Essay About Russian Director Dziga Vertov And Silent Documentary Film

Man with a Movie Camera
Essay Preview: Man with a Movie Camera
Report this essay
The Man with a Movie Camera is an experimental 1929 silent documentary film that was created in black and white by Russian director Dziga Vertov. This is a film without scenario and actors but Vertov used different music to bring out slow and fast rhythm. He used the camera to capture real happen and he wanted to show everyday life to the audiences. Vertov used many cinematic techniques to make his film more vivid such as double exposure, fast and slow motions, freeze frames, split screens, different angles (eyes level, high and low), different shots (close, medium and long). In the web site senses of cinema, Dziga Vertov states that “Our eyes see very little and very badly — so people dreamed up the microscope to let them see invisible phenomena; they invented the telescope…now they have perfected the cinecamera to penetrate more deeply into he visible world, to explore and record visual phenomena so that what is happening now, which will have to be taken account of in the future, is not forgotten.” I believe Vertov wanted to show more realistic about living through the camera because he knew that our eyes couldn’t see the whole world, we could only see everything in front of our eyes. He used the camera as eyes to see everyone was doing different things at the same moment. He captured everyday life among humans in Russia. He captured all emotions with important events in their lives. He captured weddings, funerals, injuries, divorce, and birth. I like he use a comparison way to show the different events at the same moment. For instance, a couple was exited to get a marriage certificate but another couple was unhappy to get divorce certificate. Vertov tried to tell people that everything has both side, something people only see the one side happen but it may not a fact; therefore Vertov spent his time to make this documentary film. I suggest Vertov should put more word descriptions on this film because some clips are hard to guess the meaning. In general, this documentary film is good because audiences simply understand the sense of the film.