Architectural History and Theory — Assignment 1B: Film Sequence

Lillian Pham
Jul 22, 2017 · 3 min read

Main technique: A series of fragments that build a whole.


The silent film The Man with the Movie Camera (1929) by Dziga Vertov , was a masterpiece in the ‘Greatest films of all time’ , was simply a series of images that create a whole, the language of cinema itself. It took Vertov nearly 4 years to build up the film with the help of his wife, Yelizaveta Svilova, who was in charge of editing every single shot. This film could be called a montage of old days in Russia while telling a story about film making.

This film record human life in form of moving pictures with no protagonists nor antagonists, which is different from the norm.

As suggested, Vertov’s camera is ‘ I’m an eye. A mechanical eye. I, the machine, show you a world the way only I can see it. I free myself for today and forever from human immobility. I’m in constant movement. I approach and pull away from objects. I creep under them. I move alongside a running horse’s mouth. I fall and rise with the falling and rising bodies. This is I, the machine, manouvring in the chaotic movements, recording one movement after another in the most complex combinations. Freed from the boundaries of time and space, I co-ordinate any and all points of the universe, wherever I want them to be. My way leads towards the creation of a fresh perception of the world. Thus I explain in a new way the world unknown to you.’ (Dziga Vertov)

Each part of the film shows different part of a days such as rest, work, leisure. Viewers encounter with various shots of perspective and each frame associated with celebration of movements from Vertov.

The short video below was recorded by a Samsung Galaxy 8 phone. There are some clear differences between Vertov’s and this one in color, sound and time length although they are the same in shooting technique: series of fragment that build a whole.

Video by Lillian Pham.

References:

Vertov, Dziga, ‘The Man with the Movie Camera’ (1929), The original

Lillian Pham

Written by

Student at UTS:INSEARCH.

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