The documentary Man with a Movie Camera presents interesting and revolutionary cinematic techniques which are even used to this day in film making. The documentary revolves around Dziga Vertov (1929), who films a series of different scenes of the typical work person in the urban city life. The film is set a bit strange however, with the filmmaker playing a seemingly double role, as he is seen filming the shots while also taking part in the movie itself in certain scenes.
After watching this film, I must say I appreciated many qualities which Vertov seemed to want to get across back in the early 1900’s. As I am sure, video and film must have been extremely new at the time, and it seemed that Vertov was simply showing the world how the camera and cinematic techniques could be established (many probably were unaware of the filming process). Its visual qualities were entirely unique, with Vertov present both while filming and acting as the typical workman in a workday. There were also shots in which we could actually see him filming (through a mirror or some reflection) which was definitely unique as well. In terms of Bruce Block’s visual framework analysis, Vertov was successfully able to enhance some features using “the three point perspective” (while capturing images of the urban city life). Vertov also plays with ideas such as camera movement, up/down position, and size constancy (in chapter three: camera zooming steadily in on a window, the shot following the streetlight is of a woman in bed, strongly suggesting it was her bedroom that the camera creeping up on the woman unknowingly, etc.).
Vertov’s cinematic techniques can definitely be applied to many films and documentary styles even today. The way he intermixes his filming in the movie and sequences is not very common, but the visual shots he takes (the creeping in, the camera movements, scaling, etc.) are commonly used features in all films today. Another particular cinematic technique used is the group of factory workers (some close, and as they get farther away, smaller).
Overall, after watching this film I personally feel that Vertov was simply trying to educate the people in the 1900’s about how film and video could be used effectively, and how it could be altered, edited, changed (freeze shots, up close, etc.) and how these frameworks helped enhance the video in terms of deep space (make it look original and real even though its 2 dimensional). Also the fact that he does not use any words/text or anything but images to portray his ideas seems to signify that he can communicate a story through film simply with images; which at the time must have been a revolutionary idea for culture.
Until next time!
Samia Nasir
Digital Media Evolution 