Smu Production 1 Fall 2017

     The readings for class were quite fascinating due to the dual perspectives that were provided. On the one hand, we have Andre Bazin, the father of the french new wave movement of the late 50's and early 60's, explaining how cinema can be utilized as a sort of valid documentation of truth (this is more than likely due to the rising popularity of the cinema-verité at the time), but on the other hand, we've got Dziga Vertov, a Russian film director and theorist who, along with his fellow Soviet theoreticians like Eisenstein and Kuleshov, were setting the concepts that would eventually shape what we consider modern cinema today, explaining how it can do the exact opposite: deceiving the eye; carrying the torch that Méliès brothers started that established cinema as a sort of giant illusion.     So who was right? Well, they both were. Both of these elements were carried on throughout the late 20th century and are still utilized in modern cinema today...

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...