· The title of the film/documentary
· Produced by
· Directed by
· Summary – of course, the whole point of the review is to summarize the documentary or movie for people who haven’t watched it yet. To make this as effective as possible, always assume that your professor hasn’t seen it either. That way, you won’t leave out some important details thinking he/she watched it already so they won’t bother. As a reviewer, your job is to explain what happened in the film and express whether the filmmaker failed or succeeded. Again, saying you liked or disliked it isn’t a viable comment. Your opinion has to be supported by specific reasons and examples from the feature itself
· Creative elements – filmmakers work hard to include creative elements into their motion pictures. How are these elements important to the plot and movie in general? For example, costumes (or clothing in a doc) can either enhance the movie or betray its intent. Colors can be vivid and lift the atmosphere or mood in the movie or they can be dull and make it seem depressing. Good sound effects enrich the viewing experience while bad ones only destroy everything. Moreover, camera movements and angles also add elements to the story. Take notes of symbols in the story, if any.
· Significance to our class – How does the content of the documentary or film fit into our course topic?
· Make sure you describe instances where the terminology from our readings is show. For example, if you are reviewing American History X, then look at the key ideas for that chapter. There may be key ideas from other chapters that pertain to Skinheads that you saw in your film. If your subculture was not one we studied in class, such as Amish, and you are reviewing the movie Witness, then look at the key words across all of the chapter and determine which ones apply.
· Next, make connections between your own research (i.e., your annotated bibliography) and what you observe in the film.
· Lastly, describe how your film addresses any of the big questions we looked at at the beginning of our class.