Man With A Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov’s masterpiece! In terms of editing, this experimental film broke grounds. This is a new score - remember when watching, the first 3 + minutes are silent -recorded in 2003.
Watching this again after 4 years, I can’t help but find this film’s stylistic influence on BodySong (not the music). I’d posted a clip of that yesterday. I’m just reminded one of the other for some reason.
Public domain, baby!
April 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 am
[…] I’ve posted about Man With A Movie Camera that took editing to new levels, back in 1929. Narrative editing, on the other hand, took a big step with Edwin Porter’s Life of An American Fireman. Porter’s other film - released the following year - The Great Train Robbery is better known between the two. I personally like “Fireman” because - the documentary approach he took, combining real and dramatized footage of course - at 3:15 he does a quick flashforward inside the apartment, jump cut included, until coming back to where he’d left off at 6:00. Genius!! Of course, you’ll notice the window was done away with when the POV switched to outside but I guess that’s because the camera couldn’t have possibly captured the action inside the house through glass windows. In the flashforward, the fireman takes her out and is instantly back for the kid - jump cut! - whereas later reenactment has him take her all the way down upon which she cries “My babyyyy!” (I think). […]