This week’s Media 1 content links me back to week two of Film Studies — where we discussed the idea of a film’s form – that is – the structure implemented by a director upon the way a film unfolds. It also covered how form creates expectations, feeling, engagement and meaning.

The readings that week made several references to film studied in week one of the course – The Wizard of Oz. I found it interesting to see the story of the film broken down into various meanings. In particular, the implicit meaning explored in the readings actually gave me a completely new perspective on the film I had never considered – the “coming of age” side for Dorothy.

I also agreed with the disunity highlighted in the reading by the lack of a tie-up for what happens to Toto after Dorothy “returns” from Oz – especially given the order for seizure being the reason Dorothy left her farmstead in the first place.

However, I found the reading to be a little too broad overall. The definitions given did not truly account for non-narrative film which, often, does not have meaningful film form. I also didn’t like the notion put forth of “patterns” being what engage us as viewers – my personal favourite film, “Memento”, follows a form where the sujet (chronological order of scenes) is inconsistent with the fabula (chronological order of the story). The only pattern to this structure is that there is very little clear pattern to the chronology of the scenes! Scenes play out in a reverse chronological order in order to protect the plot twist in the film.