The Critique Versus The Critic

I have been a longtime fan of film director M. Night Shyamalan. He has written, directed and sometimes even starred in some amazing movies over the years, including The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village and Lady in the Water.

M. Night is an amazing storyteller with deep characters that are always more than was the eyes can see. His movies always seem to be centralized around estranged difficult relationships that come together in moments of crisis or hardship. Another thing that M. Night is, is an artist in the purest form. He draws heavily on symbolism, story and prose. His visual imagery is soft, suggestive and moving. I did say that I was a fan, didn't I?

Yet M. Night movies are always razed by critics and moviegoers alike. In this digital age, everyone seems to be a critic and nobody on the planet seems to be a vocal fan of M. Night's work even though his box office numbers are not slouchy at all. The Sixth Sense brought in $293 million in the box office. Signs brought in $227 million. The Village brought in $114 million. Yet critics panned his movies except for the The Sixth Sense.

Roger Ebert referenced The Sixth Sense as; "The Sixth Sense" has a kind of calm, sneaky self-confidence that allows it to take us down a strange path, intriguingly." Entertainment weekly said, "It's a psychological thriller that actually thrills."

For his review of The Village, Roger Ebert opened his review by saying, ""The Village" is a colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn. It's a flimsy excuse for a plot, with characters who move below the one-dimensional and enter Flatland."

Entertainment weekly opened it's review of The Village with; "What an irony -- and a shame -- it would be if ''The Sixth Sense'' turns out to be the movie that first made and then ruined the career of M. Night Shyamalan." There is not a single mention of the movie's [The Village] title being reviewed, see it here.

For his review of The Lady in the Water, Roger Ebert had this to say. "The key to deciphering M. Night Shyamalan's fractured fairy tale, "Lady in the Water," is to remember that it is rooted in the mythology of Stephen Colbert and "The Colbert Report."... The director's deficiencies as a visual storyteller are also on fine display.... Shyamalan could learn from Spielberg and Brian De Palma." Rooted in the mythology of Stephen Colbert and "The Colbert Report? What the hell does that mean?

Entertainment Weekly had this to say about The Lady in the Water. "Muggledom runs amok in Lady in the Water, Shyamalan's most alienating and self-absorbed project to date. His most fanciful, too, since the narrative springs from a fairy tale the director made up for his two daughters" I don't understand why, but these first few sentences, that start with a Harry Potter reference, comes after two long paragraphs talking about all of M. Night's previous films with vague references to M. Night selling out by becoming American Expresses spokesperson. Don't believe me? See it here.

Critics have become a form of entertainment in and of themselves for the most part. Whether it is a movie, music, book or art critic, they all seem to be on the same negative page. Rather than critiquing a piece as a stand alone subject, they have to reference it to other works by the artist, or even other artists. Why is it that Lisa Schwarzbaum, the Entertainment Weekly critic for The Lady in the Water had to throw a Harry Potter reference in for a review of a movie that had absolutely nothing to do with the Potter franchise.

One of the defining characteristics of a critic is their job title; Critic. The dictionary definition of critic, the first definition listed is; "a person who expresses an unfavorable opinion of something". So by definition, their job is to complain about other people's work. Period.

A critique is defined as; a detailed analysis and assessment of something, esp. a literary, philosophical, or political theory. So this means the good and bad should be discussed as a part of the critiquing process.

And that is where a critic and a critique diverge in their paths. And this is where I want to step in and provide some guidelines for providing a critique.

First, when giving a critique is important to not do a comparison.

A critique should be focused on the piece being presented, not the pieces that came before it, regardless of relevance. Focus on what is good and what could be improved with that piece. Using comparison has it's place, such as; the composition of the previous image was stronger than with this image. But to compare a Claude Monet is to a Tsukioka Yoshitoshi is the same thing that most critics do when comparing Harry Potter to the Lady in the Water or M. Night to Spielberg. M. Night and Spielberg's styles are different. When I want to see a Spielberg movie, I watch a Spielberg movie, not a Kevin Smith movie. Even comparing two movies from the same director is not a credible thing to do. Would you compare Jaws to Schindler's List. Both are Spielberg movies, so I should expect the same thing right?

My point is, a critique should be focused on the merits of the work being presented and nothing else.

Second; a critique should offer viable options for improvements.

Rather than the standard critic's modus operandi which is to simply point out the faults by saying something generic like "The composition is weak", a critique would include something like this; "I think the composition would be improved if the subject were either filling the frame or aligned to follow the rule of thirds.

Third; a critique should not be personalized.

In every critic's review of The Lady in the Water the critics were obviously pissed about M. Night's obvious panning of all movies critics everywhere. Let me give you a little back story. M. Night was panned heavily by critics for every movie made since The Sixth Sense; Unbreakable, Signs and The Village. So M. Night included a character in the Lady in the Water that is an unlikable, generally disgruntled film critic, which is how I image all critics lives truly are. This character is truly an unhappy character in the film and ends up having an unhappy time in the film.

I thought it was a great way for M. Night to show critics and his viewers, that he isn't a fan of the critics either. It was tongue and cheek, and funny. The critics didn't think so.

The critic for entertainment weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum had this to say; "But while the subplot is an up-yours to actual critics and a wink-wink to civilians (who are likely to be busy enough keeping up with the nomenclature), the rise and fall of Mr. Farber results in something far punier: The amount of story time devoted to such an inconsequential naysayer emphasizes the movie's very smallness, its unease as a cohesive piece, and the inner creative discontent at its core. Why a filmmaker so gifted with talent as well as so fortunate in his success should scrunt and scratch his private itches in public — in front of the very audience that has lauded him — is a mystery too deep for this Muggle." 

There was a lot more to the subplot of the movie than just the "Up-yours" to critics, but that is what she focused on.

Even Roger Ebert himself had this to say; "I'm sorry. Don't believe me. I am the villain. OK, not me, precisely, but Film Criticism Itself, embodied by the splendid (movie critic word) Bob Balaban as Mr. Farber, who is this film's own resident newspaper movie critic, offering caustic, self-aware commentary on the shortcomings of "Lady in the Water" as it sloshes along. In Shyamalan's rickety mythology, Mr. Farber represents... well, nothing so much as the filmmaker's pre-emptive strike against the bad reviews he expects to receive for making this poorly written, stiffly directed, audience-insulting story-without-a-cause."

And again, personalizing the material as part of the critique makes Mr. Ebert no better than M. Night, the man he is being critical of.

Critics obviously took offense to that particular message M. Night shared in the movie, but then mentioning it only minimized all of the other comments they had made, whether the comments were valid or not.

Simply calling it out in their review with their childish belittling references showed they were holding a grudge over the entire movie. I personally applaud M. Night for including this subplot in his movie. He personalized the movie, made it part of his own experience and the whole scenario added a bit of humor to the movie.

The best thing that a critics could have done was laugh it off and move on. I mean seriously, if you can't be a critic of yourself, then how can you be a critic to someone else? People take themselves way too serious. I mean come on, they get paid to bitch about things. What is not funny about that?

As participants of a critique, we can't personalize things in other peoples works. It is important to address what is important in the feedback not turn a critique into a school yard brawl.

This is what I try and do with every critique. I am not a critic, but I can be critical. There is a difference between the two and that difference is more like a Grand Canyon's difference and not a fine line. This is one reason why I can enjoy almost all music. This is one reason why I can equally enjoy a movie like, "Movie 43" or "The Toxic Avenger" and at the same time say I like "Mall Rats" and say that I like "Saving Private Ryan", Schindler's List and all of the movies in between. I simply enjoy them for what they are and not for what they could have been.

Happy Halloween and Anniversary To My First Bride and Groom

It was three years ago today that I shot my first wedding as the primary photographer and what a lucky photographer I was to have that wedding be my cherry popper. I had shot several weddings as a second and third shooter, but as the primary I was a virgin before this event.

Nicki and Rich are a wonderful couple. He is a musician and she is a horror-movie-loving-comic-book-collecting-trekkie-fanatic that truly go together like bacon and... well bacon goes with anything now doesn't it. They are like bacon with a side of bacon.

Their wedding was simple, sweet and matched their personalities to a tee. They were married on Halloween. It was hailed as a "Converse" wedding, which means all guests were asked to wear Converse Shoes, just like Rich is wearing in the image on the left. Yup. This is what the bride and groom wore for their wedding. How absolutely cool is that.

Most guests did wear their converse shoes as well as Halloween costumes.

Nicki and Rich didn't want anything too fancy for the photos, but I couldn't help myself but play a little. It was a little awkward to ask Nicki to climb up on the pool table, she was wearing a skirt after all.

But with a little help from friends, she climbed up assumed the pose and I was able to capture this sweet moment.

Congratulations Nicki and Rich. Three years ago today you both said I do and have been doing it ever since. Best wishes to both of you in the coming years of your lives together. May those year be filled with the happiness and joy you both more than deserve.

So three years later, and I am no longer shooting weddings, at least I am not pursuing them. Weddings still find me on rare occasion and I am happy to raise my camera to support someone's special day, but now, for the most part, I am shooting more for myself, more for art.

At the beginning of the month I attended a weekend-long photography retreat on the Oregon Coast.

I had brought props with me that I picked up at the local Halloween shop in hopes to create some wonderful images.

With the help of my friend Matt's flash and remote triggers I was able to do just that.

The props were two blank cupie doll masks, one black and one white. They represent a face of horror that still scares the living crap out of me to this day and I don't know why. The why isn't as important as the fact that they scare me I guess.

Equipped with the masks, my camera and Matt's flash gear I headed into the woods alone and started shooting.

The focus was to create mood with the light and a scary sense of wonder. After shooting a little bit with the masks hanging on a tree, my wife wandered over to me and asked if she could help.

She put on a mask and posed in an old tree fort.The image on right is exactly what I had hoped to get from the masks. My wife can be a scary muse for me at times, even though she has not a horrific bone in her body... outside of our shared love of horror films.

Thank you for the help sweetie. You made my goals come true, once again.

A Little Black and White Love in the middle Autumn colors....

Haunted Dreams

It has been so long since I have grabbed my camera with the intention of creating anything remotely artistic. I lacked inspiration, motivation or even basic discipline to GOYAS.

I have actually been on a vacation of sorts for the last few weeks. I have spent my time recovering from a wild six months of constant going. I ended up getting sick during this vacation, a cold or two, but have truly enjoyed the down time. So much so that I decided to join my photography group out in the field for a shooting event.

The air was brisk. The mist hung low. The colors set afire. The light of the sun kissed the yellow and orange leaves giving them a sensual radiant glow against the backdrop of the dark evergreens, firs and pines in the area.

So what did I do? I chose to ignore the color at first and focused on shape and form. I focused on the light and shadow. I focused on motion and lines. Well that was at first.

Reflections Along the Line

Once I got my abstract black and white completed I turned my focus to the color at hand.

The combination of the rising sun, morning fog, autumn colors and a train track, I could help myself but to bring all those elements together.

In this shot, I saw the trees reflecting on the cold, hard steel creating a line within a line, both leading to a vanishing point.

I chose the off-kilter composition because the line of the track moves center through the frame to the vanishing point in the upper rule of thirds marker which was important for what I was trying to accomplish.

Finally I threw some post processing filters on to soften the image a bit and give the sense of peace, calm and serenity to the scene, like bundling up next to a cozy fire.

Vacant Seasons

Finally, because it is the season of the witch, I used a couple of props on the tracks to capture the season that is Halloween. Using the masks and the fall colors allowed me to combine the feel of black and white along with color photography to make a stark contrast between the the subjects and the backdrop.

The season is always so short, but beautiful. It feels good to get out and enjoy photography again with my friends.