The modern film arrivistes

We are coping with a "niagara of visual gabble". It's very hard to zone oneself out of the visual over-information we are living with. We are swamped by the stampede of emotions relayed to us via TV, Internet and Bollywood. Come friday, and we have an quick flick ready to be visually embraced by thousands of movie-goers across the nation. Public consciousness has been subject to some serious visual, aural memorizing. No matter how moving the creative work, it fails to leave enough impression into our consciousness. It has become absolutely imperative for an art product to literally sweep the audience into its realm, otherwise it will fail to leave a mark.

Is this matter of fact which artists, especially filmmakers have to learn to get used to? Is it a capitalistic consumeristic reality of our postmodern era? The world has shrunk and people are presented with varied choices of entertainment. Such abundance impedes our ability to appreciate art, especially film art. I confine more to the film art because it is far more accessible to masses than any other form of art in contemporary societies, developing or developed alike. Television has also become a carrier of movie notions into our mindsets. People rely more on television since movies don't last in theaters much. Uncanny wisdoms have silently seeped into the labyrinth of modern tastes. People watch movies perfunctorily and pass snap judgements using such wisdoms. Every common movie goer can boast of being a movie critic.

Lets shift the attention to filmmaking briefly. Before going there we need to acknowledge the technological advancements into photography in recent times. Camera and photography has become a pervasive hobby. A visit to any of the social networking sites can testify that. People are aggressively pursuing their photographic passions so much that lines have completely blurred between a professional and non-professional photographers. Post processing techniques have made it possible for one to take their hobby to a level of perceived professionalism. Enter, modern cameras with video capabilities. Professional filmmakers admit the power of an iPhone to make reasonably good quality videos. Such capabilities abound, leads to gadget obsessive cultures. One can capture quick footage, edit it superficially, lay their favorite song in the soundtrack and post the film on youtube and voila you're a filmmaker already!

What challenges does it leave to a film practitioner? Although film technique is too vast to be be fully pursued as a hobby, it still leaves the market open for a range of competition between not so evenly matched skills and changes the rule of the game.