What Do You See?

What is expected from us when we read a novel, shown a photograph, or made to listen to music? Each medium asks us to use one of our senses to think about what the artist wants to say. Films, in the other hand, emerge all of our senses at the same time. With the way people are able to multitask these days, it is very easy to see why films have become one of the more favored mediums to present ideas.

Films have always been able to move people in a way that no novel, photograph, or song possibly could. Films are a direct way for someone to tell you their ideas through a combination of words, images, and sounds. You see through the eyes of the filmmaker and get a sense of what that person is thinking or seeing. All other mediums require you to try to perceive what the author or artist is trying to say or portray to the observer of their specific piece of art.

But why do the masses flock to movie theaters with such an enthusiasm that would never be replicated at a bookstore or museum? That’s because films are able to show you the exact settings, characters, and environments that a filmmaker wants you to see. You are able to connect to characters in films in ways that you were never able to before. Since you are able to see and hear these characters, you do not just have to imagine how these characters might be. You can now relate to a character by how they dress just as much as how they act.

As the technology in filmmaking keeps improving, the methods used to create films keep improving. More and more ideas that were once thought to be impossible to create become easy to bring to life. All of these new techniques allow for films to play with our imaginations in new ways. Films are able to transform what we see in the world as completely ordinary and mundane into something that is visually beautiful. In the film “Fight Club” things such as trash or the barrel of a gun are transformed into captivating images. Films can do this through there ability to change the visual presented to you. Close-ups and panoramic shots are commonplace.

A film such as “Fight Club” is a great example of how films completely affect how we view what is around us. Not only does it just affect how we see the ordinary, but it also makes us think of everything in ways we would never imagine. One would never imagine a world where one’s own mind will create something that completely consumes them. A world where you think you are living one life when in actuality you are living a completely different one, a world where anything and everything is possible. “Fight Club” challenges you to view your own life and question everything around you. The film is telling you to not take everything you see as the truth. When films are able to successfully portray messages like this, they automatically show how they have become a better medium than novels, photographs, or music.