TsengFilmAnnotation2

Film Annotation-If the Oil Runs Out Director: Bren Simson Release Date: 30 May, 2006  Although I appreciate the change of pace- dramas could be good once in a while, like “The day After Tomorrow”- the overall tone of this movie is somehow uncertain to me, I am not sure whether I should treat it seriously or disregard it as a melodramatic warning. The idea of trying to put the informative data in a story is great, and usually I applaud for such action, however, if the film is trying to convey a scheme as grand as the oil policies and usage, and the potential end of this resource, a small-budget film is just not going to do the job right, it would seem more like a side-project style propaganda instead of an educational resource. When the viewers have the mindset that the whole movie was fictional, it would be that much harder for them to absorb the data and the impact that their reckless actions would bring. This being said, the film should not just be brushed aside easily either, this film is among a series of “What if” short films, with titles such as, “What If We Stop giving Aid to Africa” “What If Drug Were Legal” and “What If We Could Stop Violence.” This series of film are meant to be thoughts-provoking and inspiring, and they have done just that, got us thinking. The film started out from the oil company’s point of view and then later on it dissected the matrix factors from the consumers to the oil geologists, with the story set in 2016 and the gas price approaching 4 dollars. The funny yet sad part is, it’s 2011, and oil was 3.79 dollars per gallon last time I checked. I started to think what got us here, what has changed after these five years, in the film, it pointed out that per person per year, US took up 25 barrels, Britain 11, and China 2. There were good news and bad news, good news is, according to Department of Energy’s [|data] US has actually decreased its oil consumption in 2009 by an impressive three barrels, Britain has decreased its usage by one barrel, while China has increased to 2.2 barrels, and it is still rising at an exponential rate. Although we should pat ourselves on the back congratulating on such achievement, we should not forget that we still stands on the very tippy top of the energy consumption race, doubling the usage of the country in the second place. Here is a [|graph] of the comparison of the energy usage, in oil equivalent, from World Bank. There was a moment when the director interviewed a economist who said, “We should really start to plan our days better…” with the information mentioned in the film that transportation took up 98% of the energy, this comment should have been a no-brainer, it would be like interviewing Mr. Alan Greenspan and have him advise us, “money makes you rich.” Not only have I had doubt about this particular comment’s very worth of existence, I was also wondering if transportation really took up 98% of the energy usage, it did not. According to the [|U.S, Primary Energy Consumption by Source and Sector in 2008], transportation although was in the top of the demand, it only took up 27.8% of the usage while the second place, industrial, took up 20.6%. This is important because we should know not only cut the usage by “planning our days,” we should also do so by “planning out lives.” What do industrial factories do? They make stuff. However, people relate “buying stuff” to “energy consumption” much less than they would “driving.” Below is an interesting route for our energy, where does it come from and where does it go. If we could somehow redo this film and incorporate all the updated information we have learned, this film would have become much more persuasive and credible.                  