Shot Change Constructs a New Perspective

Essay by Anonymous UserUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, January 1996

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Shot Change constructs a New Perspective

The traditional rules for editing from shot to shot had always tried to give the impression of a continuous action taking place in front of the camera. Dziga Vertov, the director, contested this old-fashioned filming style in the movie Man with a Movie Camera. Using multiple shot changes and variations Vertov strayed away from the norm and created a novel technique. He strongly thought that, as a whole, the general public was stuck in a rut and they were lost in the commonalities and banalities of the habitual world. The camera man, the main character in the movie, was used as the vehicle to show the globe a new perspective on life. Vertov decided on making the movie encompass a full day in Russia. This interesting idea allows the audience to take in the director's new concepts and reflect upon the many visual themes, also.

Time and space play a key role in the film as images and events are both skewed throughout the duration of the movie.

Time was used by Vertov as an important factor in editing as well as in the daily lives of humans.

With editing he utilized the essence of time to his advantage. Vertov wanted a certain rhythm of cuts to exist in the movie. He desired a choppy effect. The cameras, themselves, were supposed to produce a rithym in movements, too. The point was he wanted to make as many cuts and rigid motions as possible to make the film appear as hark jerky as possible to the audience. One reason was that he did not at all want the continuous motion of normative movies to be present. He desired the ebb and flow which daily life really is. He perceived that life was...