Man With The Movie Camera: Shot Change Constructs A New Perspective Essay, Research Paper
Man with The Movie Camera: Shot Change constructs a New Perspective
Avant Garde Film Midterm
11\3\95
Question #4
Time was used by Vertov as an important factor in editing as well as in
the daily lives of humans.
With editing he utilized the essence of time to his advantage. Vertov
wanted a certain rhythm of cuts to exist in the movie. He desired a choppy
effect. The cameras, themselves, were supposed to produce a rithym in movements,
too. The point was he wanted to make as many cuts and rigid motions as
possible to make the film appear as hark jerky as possible to the audience. One
reason was that he did not at all want the continuous motion of normative movies
to be present. He desired the ebb and flow which daily life really is. He
perceived that life was not one smooth ride without any bumps or collisions, but
rather it was kind of unpredictable filled with jarring incidents at every
corner. The other reason for the director’s use of cuts and camera movements
was he wanted to make sure people remembered that they were watching a movie and
that they were not in some fantasy land. At one point in the middle of the film
there was a scene with Vertov’s wife clipping and editing the movie in a studio.
Then there was a still-frame before the movie continues. This was done so
viewers would again realize they were watching a movie, because too often people
take things for granted.
Other uses of time were implemented by Vertov to ensure the viewers
understood they were watching a movie. There were a multitude of different
sequences involved in this film.
One intriguing occurrence was how Vertov showed the movie goers going in
and out of movie houses. This was the first time in a movie that people were
actually seen going to and from these theaters. Vertov made sure he got in all
the features of daily life. He was not filming actors, what he was doing was
filming real lives and real alive people playing the roles.
Another interesting sequence was when the camera man was shot by another
camera. The camera man was on one carriage and he was being filmed from another
carriage. There was a lot emphasis put on the work place. Heavy labor was the
common bond between the workers in Russia. There were scenes of laborers in
factories, outside, and in mines. Vertov made sure he showed all aspects of
Russian life and he pointed out the balance which should exist. In doing so
there was a large portion of leisure scenes. Although the Russians were hard
workers, they did need time to relax. The movie showed a lot of sporting events
and the fascinating concept in these activities there was a an equal proportion
of women and men. Vertov showed the film with an equality of the sexes. Both
the work scenes and leisure ones got longer throughout the movie. The sequences
keep getting longer and this is the case with another sequence – the life cycle.
The order of the cycle is messed up with birth, marriage, and death
all represented. As the progress of the day progressed the sequences generally
got longer.
Along with the idea of time being important, space represented a key
element in Man with the Movie Camera. The director Vertov utilized the camera
to view both vertical and horizontal motion. He also developed the idea of
close-ups and long shots to give the audience more of a perspective on life. It
was used as another method for making the experience more realistic.
Space was also related to some visual themes in the film. Vertov tried
to show all the little minute details of life on film. Even going back to the
working motif, the camera zeroed in on the busy hands moving and working in the
factory. The camera gave a view of mechanical objects which open and close and
turn – life moving gears and machinery. There were some other shots of things
which start to move, are at rest, and come to a stop. This movement of gears
and inanimate objects were closely related to human conduct. Human lives in
Russia seemed to have a mechanical nature to them as everything was structured
and rough. That is why Vertov demonstrated how work should not be the only
important activity in daily life. Leisure has to be included along with the
work to ensure that balance.
Man with the Movie Camera had three effects which Dziga Vertov created.
Firstly, the film gave an excellent view of daily life in Russia. It was a
documentary with a the camera man as the constant figure. Secondly, he showed
the world new techniques on editing and especially camera work. One huge
development was the creation of trick photography. The third reason for this
movie surrounded a more global idea. Vertov designed the movie to try to jump
start film as a means of communication. He wanted film to become the universal
language binding all nations, ethnicities, and languages. The camera would
become “a cinema-eye more perfect than the human eye for exploring the chaos of
visual phenomena filling the universe.”