No, film and video are never free of commercialism. Commercialism is always there. When I think of commercialism the first thing that comes to mind is advertising. When you a see a commercial something is being advertised. Every time you watch a video something is being promoted. Commercialism is a business; plain and simple. Businesses now know that advertising is the easiest way for people to see your product. Nothing is free of commercialism, not even the most basic videos, blogs. For instance, the one thing I thought might be free of commercialism is a personal blog. That is a video. If someone is blogging about their life they are promoting their life to you. They are telling you all this stuff that happens to them and they want you, the audience, to watch it. They want you to subscribe to them and watch their videos. That is what they are selling you! People create videos on YouTube for people to watch. If people knew ahead of time not one single person would ever see the video, they wouldn't post it. They want people to watch their stuff and continue to watch their stuff. Therefore, they are commercializing themselves.
I do not believe a message can come to the screen purely. Sure, a director can try to get his message out their clearly but that does not mean that everyone will see it that way. People will see the movie differently than other people will. This makes it tough for the directors message to get through if people are seeing the movie in all sorts of ways. There are just too many things that the director cannot control, leaving his message undelivered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_VtqtxCHY
ReplyDeleteThe above video reveals many of the lies in modern advertising. Advertising involves a group of people working together to sell products to the public. However, often times, the advertisements are not truthful, and only have one goal in mind; making a profit. This concept is very similar to the ideas in the film production theory book. The Hollywood film industry is most concerned with making a profit. Like advertising, Hollywood has several formulas in order to produce a film that will make money. The Hollywood producers are not being completely truthful, and they are trying to make their film popular in the eyes of the public. This eliminates creativity, and puts a new spin on concepts that have been around since before cinematography was even invented.
I agree with you in the idea that no media these days is free of commercialism. Also, after reading your blog, you talk a lot about actual commercials being the "commercialism" in media. But something that I've been seeing more and more in media since I've started this class is more subtle advertising. For example, I was watching an episode of the "Real World" the other day, and during this supposed "reality show," two cast members blatantly put on an advertisement for Subway. They went on the website, ordered their food, and went to the restaurant to pick it up. Next thing you know, Subway had a commercial on the commercial break. So, that really showed me that commercialism is not only shown through commercials.
ReplyDeleteI also hold many of the same ideas about how media really cannot be produced without commercialism. In reference to your comment about directors, I think that directors are almost the most clouded by commercialism. What are their motives? You really can never tell because a piece of media, no matter what the intent or direction, will be commercialized, even in the earliest phases of creation.
ReplyDeleteAdvertising is the main argument that can be made for how commercialized media has become. If you look at anything in the media whether its TV shows, movies, youtube, applications on smartphones, they are all flooded with advertisement. Everyone is looking to make a profit. I really like the point you made about how everyone views a film differently. I agree with that point and it also shows how a directors vision can get misinterpreted.
ReplyDeleteYes, you and I are on the same page. Everything in our economy and almost everything in our society is focused around trying to gain something from what you do. It is rare to ever find a director, or any artist of media for that matter, that wants their piece of work to fail or not be popular. Because of that, commercialism will always be present in works of art that people want to sell.
ReplyDelete