The cinema as a graphic art : on a theory of representation in the cinema (1959)

CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN the new conditions the Soviet news-film had enormous influence on the velopment of the camera-man's art, and became the means of education of the w camera-men. Faced with the task of direct representation of the historical events of revolu mary reality, the Soviet news-reel involved the necessity that the camera-man ould possess an ideological striving to an end, the greatest of energy, gifts for eative representation, and the intelligence to adjust himself to any conditions shooting. Certain camera-men were transferred from story-film cinemato aphy to news-reel work, and became permanent travelling companions of the ed Army detachments. In the foremost positions at the Polish front, in the rimea, with the Budienny cavalry, in the rear of the Czechoslovaks, everywhere iie camera-man was to be seen, actively participating in the military operations id the battles. He was already far from the neutral position of the bourgeois iws-reel reporter who seeks sensational shots amid the circumstances of a fighting ont. He became an active agitator and propagandist, frequently changing his itinera for a rifle. In these harsh circumstances of the civil war he was subjected b an ideological transformation, for he recognised the importance of his role as foviet news-reel reporter, and distinctly understood his social obligations to lie millions of workers who were thirsting to see on the screen genuine cinema bcuments of the day-to-day events. In the process of this continuous active ork a new type of camera-man was created, completely unlike the ' artists of hotography ' of the days of Pathe and Khanzhonkov. The news-reel became school for the organisation of the ranks of all camera-men. It brought a vital Fig. 106. — Shot from the film " Strike " (Eduard Tisse, cam.). 187