Vertov+-+Lecture+Notes

__Dzigia Vertov and the Invisible Camera__ Documentaries should attempt to "achieve the ordinary virtues of an art" by moving from "the plain (or fancy) descriptions of natural material, to arrangements, rearrangements and creative shapings of it" (Grierson, 1966: 146) “We invite you - to flee - the sweet embraces of romance the poison of the psychological novel the clutches of the theatre of adultery to turn your back on music” (Vertov, 1922: 7) __Historic context__ Film-making, and particularly factual film-making, was supported by the Soviet State in the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The Russian films industry was nationalised in 1919, and placed under the control of Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya. The State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) was established in Moscow to train film-makers. Lenin himself declared “Of all all the arts, the cinema is the most important for us” (Ellis and McLane, 2008: 27). __Dzigia Vertov and Kino Pravda__ Dzigia Vertov was the name that Denis Kaufman assumed for himself as a film-maker, having previously worked as a poet and novelist. In 1918, he joined the staff of Kino Nedalia, a state-supported newsreel unit, and was active with the “Agit Train” propaganda unit. In 1922, Vertov launched the Kino Pravda series of films, which sought to combine news and propaganda “Vertov's purpose in Kino Pravda seems to have been to inform the citizens about what was going on in their country: to show various activities to the public at large; to awaken interest in what militant citizens are doing, and gain respect for government progress; to engender pride in contemporary achievements, and occasionally to encourage action.” (Ellis and McLane, 2008: 30) Kino Pravda, borrowing its name from the Communist Party's official newspaper, drew upon an emerging Bolshevik understanding of the purpose of news. Lenin described the newspaper as “not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, it is also a collective organiser” (Hicks, 2007: 8). Vertov aimed to combine all of these elements in his Kino Pravda work, and as the series developed “increasingly sought to create and interlinked series of images rather than a simple recording of unrelated profilmic events” (Hicks, 2007: 11). __We: Variant of a manifesto__ In 1922, when the Kino-Pravda films were first being made, Vertov published //We : Variant of a Manifesto//, which outlined some of his early thinking about documentary film. Demonstrating evidence of Vertov's past as a satirist, it defines itself primarily by its opposition to dramatic film, and the influence of the dramatic film on documentary. It protested “against the mixing of the arts which many call synthesis” and proclaimed that “the old films, based on the romance, theatrical films and the like, to be leporous” (Vertov, 1922: 7), contrasting directly with Grierson, who would later argue that documentary should attempt to "achieve the ordinary virtues of an art" (Grierson, 1966: 146). //We// also argued for a distinctly Soviet style of film, cleansed of “foreign matter”, with its own rhythm, based upon the movements of machines, and not men. __The “Cine-Eye” movement__ Many traditional journalists had abandoned their profession as a result of the Soviet Revolution, and the revolutionary government sought to re-build a news-gathering network by enlisting ordinary men and women as what would be described today as citizen journalists. Vertov was interested in replicating this innovation, and directed the film Cine-Eye in the hope that it would inspire ordinary citizens to work on newsreels. Vertov's work was intended to bypass the low levels of literacy in early Soviet Russia by creating “a new kind of screen journalism through which he could communicate directly and dynamically with the people” (Ellis and McLane, 2008: 33) His 1924 film, Cine-Eye, was intended to instruct his followers – the //kinoks// – in the method of documentary film production. While Vertov had previously worked in a way which stressed cinema's persuasive power, his work from Cine-Eye onwards placed greater emphasis on what he described as //Zhizn vrasplokh//, translated as “life caught unawares” or “life off-guard”. __Cine-Eye and documentary theory__ Vertov's work with the Cine-Eye movement led him to working explicitly as a documentary film theorist, exploring theory through both his written and filmed work. Specific and deliberate instructions were given to the //kinoks//, summed up in Vertov's //Cine-Eyes Field Manual// “ General instructions for all techniques : the invisible cameras __ //Man with a Movie Camera// (1929) __ Vertov's most ambitious, and perhaps least understood film was the 1929 //Man with a Movie Camera//. This was a feature length documentary that compiled a huge number of individual shots into a non-traditional “story” of the Soviet city. The film opens with the declaration that "The film you are about to see is an attempt at cinematographic diffusion of visual scenes without use of intertitles (the film has no intertitles), without use of a screenplay (the film has no screenplay), without use of a theatre (the film has no sets, actors etc.) . The purpose of this experimental work is to create and absolute and universal cinematographical language, completely free of theatrical or literary language" (Vertov, 1929) __Vertov's lasting influence – Direct Cinema, Cinema Verite and beyond__ Vertov's desire to work with the “invisible camera” had been hampered by the nature of early film equipment. Large, bulky film cameras were difficult to hide, and tended to draw attention to themselves – part of the reason why Vertov's theories tended to discuss matters such as diverting subjects' attention. However, from the 1950s onwards, film equipment became increasingly portable, as well as increasingly sophisticated. Reflex viewfinders, zoom lenses, magnetic tape recorders (for sound) and “faster” film stock made it possible for film-makers to shoot in a greater variety of conditions – and made the “invisible camera” a possibility again. Film-makers such as Robert Drew and Ricky Leacock of Drew Associates again began to explore the relationship between the documentary maker, the subject, and the camera, re-opening a debate began in the 1920s, and which still informs documentary film-making today. Barry, Keith and Sloniowski, Jeannette (Eds.) //Documenting the Documentary : Close Readings of documentary film and video//, Wayne State University Press Ellis, Jack C. and McLane, Betsy A (2008) //A New History of Documentary Film//, Continuum, London Grierson, John (1966) //Grierson on Documentary//, Faber and Faber, London Hicks, Jeremy (2007) //Dzigia Vertov : Defining Documentary Film//, I.B. Taurus, London
 * 1)  Filming unawares – an old military rule : gauging, speed attack
 * 2)  Filming from an open observation point set up by Cine-observers. Self-control, calm and, at the right moment – lightning attack
 * 3)  Filming from a hidden observation point. Patience and complete attention.
 * 4)  Filming when the attention of the subjects is diverted naturally.
 * 5)  Filming when the attention of the subjects is artificially diverted.
 * 6)  Filming at a distance.
 * 7)  Filming in motion.
 * 8)  Filming from above” (Hicks, 2007: 25)