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.”