Film Evaluation Criteria

Personal Film Evaluation Criteria

I prefer movies which keep you wanting more keep you on the edge of your seat and make you not want the film not to end, essentially one that engulfs you and makes you feel you’ve participated it. Since the beginning of this course I believe my criteria for evaluating a films quality have changed to a degree. I have found that while watching both assigned films and other films for pleasure that I look for and observe different things than before. I still prefer the same type or genre of the films, although the things I notice are much more pronounced.

I observe the atmosphere of the scenes and the emotional effect on my mood more closely. If I am watching a horror film, I observe the background and the shadows and notice details I believe I wouldn’t have noticed before. Action and thriller films have a profound effect on me already, but now I see and feel much more effect because I am able to observe more of the key elements of the scenes atmosphere and effect.

The cinematography and the special visual effects have a wider perspective now. I see things that I know I would have never seen before. I pay more attention to the outer areas of the field of view in a wide screen film and look for the extra information or hidden details within those areas. I notice camera angles and movement more readily and understand better the reasons such methods are used.

Editing is another area which has changed for me, I notice various methods of editing such as fast and slow motion, the transition from one scene to the next and the rhythm, tempo and time control. I never paid much attention to these areas before but now seem to see them and pick them out more easily.

Sound effects have always been a favorite of mine when tied to the special effects of the film. But now I notice the difference between visible and invisible sound. I pay more attention to the background sounds or even silence and the role it plays in...