Researching to Write About Film...

One of the things in the Corrigan text that really caught my attention recently was the importance of diligently researching films, filmmakers, etc. before actually writing about a film. I know that it seems like something that should be obvious, but I always just thought that when I wrote about a film, I was supposed to write based on what I observed on my own. I mean, of course I have written papers for other classes that involved research about a particular genre or change in subject matter, but never in such an intense manner as what is suggested in the text. My film related research usually consists of online journals, reference guides, and textbooks, but the book presented some really interesting options that could be very helpful in writing not only the final paper for this course, but with future projects as well.

One thing that Corrigan suggested was watching the bonus features on DVDs to find things like interviews with the cast and crew, behind-the-scenes footage and storyboards, among other things. I thought that this was interesting because I usually watch the supplementary material on DVDs anyway simply because I enjoy seeing the process of putting films together, but I never would have thought that these types of features could be helpful in conducting research, and while it may not necessarily be a viable option for researching the final paper, it is good to know for the future.

Another feature in this section of the text that I thought was excellent was the index of different sources (journals, reviews, commentaries, etc.). I have had trouble finding reliable sources of this nature in the past, mainly because I didn't know of many places to even begin looking, but I think some of these sites and publications just might prove to be quite helpful with the final project, which would be great.

So far, the Corrigan text as a whole has been very enlightening and has given me a better understanding of film in general and the many elements that are essential in making a film either very powerful or somewhat weak, but in all honesty, I think that this chapter may have been one of the most insightful for me personally simply because it provided so many different ideas for places to find relevant and reliable information for future research papers relating to media studies which, as I mentioned, is something that has proven to be somewhat of a challenge with other projects.