Month two of the 5 Obstructions blogathon is now behind us and it’s good to see many bloggers managed to arrange interviews with people involved with a specific movie. I hope this will motivate you to do more of them in the future after finding out it is possible. Unfortunately there were also a big number of blogs who didn’t put up a post (if I missed it please let me know) so I hope everyone will pick up on the third obstruction. You can find an overview of all current entries here. But you are here to see what you have to do this month. Time to reveal the Obstruction 3.
Other reviews
Now you might be wondering why I’ve chosen for this specific obstruction. There are various reasons for this. The first is that when writing your reviews you might be using a lot of the same words without you even realising. I’m sure there are websites available that can do such an analysis. Having to use someone else’s words might stimulate you in slightly changing the way you write. The second reason is that you will have to read other reviews in detail and finding the right review which will support your thoughts. You will see different writing styles and might be inspired by some. Another reason is that it will also help out other bloggers. You might be wondering how. Now the point of this obstruction is not to “steal” someone else’s work so every review you use, you will have to reference. You can add the references at the bottom of your review. Also make sure to leave a comment at the blog you have used the review from (doesn’t have to be about the blogathon, can just be how you liked the movie as well or what you thought of the review). So this is a way of also getting some more interaction going with other blogs.
Golden checkmark
Seeing that getting the golden checkmark was quite popular with the previous obstruction there is one up for grabs this time as well. What do you have to do? Use at least 10 other reviews to write your own review.
If you have any questions about this obstruction please ask them in the comments so others can also read them.
Wow… that’s going to be tough.
Good luck Steven!
Awesome! Great challenge. Finishing up my 2nd Obstruction right now, it’s still July! In my time zone at least!
Saw you posted it, will be updating the overview later.
Is there a limit on how many consecutive words you can use from a single review? For example can we copy and paste paragraphs? Looking forward to the challenge.
I have not specified one, but copy and pasting a whole paragraph it would be really easy and doesn’t require a lot of imagination. Since this is all about challenging yourself try not to 🙂
I wouldn’t do that. But there is a fine line between copying a few words and plagiarizing I would consider copying a paragraph plagiarizing, and wasn’t sure if you had a limit set up to prevent copying too much and force people to be creative.
Love this idea and I am so glad I bookmark the blog posts of movie reviews I’d planned to write about. Should be easy.
Easy? So yours will be up first then? 😉
Yeah, I said it would be easy. I didn’t say it was going to be quick. haha. But, will trying and get it in before the end of the month.
Go for it!
That’s the attitude!
okay so basically we have to string together a review out of other people’s reviews? i hope i did not misunderstand here.. or i think i’d wait for an example >__<
Well kind of, but using only a couple of words (a minimum of 5 consecutive ones from a sentence) you should be able to write your own review which resembles your opinion.
OH
MY
GOD
Looks like I’ve got some work on my hands!
Good luck with this one Andrew!
I will not be waiting for the last minute on this one.
🙂 it will take a bit of time this one indeed
Do you have any example? Still a little confused
So for example you have seen The Bling Ring and know what you want to write about it. What you have to do is find other reviews of that movie and then find the pieces of text which you can use to write your own review. So if you look at my review and this pieces of it:
“.Little time is spent on giving the characters depth and it is up to the viewer to form their own opinion about this group. I thought that they looked as shallow as the people they admired. They party and post pictures on Facebook to show what they have. The repetition of these type of scenes will anoy some, but I thought it was a bit hypnotising. The movie has a very clean look and it is obvious that a lot of time was spent on the wardrobe of the characters, making the movie almost look like a fashion commercial. The Bling Ring isn’t for everyone, but it shows that the obsession with celebrities can lead to extremes, where image seems to be more important than the real person behind it.”
So you could take pieces of this to use in you own review for example “look like a fashion commercial”. You could also use a whole sentence. Recently I saw a documentary and heard that Hunter S. Thompson once copied the “Great Gatsby” to know what it feels like to write a great novel. This makes you get into the mind of other bloggers and use bits they have written to reflect you own thoughts in ways you might not have expressed them yourself before.
I’m starting to work on mine, but I’m not really sure if I’m doing it right. Basically, it’s lifting the words of other people to convey your thoughts?
Yes, that is the thought behind it.
Here’s my review for Monsters University. I hope I did it right! http://bigscreensmallwords.blogspot.com/2013/08/monsters-university.html
Love this idea! Here’s the link to my review of James Wan’s The Conjuring. http://becarefulyourhand.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/obstruction-3-conjuring-2013-jigsaw.html#.UgF7M5LVCSo Cheers!
Added your post to the overview post!
Whew! That was tougher than I thought, but here’s my cut-and-paste review of “Inside Deep Throat”. Oh-eh, I have ten reviews listed as referenced, but I’m not 100% I used them all, I think I only used 8 or 9, so you skip the golden checkmark with me if you wish. Hope I did it right.
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-5-obstructions-blogathon.html
I still have to do mine (which I wasn’t able to do because I simply did not have the time), but know it is difficult to do. Have added your review to the overview post!
Well, here goes nothing…I hope I did this right!
http://afistfuloffilms.blogspot.com/2013/08/5-obstructions-blogathon-obstruction-3.html
Yeah you did! You have earned your golden checkmark!
Waited ’till towards the end of the month, but not quite last-minute. Here’s my contribution. http://flightstightsandmovienights.com/2013/08/25/the-5-obstructions-blogathon-3-super/
Thanks for joining in, will be added to the overview!
Just wondering when these will go up?
Sorry for them not being up yet, but was on holiday and just returned this week. So a combination of jetlag and hosting issues have kept me from updating. Am planning to do all of that the coming weekend.
My post is up, I think I even managed to earn the golden checkmark, in case you approve: http://limereviews.blogspot.com/2013/08/obstruction-35-copy-paste-review.html
Yep a golden checkmark it is Mette, just read it. Thanks again for joining!
I didn’t make it to the golden checkmark, but I did get my post up in time. Here’s a link to my third obstruction:
http://www.ptsnob.com/2013/08/the-5-obstructions-blogathon-3-stoker.html
Thanks Dan, have added your post to the overview.
hey nostra! almost forgot to put a link to this month obstruction! here goes:
http://karamelkinema.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/only-god-forgives-2013/
No problem, I have just included it in the overview.
A link to this month’s obstruction!!
http://bananasaboutmovies.com/2013/08/31/5-obstructions-blogathon-obstruction-3-spring-breakers-review/
Thanks, will be added to the overview post!
Hi! I was just checking out the overview page, and I didn’t see the link to my review. I’m not sure if you overlooked it, or I probably did it wrong or something. I posted the link here a couple of weeks ago, but I’m linking it again just to be sure. 🙂
http://bigscreensmallwords.blogspot.com/2013/08/monsters-university.html
Sorry, I must have overlooked it, will be added now!