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

CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN 3hoto-montage assembly of shots. These films are static on the whole, and the ictor's image is abstract and statuesque (Figs. 1 31-134). And only in the most recent period of the Soviet camera-man's art are considerable movements clearly indicated, movements which are conditioned by the ideological and artistic growth of the creative ranks of the Soviet cinema. The camera-man is beginning to overcome the closer limits of the ' specific properties of the cinema camera ', is seeking close creative unity with the director, is becoming an active participant in all the creative process of work on the film. He is mastering methods of deeper work on the emotional and ideological expressiveness of the cinema image, realising it with all the fullness of the expressive resources of the cinema. The principle of a collective group organically welded on the basis of a unity of creative approach is given general recognition in the Soviet cinematographic system. The creative group is the basic production link of the Soviet cinema factories. From experience of the work of Eisenstein-Tisse, Pudovkin-Golovnya, Trauberg-Kozintsev-Moskvin, Kuleshov-Kuznetsov and many others we can see how important is the creative group in the making of a highly artistic cinema production. The Soviet camera-man is given unchallenged recognition as a creative worker in cinematography ; his role and importance in the creative process are noted by the most outstanding directors of the Soviet cinema. The ideas of the director, in his work on making expressive the film image [says Pudovkin], only receive concrete embodiment when the technical knowledge and the creative inventive faculty of the camera-man go hand in hand, or, in other words, when the camera-man is an organic member of the team and takes part in the creation of the film from beginning to end.1 This opinion of Pudovkin, however, by no means completely indicates the camera-man's creative role in the making of an artistic production. The following passages are from the report of a lecture by Eisenstein at the director's faculty of the Moscow Institute of Cinematography. The lecture was devoted to the question of the inter-relationship between the various members of the creative group. Furious discussions are always arising around the question whether the cameraman's work can be regarded as an art, and whether it is creative. As a rule the camera-man's creative role is denied whenever the cinematographic production has been made without previous compositional treatment of the editing and the shot. This occurs in all cases where production is restricted merely to a subject anecdotal exposition of the plot without taking into expressive account all the other elements which compose the aggregate of the artistic cinematographic production. Instead of this, such a production acquires only quotation marks, being known as a ' production.' It is quite obvious that in such cases doubt must also arise as to the extent to which the director's work can be regarded as creative. Unfortunately, it must be said that this is perfectly applicable to the great majority of the so-called average productions. When the director takes up such a position in regard to the light-plastic aspect of the filmed representation, in point of fact he does not even need a camera-man. All he needs is a straightforward technical photographer. But one doubts whether there is a single director who desires to take up such a position. And if he is trying to get away from that position, or avoid ! marking time, and is seeking instead to deepen and extend his craftsmanship in all spheres of cinematic representation, endeavouring to draw nearer to the fullness of cinematographic artistic production, he finds that he must adopt an estimate of the camera-man as first and foremost a creative individual and a fundamental creative colleague. And only 1 V. Pudovkin, Film Director and Film Material , Moscow, 1926. — N. Translated by I. M. in Film Technique, Newnes, 1933. — Ed. 211