Proposal

**Briefly describe your intended project. //What will you do? Where will you "work"/volunteer? With whom will you work/volunteer?//** I am interning at //Ticket,// the arts and entertainment section of Montgomery Newspapers. (If you need more clarification, refer to www.montgomerynews.com/entertainment. I will also give you the business card for Frank Quattrone, the editor and my mentor. His e-mail is ticket@montgomerynews.com). I went to the office three times already, on Friday, September 24; Monday, September 27; and Friday, October 1. The office is at 290 Commerce Drive in Fort Washington. I have been/will be writing previews for upcoming events; adding run-around to the ads and reformatting headings on the computer program, QuarkExpress; and editing others’ stories. I wrote a preview for the Town and Country Players’ production of //Little Women//, which can be seen at http://www.montgomerynews .com/articles/2010/10/07/entertainment/doc4cab92a006f 616 32871616.txt or in the October 6/7 issue of //Ticket.// I also amidst writing a preview for the FirstGlance Film Festival, which will appear in the October 13/14 issue. I am working alongside Mr. Quattrone.
 * __Project__**

**//What products will result from your "work"/volunteerism? Describe how you will use the product in order to demonstrate your topic and experience.//** I started a journal and have been writing about my experiences each time I go to the office. My experience will teach me about journalism, how newsrooms function, local entertainment, and deadlines, which will contribute to my research on journalism, specifically film criticism. (Hopefully, I will get to review instead of simply preview a production, which will give me experience on critique.)

**//How will you go about completing your project? Describe your plan for implementing and completing your project.//** I plan on interning every Friday and on Mondays when I do not have play practice after school. One of my parents will pick me up directly after school so I can be there at 3:00. I will stay until 5 or 6, depending on how late the people there stay. I may also go on weekdays when I have off school or have a half day. I will record reflections, opinions, and what I have learned in a notebook.

**//What will you need to complete your project? Describe materials, resources, people, hours, etc. that are necessary for you to complete your project.//**
 * Mondays and Fridays from 3-5 or 6, and one of my parents to drive me there and back
 * A computer with Word Processing and internet
 * Phone

**__Research__** **//Briefly describe the topic of your research and why you chose this topic.//** The topic of my research is film criticism. I plan on researching the merits of film criticism to American culture, as long as it is well-developed and professional as opposed to being blogged by “just anybody.” I chose this topic because I wanted to find something in the realm of entertainment journalism. I discovered my love of entertainment journalism in my sophomore and junior years participating in the Cappies program. I initially wanted to continue in that vein and write about theater criticism, but the topic seemed more intangible and difficult to research, so I switched to film criticism. While there are many “classic” films I have not seen, I have an interest in both cinema and journalism; hence I find film criticism, the merge of the two, very interesting.

**//State your essential question.//** Is film criticism an essential component of the journalistic cannon?

**// Have you had any experience(s) with this topic? If so, please describe. //** The only experience I have had with film criticism is reading reviews in //People// or //Rolling Stone.// The closest I have gotten to writing film criticism was writing theater reviews with the Cappies.

**// Who or what will benefit from your research investigation? //** I do not mean this to sound pretentious, but I think that were newspapers and magazines and their critic(s) to read my research, they could benefit. My research would bolster film criticism’s reputation by depicting it as an art and act as a persuasive essay not to cut back on funding for film critics. My investigation would also portray how film criticism should look, to be most comprehensive and thorough.

**// Potential sources //** : *please refer to my Bibliography page, as I already have three sources with details about their validity and information on it*