reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP (07/19/85)
Things having quieted down a little, mail-wise, I will briefly report the
results of my question about the lengths of my reviews (and then, not so briefly
but in a separate article, describe a little about my philosophy of movie
reviews). Using purely arbitrary divisions, and some guesswork on how to
classify certain responses, and with the caveat that I may well have dropped
some messages on the floor accidentally, here are the results.
Fine at this length: 19
A little too long (keep it around 100 lines): 4
Too long (keep it to 2 screensful): 6
Much too long (all I want is how many stars you give it): 1
I am suspicious of these numbers, as I remember a lot more replies saying
that the reviews were too long. Either I'm overly sensitive to criticism
(definitely true, but maybe not the explanation), or I subconsciously sent
the negative messages to the bit bucket. At any rate, as far as the feedback's
result goes, I think that I will try to make a concious effort to put a 100
line limit on reviews of a single movie. Once in a while, I review more than
one movie in a posting, and those will probably run longer. Editing is one
of the writing skills everyone should practice, and I'll try to improve mine.
Also, I will be saving myself from Chuqui's proposed article guillotine.
Thanks to all who responded. Due to the volume, I didn't have time to
answer you individually, but some of the specific questions and criticisms
you raised will be addressed in an upcoming posting.
--
Peter Reiher
reiher@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
{...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiherjeffh@brl-tgr.ARPA (the Shadow) (07/26/85)
>> ... No matter what the movie, I can't get interested in >> anything that goes over a screenful ... > ... I could do without 80+ line reviews. One paragraph (maybe two) > will suffice nicely, thank you. Ever heard of the `n' key? I like the long reviews since they give me a chance to choose my viewing schedule without resorting to coin- flipping. No one is forcing me to read them, though. One possibility is to keep a list of current movies on file with con- densed (~10 lines) reviews and a summary of netpersons' reactions and post it every week or so. Then we could all glance at it thursday afternoon before calling someone for a date. Any of you fans of short reviews want to do that much work? I thought not ... "Why, yes, Dr. Frankenstein, we do have two children who won't eat their vegetables." the Shadow ARPA: <jeffh@brl> UUCP: {seismo,decvax}!brl!jeffh
jcc@uvaee.UUCP (Jay Colognori) (07/28/85)
In article <185@brl-tgr.ARPA> jeffh@brl-tgr.ARPA (the Shadow) writes: >>> ... No matter what the movie, I can't get interested in >>> anything that goes over a screenful ... > >> ... I could do without 80+ line reviews. One paragraph (maybe two) >> will suffice nicely, thank you. > >Ever heard of the `n' key? I like the long reviews since they give >me a chance to choose my viewing schedule without resorting to coin- >flipping. The problem with using the 'n' key is that you don't know what you've missed. Listen, if a person wants to write a long review, fine. All I(we) are asking is that there be a synopsis somewhere in the article that can be read instead of spending the time to read 100+ lines to get the reveiwer's drift. O.K.? If the synopsis says anything interesting, then I(we) will read on. If not, I(we) will not have wasted our time reading 2 or 3 screenfuls for nothing. - Jay C.
scooper@brl-tgr.ARPA (Stephan Cooper ) (07/29/85)
>>> ... No matter what the movie, I can't get interested in >>> anything that goes over a screenful ... > >> ... I could do without 80+ line reviews. One paragraph (maybe two) >> will suffice nicely, thank you. > >Ever heard of the `n' key? I like the long reviews since they give >me a chance to choose my viewing schedule without resorting to coin- >flipping. No one is forcing me to read them, though. > >One possibility is to keep a list of current movies on file with con- >densed (~10 lines) reviews and a summary of netpersons' reactions and >post it every week or so. Then we could all glance at it thursday >afternoon before calling someone for a date. > >Any of you fans of short reviews want to do that much work? > >I thought not ... How about a simple solution...kind of a courtesy to all. Stop trying to be Mr. Joe Movie Critic and give all of this great philosophical insight, when most of it is bull anyway. If it takes more than a screenful, you're probably repeating yourself anyway. Or is this too much work for you long reviewers? I thought so ...