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Your Looking at Movies textbook has a nice quote about Vertov and his film on page 428.
Vertov shows us how to frame reality and movement: through the human eye and the camera eye, or through windows and shutters. But to confound us, he also shows us--through such devices as the freeze-frame, split screen, stop-action, slow motion, and fast motion--how the cinematographer and editor can transform the movements of life into something that is unpredictable. He not only proves that the camera has a life of its own, but also reminds us of the editor, who is putting all of this footage together. Reality may be in the control of the artist, his camera, and its tricks, but it also finds definition within the editor's presentation and, ultimately, the viewer's perception.
In your first well-developed paragraph, please discuss this quote in relation to a five minute piece of Man With a Movie Camera. Be sure to describe shots cinematically, as if I've never seen the film before. Discuss elements of editing, such as the juxtaposition of shots, rhythm, montage, etc.
In your second well-developed paragraph, discuss this quote in relation to a film of your choice. Try to be as specific as possible in your descriptions and speak cinematically when you discuss the film.
Due: Wednesday, 11/12
In relation to the quote, Vertov really does use show how to use frame and movement through the human eye, camera eye, and through windows. He does this exact thing with one of the opening scenes of the woman waking up and getting out of bed. The woman appears to be just waking up for the day and then starting to wash her face. The film cuts to a pole being hosed down. It then cuts back to a medium shot of the woman wiping herself with a cloth and then cuts to a low angle LS of a woman wiping off a window, also with a cloth. After this it cuts back and forth in fast motion of a close up of the woman cleaning her face and blinking and blinds on the windows start opening and closing in unison to her eyes that begin to increase in speed with her blinking. Actually during this scene, well this whole movie but this particular scene also relates to Eisenstein’s theory of montage. Its juxtaposition of shots and increased rhythm help bring meaning cause by themselves it would just be a women getting ready. Reality, like in the quote, was made with the camera, but the editor’s presentation of these shot through montage created a different meaning. This scene seemed to imply that the life of a person is equivalent to the life of the city. They both go through daily cycles and procedures.
ReplyDeleteDays of Heaven also relates to this quote. There a many scenes of the framing of reality and movement that makes the camera eye equivalent to the human eye. The scene with the extreme long shot of the two lovers coming outside the barn and then it cuts to a medium shot of the farmer to show us that it is his eye, or POV that this frame and movement is being seen through as the camera cuts back to the extreme LS and the lovers kissing. Without these juxtaposition of shots that the editor put one after the other, we would not know the expressions of the farmer and its impact on the movie as it then randomly cuts to a swarm of crickets that shows the chaos that been embarked within the film from that scene occurring. Nestor Alemendros made it beautiful, but the editor created even more meaning. I think Days of Heaven works perfect with this quote because there was so much art and camera tricks and they would just be shots with unprovking emotion without the editor but this is only a blog response.
Zach Jabine
ReplyDeleteMan With a Movie Camera begins its little film-within-a-film with a medium shot that moves in on a apartment window, which then cuts abruptly to a medium shot of a sleeping girl. At first, it appears that the film may focus on the girl we see, as the first shot of the girl is followed by various close-ups of objects around her apartment, such as posters and a small ring on the girl’s finger. However, MWAMC does not stay with the girl at all – rather, it expands out into the city around her, showing medium shots of stores about to open, factories, different parks and outdoor environments, and of homeless people sleeping on benches and other objects, which provides a direct contrast to the women in the beginning, sleeping in her comfortable bed. These seemingly random shots help to create the unpredictability of the camera referenced in the quote. The clear intention of these shots is to prove that the camera can, and will, go anywhere –that it has the ability to surprise and disorient the viewer, as well as comfort and calm them. The editing in the film helps prove that. Although the shots start at a relatively steady pace, as we focus back in on the girl, getting ready for the day, the pace picks up as the girl’s does, and we see the city – relatively quiet in the beginning – come alive with hustle and commotion.
Consider Kill Bill Vol. 1. Editing is extremely important within Kill Bill, as it provides our frame of reference, our entire reality, our perception of what is going on around us. Kill Bill begins in a rather disorienting way, plopping us right into the middle of the action – in media res. The editing, in Kill Bill, controls what we know and what we don’t know. In the opening scene, we know that The Bride is attempting to kill Vernita Green, but we don’t know why. The juxtaposition of the opening scene with the introduction – in which an as-yet-unbeknownst-to-us Bill attempts to kill The Bride with a bullet to the head – allows us to infer that Green was perhaps part of the group that was with Bill when he tried to kill her, or that she at least has committed some form of crime against the Bride. However, the editing – which shifts back and forth from plot point to plot point, from the Bride recovering in the hospital to the present day, never in chronological order- disorients us, confuses us, and does not let us in on the full story until the beginning of Vol. 2. This discontinuity editing allows the editor to control what we see throughout the movie, and influence are perception of reality within the story.
I chose to analyze the part of Man with a Movie Camera, where Vertov captures what happens at the theatre. We begin with a landscape shot of the empty and vast auditorium, cut people begin to file in. Then we cut to a high angle shot of all the chairs in the auditorium unfolding, the people are no longer there, then cut back to a high angle shot of people finding their seats. We cut to a high angle shot of a chair unfolding, then back to a high angle shot of more people shufflinf to find their seats, then we cut back to a high angle shot of a chair unfolding, and a woman with a child rushing from the left of the frame to sit in it. Then we see a high angle shot of the entire audience, as if someone were facing them. Cut to a low angle shot of the chandelier as it dims for the performance to come. From here, we see various shots of different musicians with a plethora of different images. But the thing about these shots, is that none of the musicians are actually shown, but rather their hands holding these instruments. The only man we see full on is the conductor who heads off the sequence by holding his starting position, awaiting the film to begin so that he can conduct the orchestra. These are all high angle shots, and as the sequence of cuts from man to man progresses, we notice that they are all completely still. Some of these shots are closer up than others.Then we cut to a high angle shot of the orchestra, followed by a sequence of high angle shots of individual musicians, still motionless, however, we see their bodies now, rather than just their instruments. We then cut to a shot of two lines meeting eachother down a screen, cut to a shot of a man working a projector, we realize these lines are the films as we cut back to a shot of them, cut back to the man working behind the projector, as the light seems to come on, we have a hgh angle shot of the conductor starting up the orchestra, followed by a sequence of high angle shots of the musicians doing there respective things, as we cut from image to image, the musicians seem to switch around their placement in the frame to acheive verisimilitude. This continues until the camera pans into the projection screenon the number one, this turns into a window frame. Cut to a medium eye level shot of a girl in bed sleeping, cut to a picture of a creepy man squatting, surrounded by an iris. Cut to shot of the sleeping woman's hand, a ring on her finger, this is a close up, cut to a shot of a picture on the wall of a man with his finger over his mouth as if to warn someone to be quiet, cut back to a close up of the woman's neck, cut to eye level shot off of the balcony of outside as trees whip in the wind, cut back to shot of victims eye lids and forhead as she sleeps with her arm draped on the pillow above her head, this is a close up, as well. Cut to a shot of a bottle of something with the outside background behind it, cut to a shot of a man slumped on a bench, eye level. Cut to a shot of something that I don't know what it is. Cut to an eye level shot of someone sleeping on a wooden structure with their coat as a blanket, cut to a closer shot of the same image, face and upper body of the subject in the frame. Through all of this, we can see that the camera is free. It is able to travel through time and space. From one setting to the next, as if it can fly, swim, teleport. This is captured beautifully and perfectly by the master execution of cinemotagraphy by Vertov.
ReplyDeleteThis is a stretch to remember, but one of my favorite movies of all time has always been A Wrinkle in Time, although the black lady that came through the static on the TV never failed to scare the everliving crap out of me. Screamed everytime. Anyways, as the characters tracel from dimension to dimension, the camera seems to follow them. Not only does this create a beautiful and complex story, but it shows the cameras ability to go virtually anywhere.
I'm sorry if this is bad...it's 1:15am on a Monday.
To correspond with the above quote on Vertov's film experimentation, there is a section in Man with a movie camera that embodies the message of the quote. Starting with a serene image of white smoke billowing out of factories, a beautiful static landscape, the image then cuts to a bustling city with street cars going by and people walking all over, also a static landscape from a high angle. Our next image is one of a man walking on steel rafting, presumably on a bridge, with more materials on his shoulder, away from the camera at eye-level. We are then once again confronted with a city scene, but this time, it is at eye-level, moving to follow a pair of women as they walk down the street amid all of the hustle and bustle, as if we were right there walking behind them. The camera practices panning left and right as well as experimenting with the balancing theory of rule of thirds. In many shots, the screen is divided into left middle center, and foreground middle ground and background. The filmmakers also fool around with dollying in and out with the camera. The editors also work to create montages. They pair multiple shots of people walking around streets or running around with the shots of trolly carts moving around the street, creating a further sense of the chaos of this city. Another example of their experimentation with montage is the multiple shots strung together, all of the same action, a women opening her window shutters but all from different angles and proximities, all the demonstrate the many ways one thing is able to be filmed and how it can manipulate a viewers perception. The filmmakers also experiment with perspective. At time, we see the images through human eyes, with jerky movements of the camera filming the man carrying the camera at an eye-level. This is then contrasted with the camera's perspective of the people its filming, different angles with a steady view. On top of this, one can see the range of closeness a camera can do. In this section of the film, we see extreme close ups of teeth being brushed and cleaned versus A landscape shot of a gigantic train whir by. In this interval of 5 minutes, we viewers are shown through the filmmakers choices, the multiple ways objects, places, people, and life overall can be captured and filmed for the enjoyment and education of the audience.
ReplyDeleteA movie that I watched recently that could be applicable to the quote is Birdman. The camera is constantly moving around corners and through hallways in such a way that disorients the viewer to correlate with the mental illness plaguing the main character. However, to juxtapose this, sometimes the camera will just sit and focus on a long empty backstage hallway and an actor and actress will quickly run through to their room or the hallway beyond the one in our screen. This static image displays how long and drawn out a point in our life may seen until the next burst of action comes and shakes things up, disorienting our senses and our minds.