How do you write movie/TV show reviews?

Zach Werre

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Should you take notes while watching a show or movie? If so, what should you write down? After watching, what are some questions to ask yourself when writing the review? Any advice you have for writing movie/TV show reviews would be helpful!
 

TYTD

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It's all down to preference really. Some people prefer to just write from the heart and go emotive on there reviews. Others prefer to go more technical and may want to make notes. For me due to the sheer volume of films I watch a week (Usually 4-5 films a week) I do things in stages. First I'll watch the movie with a notebook. I'll note the film title (And alternative titles), Director, Script writer and year of release. Then I'll watch the film in full noting key plot developments and also my thoughts on Direction, Lighting, Editing, Cinematography and composition, Acting, scripting, the soundtrack and my general thoughts on how I personally feel about the film. Then I'll write a final thoughts at the end where I sum up how I feel about the movie in a few sentences (Giving me a general overview of my notes for reference)

Then I typically sleep on it and the next day I'll write the review structuring it in a way that introduces the audience to the film, the director and its history before going into the meat of the review (i.e: discussing the plot and the technical side of things) my final thought lines more often than not will be expanded on and reworked into the closing of my reviews as well.

Then I'll store it away until its time to record the audio (I normally record 2-4 reviews at once) but before I record them I'll just quickly go through them all one more time to polish up the dialogue, make it scan better and tweak my opinions slightly before finally taking it to the studio.

It seems long winded but giving a movie 24 hours to breath I find really helps me to think about it much more subjectively and really lets me figure out my feelings on the piece...I feel if I were to write the notes then go straight into writing the review it'd feel a bit too much like a "Reaction" video when im trying to be constructive :) I mainly ask how the film made me "Feel" I think thats the most important part of film and tv criticism. did it leave you feeling like you wanted to watch more, were you satisfied by it or did it leave you feeling empty or like you wasted your time? :)