Abstract
Vertov's approach to film is explored in the various roles presented in his film "The Man with a Movie Camera." First, the author discusses the role of the cameraman in the film. Next, he describes the role of the editor, and finally the role of the viewer. Additionally, Vertov's political and artistic philosophies as intertwined with filmaking are examined.

From the Paper
"In motion picture terminology, a montage (literally "putting together") is a form of movie collage consisting of a series of short shots which are edited into a coherent sequence. Viewers infer meaning based on context; Lev Kuleshov, in his Kuleshov Experiment established that montage is one way of leading the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film. David Griffith was one of the early proponents of montage, introducing cross-cutting to show parallel action in different locations, and codifying film grammar in other ways as well."

Tags:Vertov, Dziga, Soviet, avante-garde, film, documentary

Abstract
This paper describes how, while working within the most innovative period in Soviet cinema, before the coming of sound, Dziga Vertov created the film "Man with a Movie Camera", a tribute to the newly formed Communist State, urban environments and technological advancement. It analyzes how in order to create a variety of themes, including those comparing the bourgeois and working classes, man and machinery and the nature of film itself, Vertov uses editing to relate a series of seemingly unrelated shots. It looks at how these shots are comprised of five types of images: industrial construction, traffic, machinery, recreation and citizen-workers. It also shows how he constructs meaning through editing in the film to form an argument in favor of the newly formed soviet state by juxtaposing disjunctive images, but also linking the images through composition.

From the Paper
"The main theme of Vertov's film is a cameraman performing his daily routine in an urban environment, and this meaning is produced through the films ability to show both the cameraman at work and the reaction he receives from the people he films. The entire film is reflexive in the sense that the audience is constantly reminded that film is a constructed environment, designed by the filmmaker. Mixing in shots of the camera, the cameraman, and the editing process maintain the idea that the film is just a part of Vertov's usual routine. The sequence opens with a shot of the cameraman reflected in the camera's lens, continues with a shot of the urban setting in which the events will unfold, and then returns to the filmmaker's "work" of filming traffic."

Tags:working, classes, bourgeois, cameraman, recreation