Over at IFP’s blog, Version Industries co-founder Caspar Newbolt has a provocative new opinion piece in which he shares his three rules for watching movies. Arguing against the near-automated saturation of opinions that the internet has spawned, Newbolt reasons that its best to simply go into a movie cold.

As he writes:

“I once got into an argument with someone at a party about a film, which I was insisting was good and he was arguing wasn’t. In the end it turned out he’d not actually seen the film but was basing his opinion on what he’d read on Rotten Tomatoes, and therefore didn’t want to see it. The fact that people allow the votes and opinions of other people they don’t know to help them decide upon a unique, personal experience such as a film, is somewhat ironic.”

Newbolt’s “rules” call for an end to hype and preconceived expectation in the movie-going experience, so that each film is judged instead simply on whether or not it has achieved the goals it set out for itself.

The rules:

“Rule 1. (to kill expectation)

Go into the film without having read or watched anything. Trailers are acceptable, as they are sometimes created by film directors themselves, though even that sometimes is questionable.

Rule 2. (to kill projection)

Assess what the film is trying to say or achieve within the realm of what kind of movie it is trying to be. Do not project your own expectations. Let the film dictate the level of expectation, be that tonally, narratively or conceptually.

Then, assess how well you think the film reaches whatever goals it set out to achieve.

Rule 3. (to kill hype)

Don’t talk about the film with anyone who has not seen it, except if you’re encouraging them to go see it. Only discuss the film with those that have seen it, and discuss it hard. That’s what it’s there for.”

You can read the full post over at IFP.