Journal Entry 2: The Form in Filmmaking (Music Video Vlog)

The Wizard of Oz (1939) as film art presented a social, political, and economic context when Dorothy shared symptomatic meaning and explicitly stated, “There’s no place like home.” The symptomatic theme portrayed family as a refuge amidst economic crisis and pressure of living in an American society where money as a measurement of significance in the 1930s.  The film presented this expression in an ABA  pattern: Kansas-Oz-Kansas. Hugh Ruckuff (1990) suggested that the filmed novel is an allegory or metaphor of the demonetization of silver in 1873 where “the cyclone that carried Dorothy to the Land of Oz represents the economic and political upheaval, the yellow brick road stands for the gold standard and the silver shoes Dorothy inherits from the Wicked Witch of the East represents the pro-silver movement. When Dorothy is taken to the Emerald Palace before her audience with the Wizard she is led through seven passages and up to three flights of stairs, a subtle reference to the Coinage Act of 1873 which started the class conflict in America.”

 What is the purpose of the filmmaking? Is it for business or entertainment or values education?

Some art scholars created a split between Film art and entertainment or business. Some people would state that box office movies were just entertainment while independent films or experimental films were the real art.

I beg to disagree.

Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with entertainment. In fact, it sends us feedback if the techniques used in the film are effective or not or appeals to emotions. If a film would get a performance or sales report, the editing and quality process will improve.

Business is an essential component of the film. Every aspect of a film has a cost. How can making money through film evil if it is putting food on the table. U.S. Motion picture and sound recording industries hired 441,000 employees from 2001-2020. The famous painter Michael Angelo and Leonardo Da Vinci were hired but their masterpiece was regarded as art.

To reiterate, Film is art if it reflects humanity and human intentionality. Business and entertainment are aspects of arts if the way of doing is good.

References

1. com: Film Art: An Introduction (9781259534959): Bordwell, David, Thompson, Kristin, Smith, Jeff: Books. (n.d.). Retrieved July 8, 2021, from https://www.amazon.com/Film-Art-Introduction-David-Bordwell/dp/1259534952
2. Hugh Rockoff, “The ‘Wizard of Oz’ as a Monetary Allegory,” Journal of Political Economy4 (1990), as summarized by William L. Silber in The Story of Silver: How the White Metal Shapes America and the Modern World(Princeton University Press, 2019), 25–26.
3. Employment in U.S. motion picture and recording industries 2021 | Statista. (n.d.). Retrieved July 14, 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/184412/employment-in-us-motion-picture-and-recording-industries-since-2001/