Vertov
Which of Nichols' documentary modes does Man With a Movie Camera fall into?
What characteristics does it have that aligns it with this mode.
What is the film about? Themes?
Noel Burch (1979) says viewers "are challenged to make thematic meaning of the message, and take on an active role as decipherers of its images" (in Petric´, p. 78).
Reflexivity--how same or different from current films in this mode
--Camera revealed as heroic, glory in the filmmaking process...
Camera and editing revealed as showing us things we wouldn't have
Seen before...new relationships new visions for a new society
--Camera as intruder: the impossibility of ignoring it's presence...acknowledgement of the camera...revealing a new truth: the truth of life revealing itself in front of the camera
Metaphor
A metaphor is a rhetorical figure of speech, where a comparison is made between two seemingly unrelated objects without using "like" or "as". It is a transference of one object's characteristics onto another.
--Wine is life
--All the world's a stage
--Time is a thief
Scratching at the window with claws of pine, the wind wants in.
(Imogene Bolls, "Coyote Wind")
--yesterday: the sequence in strike: the metaphorical comparison of human slaughter in the strike with animal slaughter in the slaugherhouse
--which metaphors does DV use
--eyes seeing; shades; camera eye
--cop directing traffic: editor directing life revealed on the screen
--Birth sequence: cameraman in V of buildings -- born into the cities
--Machine / Man metaphors: machines created by man to liberate man:
new society based on science and technology..
he believes camera
to 'have the capability that humans do not, to perceive life and , furthermore, to organise its chaos into a meaningful whole.'[14] He writes the following in his own manifesto on filmmaking in 1922:
We discover the souls of the machine, we are in love with the worker at his bench, we are in love with the farmer on his tractor, the engineer on his locomotive. We bring creative joy into every mechanical activity. We make peace between man and the machine. We educate the new man.
Sequence of girl in cigarette factory intercut with sped up machinery People and machines are equally important to the reconstruction of the
Soviet community.
In the film, there is a shot of a young woman in a bathtub followed immediately by a shot of a sprinkler hosing down the street. Another sequence shows a young woman drying herself with a towel, contrasted with another woman cleaning a window.
A shot of a revolving door is associated with traffic and city commotion, creating a metaphor for the repetitiveness and limitation of life's cycles and circles. The juxtaposition of a telephone and traffic signal are contrasted with a marriage scene, advancing each as a metaphor for the other in the process of life's journey. Vertov challenged viewers to decipher the meaning of each comparison; it gave viewers an opportunity to construct knowledge based on their prior experiences, perceptions, and understanding of the subject matter.
In rhetoric, metonymy is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated. Metonymy works by contiguity rather than similarity. Typically, when someone uses metonymy, they don't wish to transfer qualities (as you do with metaphor); rather they transfer associations which may not be integral to the meaning.
The common figure "The White House said..." is a good example of metonymy, with the term "White House" actually referring to the authorities who are symbolized by the White House, which is an inanimate object that says nothing. The Crown for a kingdom is another example of this kind of metonymy. Metonymy can also refer to the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it: describing someone's house in order to describe them, for example. Advertising frequently uses this kind of metonymy, simply putting a product in close proximity to something we want (beauty, happiness). See also figure of speech, synecdoche, metalepsis.
Camera/eye as metonym