Thursday, December 3, 2009
transnationalism- blog 12
In this week’s blog I will be discussing Randall Halle’s Apprehending Transnationalism. I found both of the readings this week to be extremely boring and mundane, yet I found the Transnationalism article slightly more interesting in the way the arts were incorporated into a predominantly economic topic. The essay emphasized capitalism in the U.S. and globally, it also related this theory to film making. Transnationalism has brought together many countries in the production process. This is done by producing any one product as cheaply as possible, using up to several different countries in order to keep costs down to a low. Outsourcing and international companies are examples of transnationalism. The relationship with the film industry was clever and interesting to me. Halle’s thesis is that there is a loss of culture in capitalism at a global level. The most common technique used in capitalism is to make the production costs as low as possible by outsourcing to the cheapest labor markets. By finding the cheapest labor, companies are risking quality over quantity. Halle then explains how the loss of quality also brings a loss of culture to the country. Halle then equates this with Hollywood. Hollywood has been the reigning hegemony in movie making for a long period of time. Hollywood has basically ceased to make good, quality movies in order to insure their profits. This loss of culture and quality in the name of money is a shame, but who can be blamed for wanting to maximize profits?
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It is a shame that culture is sacrificed with profit, though I for one cannot blame the industry itself, as humans are naturally maximizing. It seems to me that the audience of these films would have to shift their desires to quality films that accurately portray history and culture. Until demand changes, the supply will not, in my opinion, as Hollywood, etc. will not risk changing their style for an audience that may not want change. So, it is on the public to seek higher quality, though of course, this is not the only factor involved in the economics of cinema.
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