From: Bevin Chu
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 9:31 AM
To: feedback@hboasia.com.sg
Subject: parenthetical bios in movie plot summaries
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to urge HBO/Cinemax to change its practice of inserting parenthetical bios into its movie plot summaries.
I realize this is currently common practice, but isn’t it obvious that it’s bad practice?
Have those responsible for writing these plot summaries ever bothered to read their plot summaries?
They’re impossible to read. The parenthetical bios interrupt the sentences so badly one has to reread the passages again and again to get the meaning.
See the example below, and the same example with the parenthetical bios removed.
Sincerely,
Bevin Chu
Example, as is:
Waterland
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack.
This is a captivating, superb film adaptation of Graham Swift’s contemporary novel. It’s 1974 in Pittsburgh, and Tom Crick (Academy Award(r), Golden Globe(r), and Emmy(r) Award winner Irons, Inland Empire, Eragon), is faced with apathetic students. His wife Mary (Cusack, The Tiger’s Tail) is barren and mentally unstable. Mary’s growing, disturbing conviction that God will send her a baby through a “miracle,” coupled with a student Matthew’s (Hawke, Fast Food Nation, The Hottest State) open declaration that history serves no worthwhile purpose, triggers Crick to share his own personal history with his students.
Example with parenthetical bios in a separate section:
Waterland
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Irons and Sinead Cusack.
This is a captivating, superb film adaptation of Graham Swift’s contemporary novel. It’s 1974 in Pittsburgh, and Tom Crick is faced with apathetic students. His wife Mary is barren and mentally unstable. Mary’s growing, disturbing conviction that God will send her a baby through a “miracle,” coupled with a student Matthew’s open declaration that history serves no worthwhile purpose, triggers Crick to share his own personal history with his students.
Tom Crick: Academy Award(r), Golden Globe(r), and Emmy(r) Award winner Irons, Inland Empire, Eragon
Mary: Cusack, The Tiger’s Tail
Matthew: Hawke, Fast Food Nation, The Hottest State
Electric Shadows 