In our new weekly feature, we ask creatives to tell us about five things they need to get their work done. To kick off, we speak to freelance film journalist Ellen E Jones (pictured), whose work ethic relies heavily on fizzy sweets and red pens...
Full name/age/job title:
Ellen E Jones, 28, Freelance Film Journalist (The Guardian, Total Film, Little White Lies, Esquire).
What does your job involve?
I write film reviews, interview directors and actors and write features about trends in film. In order to make sure I stay up to date with the world of film, I try to go to the cinema at least three times a week.
Five things you couldn’t work without:
1. A Biographical Dictionary of Film by David Thomson
I love the way David Thomson writes. He is often quite rude about iconic directors or actors that no one else is brave enough to criticise. Like me, he thinks that the most interesting thing about film isn’t the rigging or the lens used on the camera, but the personalities involved.
2. An Unassailable Faith in the Correctness of My Own Opinions
When you’re a film critic, often it’s not so much your opinion that’s important, as the passion with which you express that opinion. So while it might not, strictly speaking be true that Harpo Marx is the greatest actor of all time, you will never get me to admit that.
3. My red biro
Although I do most of my writing on a computer, I always print my final draft on paper and then correct it with a pen, as if I was editing someone else’s work. It helps you look at your writing in another way and there are always a few mistakes that you didn’t see when you read it on screen.
4. IMDb
Like Wikipedia, this online film database is peer-reviewed, which means you can’t always count on the reliability of the information, but even so it’s an invaluable resource for those “What’s that guy from?” moments.
5. Pick ’n’ mix
Everybody knows that you need a nice bag of Pick ’n’ Mix to eat while you’re watching a film. The fizzy cherry coke bottles are my favourite.
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