Does this movie appreciation course sound good to you?

The course description paints an impressive picture of the instructor, Eric Williams, and gives the impression that he has had a very successful career in The Industry (as we say, as if the movie biz is the only industry in town). However, if that's true, why is he teaching in Ohio instead of working in Los Angeles or New York or Toronto or Vancouver or anywhere else where lots of movies are made? Further, I am unable to find him on Internet Movie Data Base ( imdb.com ) among the numerous Eric Williams listed there (not a very distinctive name), and I am unable to find the "Breaking News" that the Athens (Ohio) Independent Film Society thought was one of the "top five films not to miss" among the many films with that title. Maybe I missed those listings, but I looked carefully.

On the other hand, the list of lectures seems good, and his students mostly seem to think he's a good teacher, although they seem to think the workload is very heavy. So maybe he really knows what he's talking about. And you won't have to do the homework if you get the Great Courses offering. www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=624460

It's unfortunate that you can't buy a lecture or two to sample it. Or did I miss something there as well?

I don't think any harm will be done by watching a few introductory lectures. But you could be taking the first step a slippery slope from fan to critic, and I've known a few critics who were a bit too critical.

My rule about "the lighting, the sound, the shadows, the angle, etc, etc." is that I shouldn't notice any of it on a first viewing. I should be immersed in the story, not critiquing things, and any holes in the story shouldn't occur to me until after the end credits roll. Now, that's a very high standard - - an ideal to strive toward rather than something achievable, but if there's much distraction like that, the movie isn't good enough.