Pay It Forward Film Review Writing Frame
Writing a review is a great way of expressing your opinion of a film. For the purposes of this assignment you might find it useful to imagine that you are writing this review for a Key Stage 3 RE student from another school who hasn’t seen this film yet. Like you, they are probably going to be interested in the quality of the acting, where the film is set, how the story unfolds, and so on, so you ought to include these elements in your discussion. The review should give enough details about the film that the reader can make an informed decision, without giving anyway any essentials such as the plot or any surprises. But if your review focuses only on these aspects it won’t have properly completed the task and cannot get your work any higher than level 4 in the assessment grid. This is because you must interpret the film from a religious studies point of view in which you make connections with religious teachings, symbols and practices. Therefore, during the planning, drafting and writing stages you ought to go over what you have learned about the religious and ethical aspects of Pay it Forward, both from the scheme of work you have been following and from the exemplar reviews you have read.
You may want to use the paragraph ideas and sentence starters to help support you to write a film review of Pay It Forward. You can use your own structure, but make sure you use the level criteria so you know you have included enough detail.
Paragraph 1:
Explain the plot of the film and give an outline of the characters. Explain your opinion of the film.
Possible sentence starters:
- Pay it forward is a film about….
- My favourite character was…, because…
- I think the actors were…
- I liked/disliked this film, because…
Paragraph 2:
Explain the media techniques that have been used in the film e.g. the camera angles, sound and editing and how this adds to the meaning in the film.
- High/low angle shots are used to…
- The music creates atmosphere by…
- These techniques add to the film by…
Paragraph 3:
Explain the religious messages in the film and make links to the parables of Jesus.
- Pay It Forward contains lots of religious symbolism, including…
- It reflects some of the parables of Jesus, including…
- Religious messages we could take from the film include,…
- Pay It Forward could be described as a modern parable, because…