I am not a professional critic, as I don’t write for an outlet that pays me on a regular basis. Feel free to take all this with a grain of salt. I have always been drawn repeatedly to the WordPress dashboard and query letter simply because I feel compelled to share something I have seen, heard, or noticed. But over the years I have had to figure out how professional (or at least, better networked) critics do what they do and take a few of those job skills on board.
If you are interested in expanding your opportunities to write about film, here is some practical advice:
1. Find a few critical voices you connect with and read them. Find out what their influences are and read them too.
2. Find an online community or forum to help you stay current with releases. Try to keep up with the conversation.
3. Get a few dozen reviews of 400+ words out there. Write about both recent and classic cinema. (A good beginner’s exercise here is to pick a director and write up reviews of each of their films in chronological order.)
4. Go to your local film festival or get a festival experience under your belt. You need a good dose of film culture.
5. Connect with a good editor. Ask them to sharpen your writing and try to turn those edits into habits.
6. Learn how to connect with distributors for screeners and screening invites. A good editor or writing outlet can help with this. Talk to other critics and ask how they got their foot in the door.
7. Set distinct writing goals for yourself. Pick an outlet or two and work toward publication. Keep moving forward.
8. Know your resources: Criticwire, Fandor, FestivalScope…
9. Participate in societies, when you qualify. Look at your local film critic society and see what membership involves.
10. Connect with your local film culture. If you are lucky enough to have an annual film festival in your city, there is no reason you should not be forming a jury panel to award a local filmmaker prize.
Feel free to add your comments and advice below…