Becoming an Online Movie Critic

Series Summary

Good writing is an important skill used in a variety of media. Whether it's writing a meeting agenda, a toast or a magazine article, the ability to effectively communicate to a large audience stems from knowledge and execution of proper writing techniques. With such knowledge comes an understanding of the distinct differences in writing styles between creative writing, journalism, technical writing and informal writing. In this free video series on writing, a professional film critic discusses writing movie reviews. Find out how to become a film critic through multiple writing samples, and get information on getting published online. Learn about the art the movie criticism from an expert in the field. Become a freelance movie critic with this helpful writing and career guide.

Video Transcript

"My name is Peter Rainer, and I'm a film critic for the Christian Science Monitor. I'm here to talk about becoming an online movie critic. I think the way to become an online movie critic is essentially the same way as becoming a print critic. You have to have something to show somebody, some example of your writing, and instead of showing it to somebody for a print publication, you show it to an online publication. But the process is essentially the same: you first have to write something, and get it seen by people who are in a position to employ you, have been able to bring everything they know about life into their writing--and that means politics, sociology, aesthetics, their knowledge of not only film, but literature, of art, of music... of psychology, of everything. And that's what's so exciting about writing about movies, is that ideally, and especially when there are films that are really worth writing about, you can bring everything to bear on this, and it can be just as exciting as any other form of criticism. And it's possible to write for your own blog. You can write your own material without even selling anything anywhere. As long as you have some way to display your writing, at least you can attract attention that way. Okay."