Man With A GoPro by Sean Nener

Written Analysis on Vertov, Dziga Man With A Movie Camera (Links to an external site.) (1929) Man with a Movie Camera  

Vertov used ‘A series of fragments that build a whole’ technique to depict spaces, object, and the world around. The film “demonstrates the extent and range of the camera’s power”, this was conveyed when Vertov used close-ups, mid-shots, full-body shots, and long distanced shots to film the world around. This was not just to view the world from the human eyes but also what, humans cannot view. I used this technique to bring detail to the world around me, whether it be object, space, or person. Vertov was able to use many camera positions, one of these was to catch the underbelly of a train and carriages. I used this technique to catch a clip of a car running over. This showed the world on the ground looking up, I also used the advantages of my small camera to take clips on a skateboard. This showed the world of a moving object and the camera’s power.

Vertov’s filmed “showed playful glimpses at the filmmaker’s process”, this technique was used to show how the filmmaker got his films and how he operated the camera. This is opened the viewers to the world around the film maker and the world the film maker saw. Whilst mine was not playful, I used this technique to show how the GoPro recorded and how I took some of the shots like me recording on the skateboard. This shows the actions of the filmmaker and some of the positions of the camera.

Vertov took a series of films and then broke these series of events into fragments. The fragments were then put together, showing different events, changes to the day and the filmmakers’ process after having been analysed and finding the ideal fragments of the events and shortening the events for that fragment. By placing them together Vertov made a series that build a whole event. This event being viewing the world around in the area. I used this to show the world around me and showing different fragments of events that I had shortened, some events had slight change like the weather. This technique was also useful as placing fragments with slight changes like weather, shows a new world entirely. This also played a major role in showing the “camera’s power”, by showing the different conditions the camera can bear and film in.

Reference

Johnson, G. (Director). (2011). Critics’ Picks: Man With a Movie Camera. The New York Times.

Visual Analysis on Vertov, Dziga Man With A Movie Camera (Links to an external site.) (1929) Man with a Movie Camera

Vertov used ‘A series of fragments that build a whole’ technique to depict spaces, object, and the world around. Vertov filmed the city, a camera, and a man throughout the entirety of this film, each. Vertov moved the camera around continuously taking close-up, mid-shots, full body shots and long-distance shots. These camera positions were used to express the details of the world around sowing the liveliness. The liveliness showed how the world interacted and moved. The camera positions kept switching in the film by switching from the movie camera views (on screen) to camera directed at the man with the movie camera (off screen). This gave way to the audience being able to see the man with the movie camera and the world around him that he filmed.

The camera positions did not just give way to what the man saw but what the movie camera saw, as the camera was able to look down on people and view the underneath of moving trains. Which no person could see, the camera showed a world both seen and unseen to people. By filming the man and what the man filmed, it opened doors to the world around. Vertov captured the exposure, intensity of light in different series of events filming either objects, spaces, or people. This showed the composition of the lights as well as the mid-tones on the objects.

To create this film, vertov filmed fragments of the world and then puts these fragments of different events and areas of the world together to create a series. This series of fragments showed the world around from the movement of the world to the silence of objects. Vertov also showed the different days with the same event. This showed a slight change in the world around and the lengths that the man with the movie camera went to capture these slight changes and different views. This series of fragments showed the daily events of the world and how this man showed the events.