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What do I get if I criticize someone's work?

Seriously, I see so many people criticize others. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. But what does it give to the critics themselves?

To clarify my answer I want to mention 3 types of critics I've learned to differ:

1) - One of the crowd - an ordinary user/client/audience. Someone who, in our example, just watches movies. Those people are our target audience and they can say if they liked the movie or they didn't. They can explain "why" and "why not", and can suggest something to improve. We listen them only when many of them say similar things. I'm NOT talking about discussing movies with friends.

2) - Personal experience - Filmmakers - screenwriters/directors/producers/operators/etc. They see you making mistakes they have done before, and tell you what you should avoid, or give you advises of what you can do to improve. They look at the general idea, using the "Zoom Out" look, and tend to drop some technical details.

3) - Aggressive teacher - Some have personal experience, some don't, but they always tend to teach you. Some teach you good things, some mislead you. They look more at technical details, using the "Zoom In" look, and tend to leave the global idea route. They are aggressive, because they begin with aggressive critics, that drop the author's self-confidence. Then, when the author is fully disappointed at his work, the critic start speaking calmly, ans starts giving his own solutions. Some solutions can help, some can mislead. But the author WILL listen to everything the latter says, because that critic has become a Messiah for him. In other words, the author becomes a Pawn.

As you can see, there are 3 types of critics, which probably serve different causes. My question is what exactly those causes are? What a man who watches movies earns if he criticizes a movie on blogs/forums? What a filmmaker earns? What an "aggressive teacher" earns? What will I earn?
 
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I assume anyone that posts something on this forum is looking for criticism. Is that wrong? This isn't Facebook, I'm not your bestie. I'm here to collaborate on film, improve my abilities and to help others do the same. That's why I'm here, NOT to find content creators that I can follow and be entertained by. Sure it may happen, but that's a bonus.

One thing I feel like I've learned in my year here.. feedback on this forum is nothing like the feedback you will get from a general audience. We can give you technical feedback, poor sound mixing, color correction, editing, etc. but no one is consuming content in the same way that an average, non-film person would.

No one should be expecting to find a primary audience here on this forum. Experienced film makers are the worst demographic for a new film maker to target. So why else would you post here except for feedback; to learn and grow.

I agree. However, by criticizing I actually mean criticizing without being asked to. On this forum, people DO ask for feedback and DO share their ideas, so this is different. :)
 
Seeing mistakes others made makes you more aware of the same mistakes in your own work.

An amateur/hobbyist learns from their own mistakes; a professional learns from the mistakes of others.


Even after reading everything I'm still a bit confused. Here's my take anyway.


The "One of the crowd" critic offers their criticism in the form of money. If they will pay for it, they like it. If they won't pay for it, it's not important to them. "One of the crowd" cannot critique your work from a technical standpoint, they can only offer you their personal likes and dislikes.

"Personal experience - Filmmakers - screenwriters/directors/producers/operators/etc." - is also rather subjective. There is a very, VERY wide spectrum of success, professionalism and experience. Whose opinion would you heed more when it comes to sound design, Harmonica44 or Randy Thom? How do you know when the notional "critic" has a truly informed opinion to offer if they do not have a recognizable name?

The "Aggressive teacher" is an a$$hole, if all s/he has to offer is aggression. As I mentioned in another thread:

good teachers push, poke, prod, cajole, insult, make us uncomfortable, make us reassess, and, of course, encourage us.

I'll give you a quick Uncle Bob story...

When I was fairly young I took piano, organ and theory lessons from (as well as being his little pet project) Ogden Booker, the organist at our church; the lessons were very heavy on technique. When he moved on to another parish I started lessons with concert pianist Ralph Burkhardt at Ogden's recommendation.

At my first lesson Ralph gave me a difficult (for me at the time) piece to learn for our next lesson. I worked my tail off for that whole week so I could impress my new teacher. At the next lesson I played it almost note perfect. After a moment of silence, expecting praise for a job well done, Ralph looked at me and said, "That sucked." I was crushed, of course. He then sat down at the piano and said "It's more like this..." and proceeded to stun me with his interpretation. He then gave me a big smile and said, "Ogden taught you well, and I'm going to continue to pound you with technique, but I'm also going to teach you to play from your heart and your soul." And he pushed and poked and prodded and cajoled and encouraged and challenged and tore me down and built me up as needed, just as a great teacher should. BTW, when I started to imitate Ralph he got "teacherly" pissed and said "don't play like me, play like you!"

(As an aside, because of all that, I really connected with the "Play the sunrise" scene in "Mr, Hollands Opus.")


You also forgot the fourth type of critic, the professional reviewer. They don't comment for the artist, they comment to the public at large. But after a while we, no matter who we are - professional, wannabe of every level or general public - learn which ones love what they critique, and have opinions that somewhat reflect our own views, so we don't waste our time/money/whatever on something we subsequently will not enjoy. In that vein, I have always loved the Anton Ego "critique" at the end of the Pixar film, "Ratatouille."

"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new, an extra-ordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto: 'Anyone can cook.' But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more."

Although it is written about cooking, it can really apply to anything.


I'll stop meandering now..........
 
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