Man with a Movie Camera



Directed by: Dziga Vertov
Cinematographer: Mikhail Kaufman
Editor: Yelizaveta Svilova

 Editing Techniques

  • Superimposition/ double exposure
  • Stop Motion
  • Split screen
  • Editing
  • Freeze frames - still vs moving
  • Dissolas
  • Slow Motion/ Fast Motion
Themes
  • Rotation - cyclical imagery - Life Cycle
  • Industry + technology
  • Movement
  • Propaganda
  • Constructivism
  • Montage
  • Abstraction
  • Modernism
Meta -  (of a creative work) referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.

Notes: 

Introductory sequence provides a long build up. Bells can be heard in the background, to represent hardwork.

Beginning, chairs falling without any physical help represents inevitable industrial change, stating that it does not need a push from people to change society. 

5 mins - A series of images showing a state of life where people of economical stability living side by side with econimically unstable communities. 

9 mins - Train represented as mechanical beast, instead of glorious machine.

13 - Director shows the theme of collaboration.

Whenever in a town or a populated area, huge amounts of people walk around (bystanders), to show the pace and power of the city's people when they are looked at as a group.

The director wanted this to be a story told through his eyes, and thus performs cameos in certain scenes, seen holding a camera.

23:45 freeze frames shows the editing process of the film. This shows how much of a story a frame tells.

Most actions are either already really fast or fast forwarded to maintain the quick pace of the film.

28:00 Show living in such a fast paced society can lead to deattributes in life, such as frequent drastic changes (Divorce, Madness,Illness,Death). However, at 30:00 the sequence is ended on a positive note, with the hope of new life.

32:00 represents how overwhelming modern life is.

35:00- focuses on the labour and importance of woman in working societies.

Editing wise, flashing frames in front of the spectator causes them to take in information subliminally,  maintaining the pace of the scene.

Production of cigarettes (products harmful to the health) is previewed to be the highest out of all of them. Shows people during this era had knowledge of the negative effects but carelessly continue to smoke/buy cigarettes.

Muscular film making, film in the industry, manual labour = constructivist film/ art

The use of a camera lens can draw a link to the appearance of circles in the film, relating a camera as an industrial piece of equipment

Rotation, cycles - camera panning across cogs, then bigger then then cut to a cyclical machine, and finally cut to bigger waves - juxtaposition represents the collective effort of the individual cogs (metaphor for communism).

41:00 - virtuoso filmmaking - use of a split screen to glorify new technology and thus show the advancement of Russian technology.

47:00 - shows the Russian's value of self appearance, sports and athleticism. During this time this was considered to be great pride. 

49:00 - reference to leadership - showing people acting as a hive mind controlled by one leader.

51:00 children represents peoples teaching the younger generation, controlling their opinions from a young age.

52:00 split screen creates distorted effect of human body

56:00 split screens and dissolvers used to show that the filmmaker has an omniscient view as he overlooks the city.

57:00 reverse

58:00 ending maintains anti racism propaganda to hold it as one of the final images the spectator sees.

1:01:00 - self building camera conjoined with the sound of radio may be the director's prediction of automation/artificial intelligence in the future.

1:02:00 - Presentation of a cinema breaks fourth wall is it represents the spectator himself watching the director's film.

In the ending cinema scene, the director expresses his opinion on overpopulation, consumer societies (ANTI-Communist behaviour).

shot of crushing building represents the destruction of society, or can also be to show the false or unreal society we the director lives in. Also can represent a view from a different / abstract eye.

ENDING SHOT - represents eye stays open while the camera shutter closes.



Artistic
o   Soviet montage
o   Muscular vs. classical film making/ bourgeoisie
o   Old culture vs. new technology
o   Modernism
o   Manual Labor

Technical
o   Intercutting
o   Split screen
o   Superimposition
o   High angle/ Bird’s eye
o   Rapidity of cuts
o   Graphic matching
o   Juxtaposition

Thematic/ Contextual
o   Muscular filmmaking
o   Industrialisation
o   Technical
o   Bourgeoisie
o   Proletariat
o   Juxtaposition
Discuss how far your chosen film or films reflect aesthetic qualities associated with a particular movement.


Dziga Vertov’s filmmaking masterpiece: “A man with a movie camera”, was a soviet montage, which explored various Artistic values via technical and thematic assets. In the final scene of the film, Vertov presents a diegetic audience, a large proportion of which were woman, for the spectator to identify with. This is done for the spectator to witness the progression of women’s roles in soviet Russia.

Comments

  1. JCoSS Media DeptMay 20, 2019 at 3:55 AM

    A small point, Yoav, but ensure you get the name of the film correct. It's Man with a Movie Camera, not Man with the Movie Camera.

    ReplyDelete

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