the best one I ever saw on dooyoo for M Knight Shylamans, 'The Village', reading :'Lets Twist Again Like We Did Last Summer', whilst my best one was ,'I Know What You Did Last Supper', for the 'DaVinci Code' movie. When you see a lazy or bland title you don't really want to read it, especially if it's a movie you have seen before.
I also feel you need a sharp first line, even if it has little to do with the film. A boring opening and predicable paragraph suggest a perfunctory film review at best. If you get them interested early then you have them for the trip and the rate. The most satisfactory thing about a solid opening is to be quoted elsewhere on the internet. My opening line for my 'Rendition' review that 'the financial markets were running blood red like the streets of Iraq', was pinched by Newsnight, no less! Well, I like to think it was!
Our two guides write excellent film review because they have the ability to get them to just flow like a river, no need to sector it out with cast lists and ratings to fluff it up (guilty as charged here!).I also admire the horror writers as they love their genre, even though it's not my thing. I haven't been freaked out since the original Evil Dead. I try to spice mine up with a little humor and observation, especially when I didn't really like the movie. In fact the most fun film reviews are the slaughtering ones. On rating a movie I very rarely give five stars and so I think you need to think about that when you look long term and don't be over generous with the top mark. A reader wants to know if it really is a five star movie and so you are encouraging them to rent or buy. Someone gave Deuce Biggalow five stars last week!!! I can't trust that guys rating system so why read him?
If it's a DVD with extras I want to hear about them. People rent older films for audio commentaries and special features and that bit is often as important as your film review. Run time is also useful to whack up as is how much the rental price is. If you, like me, use cast lists to plump your review up then fair enough. You are probably like me and feel guilty if your work is too short.
Where do we go from here?
The horror ghouls are dominating the crowns and so you're not going to be able to compete with them for crowns if the quota keeps falling. Its pleasing new cinema reviews are going up pretty sharpish in the last six months and I do feel dooyoo should prioritize those movies so bundling them in with other categories that go straight up. Once weekly posting up for DVD films is annoying but I suppose we will have to live with it (unless we get on to them to get them to change it back). They will know when that's not working when members start getting impatient and putting films in the wrong categories. I get impatient and so I know others will. The guides rating of this review sums up where we are on fairness.
Summary: Changing times on dooyoo
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