In Thursday’s class, we had a workshop from three members of Plato’s Cave on Triple R. It was great to hear their insight on their process of reviewing and how radio differs from written criticism. I personally prefer to read criticism, and I don’t listen to the radio much, usually when I’m driving I listen to music instead. But now I might have to start listening to Plato’s Cave podcasts.
However, a lot of their advice applied to all types of film criticism. They made the point that you need to admit your biases when reviewing, which is something we have talked about previously, but I think I find it more of a challenge to do that in written criticism as it’s more formal and often not in first person. They also said that who you are and your personal experiences bring an interesting perspective to your criticism, and Cerise emphasised that it’s important to harness this in order to distinguish yourself from other voices. Cerise also made the point that travelling out of Australia and being a part of other film festivals opens up opportunities.
One thing that surprised me was that they are sent a link to watch new films and then just view it on their laptops at home. I had never really considered that critics would consume films in a way that’s not how they are intended to be viewed, but it makes sense that they can’t attend a cinema screening for every film.