Joe Chamas

Avant Garde Film Midterm

11\3\95
Question #4
Man with The Movie Camera

Shot Change constructs a New Perspective

The traditional rules for editing from shot to shot had always tried to give
the impression of a continuous action taking place in front of the camera. Dziga
Vertov, the director, contested this old-fashioned filming style in the movie Man
with a Movie Camera. Using multiple shot changes and variations Vertov strayed
away from the norm and created a novel technique. He strongly thought that, as a
whole, the general public was stuck in a rut and they were lost in the
commonalities and banalities of the habitual world. The camera man, the main
character in the movie, was used as the vehicle to show the globe a new perspective
on life. Vertov decided on making the movie encompass a full day in Russia. This
interesting idea allows the audience to take in the director's new concepts and
reflect upon the many visual themes, also. Time and space play a key role in the
film as images and events are both skewed throughout the duration of the movie.
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."