Smu Production 1 Fall 2017

The first article by Vertov sees the camera as its own entity. The author clearly believe humans are imperfect, but because of that, they can make a camera, another better version of the human eye, become perfect. In doing so film will no longer be copying a script it will in turn create its own script and go by its own standards. By perfecting the eye that records the information the information can then become perfect. The camera eye is not caught up in human imperfection, it has no feelings yet it sees all feelings everyone else expresses. It is painting the canvas with an unbiased view. The second article by Bazin agrees with the first in that they both see film as art, however Bazin, believes we need to look back to humans instead of looking away from them to perfect film. Instead of using machinery he talks about the great beginning of art which then became film. He talks about the human body being fundamental in the creation of the art of today. Which I agree with very much, se

These two readings explored the significance of photography and paintings. Dziga Vertov says that the main thing in film is sensory exploration of the world. The kino-eye is used to explore the chaos of visual aspects that fill space. The kino-eye lives and moves in time and space, as it gathers information. This shows how our eye sight is fixed, but we will always be able to improve our technology, especially cameras. Andre Bazin Talk about realism and perspective as shown in medieval arts. Cinema is often interpreted as a language. People can construct different meanings of images through different angles and settings in nature.

In these two readings, the importance of cinema and photography was explored. Dziga Vertov said the main and essential thing in film is the sensory exploration of the world through film. More perfect than the human eye, the kino-eye is used to explore the chaos of visual aspects that fill space. The kino-eye lives and moves in time and space, as it gathers information in a complete different manner than the human eye. I found this very interesting because it shows how we cannot improve the making of our eyes, but can endlessly perfect the camera. Andre Bazin talks about medieval art and different theories with realism and perspective. Cinema is often interpreted as a language, as you can construct different meanings of images through different angles and settings in nature.

Alec Gilman I assisted on Conrad Li's shoot "Baffled". I benefitted from the experience in multiple ways such as learning new techniques and seeing first hand the passion directors have for a project. Although there was a lot of down time, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend as a member of the team. This project helped me learn how much of a commitment that production can be and I am grateful for that. My job was a production assistant and that mostly entailed getting things the director needed and helping open and move pieces around.

The reading ultimately left me with a feeling of pride, allowing me to not feel foolish for considering cinema a stylized form of art, similar to sculpting and painting. Any fool who considers the filmmaking process trivial and lackluster must consider the complexities of making a film. There's certain mechanics and a science behind it that most take for granted, such as the construction of narrative, and the readings beautifully illustrate that storytelling isn't as simple as it may seem.

In "Narrative as a Formal System," Bordwell exemplifies how each separate part of a film--plot and story, cause and effect, time, space, openings and closings, and the narrator--work together to form a successful narrative. It was very interesting for me to learn about the narrative form of a film and how a story comes together as it is something that I have never gave much thought to. The art of making a film is far more complicated than I thought. Bordwell raised many fascinating points, but what I found most fascinating was how parallelism was used in Citizen Kane . Even though I have never seen the film Citizen Kane, I was able to learn that parallelism in a narrative "allows both lines of action to develop simultaneously in similar directions." I personally have never realized that parallelism can be present in films, and if the viewer isn't actively reading the film, they probably are not going to realize that parallelism present either. Overall,