Pursuing the Seriousness

Media making is changing so fast today due to many factors such as the development of technology and people’s lifestyle. Media in 21st century applies new tools and appeared in new forms that challenge our knowledge about art. Film, as a traditional form of media art, is also influenced by similar factors. Although I am very concerned about the state of filmmaking today as well as its future, I don’t have the confidence that I would find a satisfied answer. It is difficult to discuss the state of filmmaking today without working for years and doing a lot of research in this field. However, through my limited reading of this journal, I feel that filmmakers are still pursuing the seriousness of cinemas.

Filmmaking can be approached by many innovative ways nowadays, while they are revealing serious subjects. For examples, one of the important new forms is animation film. To make a film is to build a world based on a story. Filmmakers’ imagination plays a key role on telling the story artistically. Now with the computer techniques, filmmakers are able to create almost any special effects that they want. This would enable filmmakers to extend the border of film to subject matters that they have never touched before. Under some conditions, without the limitations of actors and actresses’ performance, animation would free filmmakers to achieve a film easier. But if some people think that animation film is only cartoon for kids, they are wrong. It is not only because films that refer to science or mythology would have to apply animation today, but also some animation films would just made for serious themes and meanings. For instance, a recently screened animation film Persepolis tells a serious story about people’s lives under war. It is true that there are scenes which reveal a sense of humor, but you can not help to feel the sorrow after watching this movie.

Through my reading on this journal, I found that the seriousness that people searching for on filmmaking always has something to do with humanity. Humanity would reflect different aspects in different situations. Certain events or conditions such as war could enlarge or distort aspects of humanity. It is very common for people in a real life that they suffer so much because they cannot obtain the emotions, objects and lives that they expected. In many films, these suffering would be artistically enlarged and presented so that people can see themselves from this “mirror”. Since the very beginning of making films, people have concerned about humanity.

Filmmaking today is still a way of trying to know about ourselves and pursuing the seriousness.