Style Conventions of 'Little White Lies' - Alex

'Little White Lies' has a very particular style of writing that we will mimic for a review on our own film. I looked at two reviews in class ('Zero Dark Thirty' and 'Jack Reacher') and made notes on each paragraph of the review. Each paragraph could be summarised, and there were some common trends. Obviously with each journalist's own interpretation, there will be some variation.

"ZERO DARK THIRTY"

1ST PARAGRAPH: Historical/Social contexts for the film

2ND PARAGRAPH: Historical/Social contexts + Links to protagonist

3RD PARAGRAPH: Character "backstory"/profiling, links to director style+genre conventions

4TH PARAGRAPH: Plot Development; genre, repetition & genre

5TH PARAGRAPH: Themes/codes of the film, director intentions & aspects of style

"JACK REACHER"

 1ST PARAGRAPH: Literary contexts, casting of protagonist
2ND PARAGRAPH: Character profile,  Linked to star persona; genre departures
3RD PARAGRAPH: Description of plot opening and link to title
4TH PARAGRAPH: Description of plot development & actor references
5TH PARAGRAPH: Evaluation of protagonist as character & star performances compared to standard genre films of this type. Negative closing sentence.

Things I have learned:

• Start with contexts, whether discussing historical, social, literary etc. Why has this film been made? What's the purpose? Has it got a background story? Discussion on context could last a couple of paragraphs.
• Discussion of characters don't start until at least the third paragraph before any mentions of the plot line are revealed. 3rd Paragraph usually introduces the reader to something, whether it is the character's back story or where they are positioned.
• The 4th paragraph will show the plot development
• Paragraph 5 is the indication on whether the author favoured the film or not - almost as though they are evaluating the film and all visual aspects.