Dziga Vertov was born, Denis Arkadievitch Kaufman in Byalistok, Poland January 2, 1896. He studied in Byalistok at the music academy from 1912-1915. While a student he set up a lab for the study of sound in 1915-1917 and adopted "Dziga Vertov" which means spinning top. His career includes editor and writer for a newsreel section of Moscow Cinema Committee in 1917, he directed his first personal film and published Kinoks-Revolution Manifesto in 1919 and organized film activities in 1921. He began developing the theory of "Kino-Glaz" or Kino-Eye in 1922 and then worked on a few more newsreels til he died in 1954. In 1929 he directed a film called "Man With A Movie Camera", it was silent and was accompanied in theaters with live music. Since then the "soundtrack" as been changed a lot. Many of the new music created for the film was based off of notes left by Vertov and used to represent a number of things in the film itself. Things like for instance sirens, babies crying, noise from crowds, they where mimicked.
Word Study: Manifesto
A public declaration of policy and aims, esp. one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.
http://en.allexperts.com/e/m/ma/man_with_a_movie_camera.htm
I always like how you focus on sound Trista. It's an important step in the film world that no one really remembers but in reality it's half the film. And since your main interest is music and sound you seem to be more aware of how things sound in films which is a very good thing to be aware of.
ReplyDeleteTrista, I agree with Erin in that I also appreciate your attention to sound and music. I'd like to hear more from you about how you thought the recorded sound in "Man With A Movie Camera" affected your reaction to the film and how you might imagine the film with a live orchestra. I also wonder what you think of the implied "musicality" and rhythm of the montage. The sound on the version we watched uses elements of street sound, but is mostly an orchestrated, musical composition. What do you think of this choice for a film that purports to "catch life unawares"?
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