Assignment 3 more

Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Assignment 3 CONTENTS A) BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SOVIET MOVIES B) THE THREE MAIN DIRECTORS OF OUR STUDIES C) A LOOK AT THE MOVIE ITSELF 1) Starting of the movie 2) The use of music and sounds 3) Keeping it in the family 4) Visual effects 5) Synopsis of shots in the movie 6) Rhythm and timing 7) Man dares to go 1|Page Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 An analysis of Dziga Vertov s movie The man with a movie camera A) BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SOVIET MOVIES I am writing about the above movie because the impressive work of these great pioneers of film making in the Soviet Union, far ahead of their time in terms of editing, this was known as Soviet montage never before had the general public in the Soviet Union seen such mastery of filming, using heavy cutting and quick camera work to stun movie theatre goers. Here is a list of the Soviet Director known to most. 2|Page Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 B) THE THREE MAIN DIRECTORS OF OUR STUDIES The three which have been covered as I know are: Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein Born: 23 January 1898 Died: 11 February 1948, Country of birth: Latvia Sergei Eisenstein was inspired but many American Directors such as D.W Griffith and his classics like Birth of a Nation , Eisenstein felt his movies should act as a soap box representing poor pheasant people from starvation, famine and no work, even thou the movies never had an absolute effect on politics of the country and society, it nerveless inspired the people in a sense of things being done and their pilot was being recognized. Dziga Vertov Born 1896 : Died 1954 Country of birth Russian, this is stated as Poland in some web pages as Poland was part of the Soviet Union. Soviet pioneer filmmaker, newsreel director and cinema theorist famous for his marvelous movie The man with a movie camera , a very controversial 3|Page Kurt Diminieux Lev Kuleshov Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Born January] 1899: Died 29 March 1970 Country of birth Russian His movies inspired by his technique called the Kuleshov effect; this was a jump shot where two items were used to form an expression Here is such sample:- Here is the same man but because the protagonist in the first picture is different, it changes the overall impression of the result. These men changed the ways of film making in the Soviet Union were made, there use of revolutionary cutting techniques to etc. to disturb continuity in the film making films which drew movie viewers in by large amounts. 4|Page Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 C) A LOOK AT THE MOVIE ITSELF The man with a movie Camera (1929) also known as "Man Chelovek s kinoapparatom" So without do let s talk about the mentioned movie above, here are some posters advertising this movie to the public This was a look at a typical day in the life of people in the Soviet Union, from the three cities of Moscow, Kiev and Odessa, but from research it actually took 4 years to make, because of the extent of his filming and the amount of film to be processed, here are some nerdy. 5|Page Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 And here are the Anorak technical specs of this movie. TITLE Man with a Movie Camera >>Chelovek s Kino-apparatom (Origin title) DIRECTED and WRITTEN Cinematography EDITED DZIGA VERTOV Mikhail Kaufman DZIGA VERTOV and Yelizaveta Svilova RUSSIA / UKRAINE Country(s) of Origin Film length (meters) Film negative format (mm/video inches) Cinematographic process Printed film format Aspect ratio Release date(s) Language 1889 m (6 reels) 35 mm Spherical 35 mm 1.33 : 1 8-Jan-29 Silent film but with music and sound 6|Page Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Well here the man: Name at birth Denis Kaufman (Later to become Dziga Vertov) Movie type: Silent but with added music Helpers in Movies were noticeably In i) and ii) Mikhail and Boris Kaufman are obviously brothers to the former Denis Kaufman (Now Dziga Vertov), Mikhail being the oldest followed by Denis and last Boris, both Vertov s brothers were instrumental in the making of Dziaga s movies, Mikhail appeared as the camera man in this epic so the question was whether he was a cinematographer or actor? i) ii) Mikhail Kaufman Boris Abelevich Kaufman Both Mikhail and Boris were accomplish Cinematographers in their own right, so were no doubt right for the job of making of this movie. 7|Page Kurt Diminieux iii) Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Yelizaveta Svilova supervised the editing an amazing 1,775 shots to edit down, very impressive. Because of the immensity of loads of reels of film. 1) Starting of the movie So how does it all start, in an empty movie theater with movie goers entering, noticing the use of animation in those days was interesting with the seat lowering themselves, as people enter, well a quite distil lent city reflected by many people sleeping, mainly homeless poor people to reflect on the country s poverty 2) The use of music and sounds Even thou this is classed as a silent movie, there is a noticeable interest in music and sounds in the making of 'The man with a movie camera , Dziga Vertov trainee as a musician and Neurologist at the Moscow Psycho Neurological center, thru-out the movie the movies goers are subjected to barrage music and sounds. It was discussed whether the music was a help or hindrance but I conclude that it enhanced the movie in many ways giving depth and adding substance. 3) Keeping it in the family This point was already mentioned with his wife Yelizaveta Svilova making an appearance in the finishing of the movie working away at editing, also not forgetting Dziga Vertov's brother Mikhail who seem to be the main actor in this movie, but the purpose of this was to show the hard work and dedication of a camera man in making his work come true.. 8|Page Kurt Diminieux 4) Visual effects Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Dziga Vertov was far ahead of his time in terms of talent and producing movies and documentaries, the main theme of his editing was heavy fast cutting, jump shots, high speed rhythm, a quote from the famous director regarding his film making especially The man with a movie camera Here is an extract from 'Kino-eye: the writings of Dziga Vertov By Dziga Vertov, Annette Michelso I am Kino-eye. I am builder. I have placed you In extraordinary room which did not exist until now when I created it. In this room there are twelve walls, shot by me in various parts of the world. In bring together shots of walls and details; I ve managed to arrange them in an order that is pleasing How is this referring to the movie, the city of Moscow being one giant stage, Vertov s camera with the ability to go anywhere he places it. Here is a camera being filmed, filming the residents of the city. Here even thou the scale is not practically correct, it emphasizes the scope and range of the everyday public being caught on camera. 9|Page Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Another spooky shot was of the eye in the movie camera This was to emphasize that the camera was a living breathing creature stalking the every movement of people in the city. 10 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 5) Synopsis of shots in the movie Going to http://dziga.perrybard.net/scenes I was pleasantly surprised to see how many shots in this movie, 57 different scenes shot ranging from the starting credits right thru the end and the final credit of the movie. Let s look at them in a sequence Here is scenes 1 8 starting from the audience entering the movie theater, get ready as the orchestra warms up, and go, the start of the movie, it starts off very interesting way with Vertov's brother Mikhail with his camera appearing to mount a larger version of his camera, As the orchestra warms up and the audience adjusts them selves, the movies appears to be paced slowly, a woman asleep in her bed, people mainly peasants asleep in the streets gradually awaking. There seems a need to film inanimate objects, this adds to the tranquil feeling of the 11 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 movie; already camera man is risking his life to capture footage for the movie taking dangerous shots of a speeding train. Following into Scenes 9 16 these show , things start getting going, pretty lady wakes ups, daring man climbs chimney stack, cars start to come out of garages, traffic starts flowing also along with this Camera man taking picture from moving vehicle. The pretty young woman signifies the start the mad rush of transportation leaving garages, roads and intersections being filled with cars, buses and people, including horses, the frames of movie have been edited so lots of cuts to emphasize that quick rushing jerkiness in the movie. 12 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 26 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Moving onto scenes 17 Very interesting scenes ranging from marriage, divorce and funeral, traffic starts to build up in streets, very fast editing to create fast movement of both people and transport in the metropolis. Shots of editor at work looking at reels of movie an Ambulance chase also shows the action is really taking off, camera man is obviously keen to get in on the action, Vertov is determined that where the action is happening it must be shot, not so dissimilar to modern news coverage. 13 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux On to scenes 27 36 Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Starting to see different professions at work, a lady sewing, workers washing up, also this is where the start of effects start to turn up, view of a dam and machines gears working away. Vertov was keen to capture workers, working away; again the frames per time were lessened to create a busy hasty work environment. 14 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux Scenes 37 - 46 Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Sporting and hobbies pursuits from Athletic, field events such as javelin to a slower game of chess, a scene of kids watching a magician. More scenes of that mad Man with a movie camera at work, filming more of the action and creating pictures of himself looking down onto the city to confuse the already confused audience. One more point is the slow motion action of the athletics sees the athlete perform in slow motion. 15 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux And finally Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 These scenes have some political sentimental in them like the scene walking from one Lenin club and into another expressing his loyalty to Lenin, hints of this can be see from many clips, also more of the camera man can be seen, these were shots to impress the audience, many kaleidoscope effects with street cars appearing to mould into each other and many other stunning effects. 16 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux 6) Rhythm and timing 1. Metric 2. Rhythmic 3. Tonal Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 4. Over tonal/Associational 5. Intellectual Here your typical film strip and number of frames, the speed, and number of frames per shot has a dramatic effect on the look of the movie. In The man with a movie camera, Vertov through the movie uses effects such as Tonal montage to emphasize the period of the day, beginning of the day a slow rhythm to show sleeping people at home and in the street, gradually building up until intensity of movement. 17 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Here is one shot is a crowd shoot and the camera man looking down filming all. Again this is not a true scale of camera man to crowd but it gives the presence of the power of the camera, the main point is to emphasize on the busy streets packed with people at the height of the day. 18 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 Also other cutting methods TYPE OF SHOTS DESCRIPTION To emphasis movement, particular in the crown Slow motion scenes and the pigeons flying above. As implying to stop an action in mid flow to cause Freeze frames the audience to pay attention to the subject matter. Jump cuts This was done in the street car scenes where the Split screens picture was split in the middle and angled giving a most unusual effect. Dutch tilt, Dutch angle, Dutch shot, oblique angle, German angle, canted angle, Batman Dutch angles, extreme angle, or jaunty angle, this basically is to capture shots from all angles creating weird wonderful scenes. Close ups very important in many Soviet movies as a very good example of this was at the Close-ups audience watching the movie, unknown to them, they were the intended targets to be filmed. Tracking shots, footage played These are a shot where some frames are 19 | P a g e Kurt Diminieux backwards Assignment 3 Wednesday, 15 February 2012 remove creating a gap, for in our movie people moving in the street This is as it implies the involvement of animation of inanimate objects to create a pleasure show Stop motion animations for the audience; such effects were very rear in this period of time in Cinema. Many scenes in the street, people walking, vehicles traveling even workers in factories were Fast motion filmed in fast motion; this emphasized the intensity of a busy, bustling city. 7) Man dares to go In many shot making the movie, the emphasis was to show the Camera man namely Mikhail Kaufman daring life and limb to bring exiting and wonderful shots in this movie. Trains approaching at high speeds never deterred the need for that shot 20 | P a g e