What to Expect
We hold open discussions, meaning no one is required to talk and anyone can bring up new points or respond / build on other's contributions. Our discussion follows the structure outlined in this document.
The only time you will be asked to talk, is right at the beginning when we ask for everyone’s impressions of the film in the ‘Thoughts and Reactions’ part of the discussion.
Thoughts and Reactions |
We'll go round the group, introduce ourselves and briefly share our personal reactions to the film. You can say as little or as much as you like but try to keep the focus on what you thought rather than digging into the topics we'll be discussing later.
Things you could share:
Your relationship to the film (Have you seen it before? What did you think of this viewing?) | |
How did the film make you feel? | |
Did you think it was a good film? | |
Your expectations (Were you looking forward to seeing / discussing this film?) | |
What films would you compare it to? | |
What sort of person do you think would like or dislike this film? | |
Why did you pick this film? (where applicable) |
Technical Bits |
Before we dive into the main topic we talk about some of the film's technical aspects. This really can be anything short of diving into the meaning or plot of the film (touching on this absolutely is fine just mention your point and come back to it in part 3).
Example Topics:
Characters | |
Direction | |
Acting (e.g. Nicholas Cage) | |
Set Design / Mise en scene / Costumes | |
Historical Context | |
Critical reception | |
Special Effects | |
Interesting Scenes / Sequences | |
Trivia |
etc.
Time to Overthink! |
The meat and indeed the potatoes of our conversation is our discussion of ‘what happened?’ and ‘what does it mean?’.
Really, anything goes here and it's within the spirit of the group to try to be charitable and open to discussing different interpretations of the film.
Things to discuss:
What is the film trying to do or tell us? | |
Storytelling | |
Motifs / Themes | |
Ways of understanding or interpreting plot details | |
Creative interpretations (e.g. Aliens as the Vietnam war, Jaws is Capitalism) | |
Parallels between the aspects of the film and other things | |
How different ways of seeing the film recontextualise anything previously discussed |
etc.
Choosing Future Films |
The films we discuss are always nominated by members at our events during this part of the discussion
Depending on the week we'll either
Randomly select one lucky participant to pick the film we will discuss in a few sessions time |
or
1) Randomly select a film poll topic from participant suggestions. |
Attribution:
Icons used taken from "Development Icon Pack" https://www.flaticon.com/packs/development-29, "Communication Icon Pack" https://www.flaticon.com/packs/communication-85, "Tool Icon Pack" https://www.flaticon.com/packs/tool-4, "Miscellaneous Icon Pack" https://www.flaticon.com/packs/miscellaneous-21, "Management icon pack
" https://www.flaticon.com/packs/management-14
by Kiranshastry https://www.flaticon.com/authors/kiranshastry