Exercise 61. How can you use these words and expressions to promote a film festival?

Choose any ten of them to make up your own sentences.

 

the prime purpose of

to focus on

 

to organise discussion sessions

to do Q&A sessions

to hold training sessions

to conduct masterclasses

workshops

panel discussions / panels

to take part in / to participate in

to attend

to join

to feature

to present

to screen

to showcase

to promote

to provide

to offer ample opportunity

to attract

audience / viewers / viewing public / film-goers / festival-goers

to see / to watch / to view

a variety of

a wide range of

ranging from … to …

in addition (to)

along with / alongside

to include

including

throughout the festival

to enjoy

enjoyable

unique

exciting

amazing

unforgettable

experience

the latest

innovative

state of the art

first rate

high quality

high caliber

high profile

(to be) highly regarded

(to be) highly respected

 

famous

well-known

prominent

celebrated

renowned

legendary

outstanding

leading

first-timer

increasingly

annual

annually

venue

to take place

to host

admission

award

to award

for more details go to …

to come along

 

Exercise 62. Set your imagination free. Think of a film fest you might want to set up. Write

Its flyer to get publicity.

 

Exercise 63. In pairs make up short conversations on the patterns from Exercise 2 about VGIK Student Film Festival and / or Moscow International Film Festival.

Exercise 64. 1) Make a list of words and expressions you might need to talk about VGIK SFF.

Use the following plan to make a presentation of VGIK SFF using your vocabulary list.

1. Festival History

2. Festival Details

3. Some Rules and Regulations

4. The Way You Feel About It

 

UNIT 7

Exercise 1 Remember!

Noun: success op: failure

Verb: succeed op: fail

Adj: successful op: unsuccessful

to be a (great) success with..

Exercise 2

What Makes a Movie a Success?

Before reading the text brainstorm ideas contributed by all members of the group

Read the text and see what ideas you’ve failed to mention.

 

Relevance

• For a movie to be a commercial hit, its plot has to resonate with the dreams, fears, beliefs and values of its target audience. Further, the plot needs to be driven by the concepts of reward, revenge and/or escape and revolve around a conflict or quest that can only be resolved through growing acts of risk and sacrifice on the part of the protagonist.

Extraordinary vs. Ordinary

• A successful movie features a "fish out of water" hero who is either an extraordinary character trying to fit into an ordinary setting (e.g., Forrest Gump) or an ordinary character forced to survive in an extraordinary environment and/or under unusual circumstances for which he is not prepared (e.g., Luke Skywalker).

Star Power

• When an actor has a large and enthusiastic fan base, virtually any movie he is attached to is going to be guaranteed an audience. Unfortunately, this condition exists even if he's totally wrong for the part and/or the script isn't particularly well written. It's also a little-known fact that actors-turned-producers sometimes make movies they know will fail because they need to be able to claim them as a loss on their taxes.

Cinematography

• Technology has radically changed the way movies are filmed, especially insofar as computer-generated imagery (CGI) has not only reduced the cost of building sets but also allows actors to magically morph into different beings, integrates historic footage into a contemporary context (e.g., "Forrest Gump"),and can create all manner of natural and manmade disasters without actually destroying anything. This "electronic eye-candy" is a popular draw that translates to commercial success, particularly with teens who are the largest movie going audience worldwide.

The Critics

• Many moviegoers base their decisions about what to see on how well or how badly the films are reviewed by critics. Resources such as the Internet Movie Database (see Resources) include a wide range of comparative reviews. Critics--just like actors--have their own fan base and influence on whether a new release will be labeled as a "must-see" or a "don't bother."

Sequels and Adaptations

• If something works well once, logic would seem to dictate it could not only work well again but could also work in a different medium. Almost 60 percent of a sequel's revenue --even if the content is a rehash--is derived from audiences who loved the original premise and characters. Remakes of earlier films, TV shows and adaptations of novels, however, usually don't turn up as well because the charm and success of the original was either predicated on the audience mind-set at the time (i.e., the 1960s) or a reader's mental casting of the characters, frame of reference and visualizations.

Real Life

• A review of recent films that have achieved commercial success and awards reveals that many of them embrace content based on real characters and events, because the storylines are already well known by the audience, the attendance at the theater is driven by a dual desire to enhance personal understanding of the facts and to compare how a producer's interpretation of those facts is similar or contrary to their own.

 

Exercise 3 Find the Russian equivalents to the following English words. Use 5 of them in your own sentences:

relevance (relevant to)

protagonist

a cast of unknowns

beliefs and values

revenge (take revenge on)

quest

sacrifice

historic footage

rehash

premise

sequel