Battleship Potemkin can be viewed here. Your Potemkin screening sheet is due Monday, November 4.
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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 ofMan 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: Monday, November 11
In Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera, montage editing is used to it’s fullest to give meaning to what some could call random nothingness. There is something genius in the way the silent film can come together to create a story not only in a narrative order but even with expert discontinuity editing. In the scene where the couple is on the carriage, and there are cuts of bustling streets, there is an interesting transition to a new scene. The upbeat rhythm of the editing is interrupted by a freeze frame of the horse. This cuts to freeze frames of other groups of people, the bustling crowd, and individuals. To me, this transition is meant to be an interruption to the constant flow of people, the city, and life for just a second, and the editor seems to be asking the question, “What is life?” To take us outside of merely the film we now see shots of strips of film with certain images on it and also rolls of film, also in freezeframe. We are now reminded, I think, that we are watching merely a film and that perhaps even that life is similar to a film, broken up into freeze frames like this one. This seems very evident as we are shown strips of film and then the strips of film are actually used in the next shot. After the short break the crowd starts walking again, the film strip we see actually starts rolling and then the carriage begins to move again. After the completion of the carriage ride, the theme comes to fruition. In the next part, we see a camera mounted facing out to the streets from a roof. We next see a couple getting their legal wedding and then we cut to the camera on the roof which quickly spins around 180 degrees. What is the purpose of this? Interestingly enough, the next shot is actually a couple getting their divorce papers. Contrasted to the newly weds they look very angry and separated. Rapid cuts are used between them at a fast rhythm to dictate an argument they appear to be having. Next, another interesting edit is used. A bus and a car are shown in a split screen and both are at an angle tilted away from each other. This discontinuous cut portrays the couple’s isolation from one another and the different paths they will probably take. The next part of the sequence groups together and juxtaposes another couple at an unidentified registry, a funeral procession, a woman crying at a gravestone, the newlyweds getting out of their car, a sick woman, and a baby being born in different orders generally with the gravestone first and the baby last.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, they are intercut in reverse order but are unrelated. Interestingly enough, however, the various juxtapositions do come together to describe different stages of life. They are unified with the fact that all the shots show some part of someones life and in turn combine them. For example, although the sick and grieving women are at the lower part of the spectrum, we see that there is happiness and rebirth somewhere, via the newborn and the new marriage, and because of the montage of these things they all come to portray the same thing, life. The final shot of the sequence unites the final shots by having the baby being given to the sick woman which is all she seems to want and is very joyous.
ReplyDeleteAnother great use of montage editing is in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In the scene where the three visit the art museum, there are various edits used to imply meaning. The use of the Smiths’ “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” instrumental version creates a slightly somber but also appreciative moment for them. The first shot shows them incorporating themselves with a line of kindergarteners to show their “forever young attitudes”. Juxtaposed with great adult works of art, this is used to allude to the ending off their wonderful day and in turn their childhoods, one of the movie’s central themes. Following a few more shots of art there is a shot of a sculpture standing with arms crossed. A graphic match cut shows the three lined up in front of paintings with their arms similarly crossed but with childish grins on their faces. This graphic match cut and also juxtaposition shows once again the fun and youthful behaviour of the kids. A final cut shows the three at their own paintings showing serious interest, this cut shows them turning away from childish behaviour and perhaps, sadly taking three separate paths. The final cuts show Cameron at his respective painting and Ferris and Sloane kissing in front of a deep blue stained glass window. The blue of the piece seems to reflect a sad tone on them and this may perhaps be their last kiss. Next, another series of cuts take place one being between the couple and Cameron, which shows how they have each other while Cameron has nobody and following up with the inferred meaning of Cameron’s solitude is a cut between the somber face of Cameron and a small, insignificant boy with a sad face. Jump cut’s are used to come closer and closer on the boy until all we see are spots of the red. This shows that Cameron’s full attention is on it and that it has engulfed his thoughts and feelings. The graphic match cut between Cameron’s face and the boy’s reinforce the idea of his complete loneliness. This film also uses edits to create meaning and theme and offer a view into real life.
Once again these are all just one post.
ReplyDeleteI hate you so much.
DeleteThe quote says basically that Vertov shows us how to frame things and movement through the human eye or through the camera lens. At one point, he actually connected the two directly by showing a camera lens with the reflection of a human eye in it. This quote is true, because he often shows the cameraman filming things, either hanging off of the side of a train, or standing on the door of a convertible car, or in so many other ways. One five- minute piece that demonstrates this well is the "scene" where Vertov is filming trains. In one shot, a man is shown setting up his camera in the back seat of a convertible, while the car is moving, following a car full of people. In a following shot, the car with the cameraman pulls up alongside the other car and he begins to film them. In another shot, he is shown filming them again, only this time instead of standing in the back seat, he is actually standing on the door, where the window would be if it weren't a convertible. Then comes a shot of what he is filming- the people in the other car. Because the two images are juxtaposed together, we understand that this shot is taken by the cameraman standing on the door of the convertible. These shots form a sort of rhythm. They are all about equal length in time, and the pattern is a shot of the man on the door, then a shot of a moving train, then the man on the door, then the moving train, until this pattern is broken by a shot of the people the man was filming. This demonstrates how the cinematographer and editor can transform the movements of life into something that is unpredictable. The entire film is basically many shorter montages juxtaposed together to create one long montage. Each of these shorter montages is about a small part of life, and juxtaposed together, we understand that the film as a whole is about life in general, as well as movement, which is a large part of life.
ReplyDeleteAnother film that juxtaposes images together in a montage to create meaning is Up. First, in one shot, Carl and Ellie are shown kissing at their wedding. In the next shot, he is shown carrying her up the walkway to a beat up, worn down house, which juxtaposed with the first image allows us to understand that this is their new home that they will live in together. After seeing the worn down house, we are shown an image of Ellie sawing a piece of wood and Carl hammering a nail into the wall, which shows us that they are rebuilding the house together. They are shown moving furniture, then painting their names on a mailbox, so we understand that they really fixed it up and made it into their home. Later in the montage, they are shown putting a jar on their table to put their change in to save money up so they can go away together. They are each shown a few times, putting their change in the jar, and because the lighting and their outfits change, as well as the amount of money in the jar, we understand that this shows the passing of time, and the increase in savings. Then, an image of them driving down the street is shown, and their car got a flat tire. They are then shown breaking the jar, and by juxtaposing these two images together, the editor allows us to understand that they are breaking the jar to get the money out so they can pay for a new tire. They are shown doing the same thing when Carl breaks his leg, then again when a tree falls down on their house, showing us that they keep dipping into their savings and they aren't making good progress. Then there is a shot of Ellie tightening Carls tie, then walking out of the door. Then there is another image of her tightening his tie, then walking away. Then immediately following that, three quick shots of a close up of the tie and her hands tightening it. After that, there is a medium close up of it, so that we can see his face over her shoulder and we can see that both of them have grey hair and they are much older. The shots of her tightening his tie show the passing of time. There are a few shots of the two of them cleaning their house together, one with each of them cleaning one side of the same window, then noticing each other and smiling through the window at each other. Then there is a shot of Carl vacuuming the shelves with Ellie sweeping in the background, and they both look very old. Carl comes across a picture of Ellie when she was a young child, then the "camera" pans up from the picture he is holding to a painting of their house on a cliff that they dreamed of, then there is a cut back to Carl looking at it, smiling. Then he turns around and looks at Ellie, who is looking very old and weak. When he turns back, his smile is gone, replaced by an expression of worry. Because of the juxtaposition of these few shots together, we understand that he is worried that they are getting too old and they will never get there. He then gets a huge smile across his face. This image is juxtaposed with an image of him at a travel agency buying tickets for them to leave. This shows us that his smile came from the idea of finally taking her away to another country. He is then shown putting the tickets in a basket with some wine and snacks. Then there is a cut to an image of him walking up a hill that they have been shown at the top of previously, showing us that it is their special spot, nearly at the top, with her all the way down at the bottom still, struggling to get up to the top. She then falls and he runs down to her. The next image is a shot of her lying in a hospital bed, showing us that she fell because she is ill. After that is an image of Carl sitting alone at a church, showing us that her funeral just ended and she is dead.
ReplyDeleteSorry that this one is so long, it just had a lot of shots to describe.
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