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

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CREATIVE PROBLEMS OF THE ART OF THE CAMERA-MAN The presence of a single conception clearly and thoroughly thought out, the resence of a profound understanding of the whole work, a genuine perception if the living actual images reproduced on the screen, is an absolute necessity to he camera-man. A cinematograph product, composed of many individual shots, •nly acquires unity when the individual shots composing it have been representaionally resolved on the lines of a single directing conception, within the limits >f a system with a single style. In cinematic production the conception of com•osition is immeasurably more complex than it is in the static product of pictorial rt, for it includes not only dynamism, but the time category, which establishes ts own special laws of perception of the image. Simple grouping of objects, nsuring good visibility and easy recognition on the screen, can be realised by he camera-man even though he has only a superficial acquaintance with the naterial of the scenario. But genuine artistry is achieved only provided he has . profound understanding of the idea and the images of the film being made. So that in the process of determining the representational treatment of the ilm a specific idea of the given conception and images of the film is of decisive mportance for the camera-man. But, as an artist, he is the product and expresion of a definite social system. Just as much as the scenario writer and director, le possesses a definite attitude to the reality surrounding him, a definite philosophy, vhich sets its imprint on his creation. Consequently, if he be a true artist, by no neans any conception, by no means any dramaturgic and directorial treatment )f the given images can be acceptable to him. If his attitude to reality, his )hilosophy, his tastes and artistic predilections be in sharp antagonism to those )f the dramatist and director he will never create a highly artistic and stylistically inified art product. That is why a close approach between the creative methods )f the director and the camera-man is one of the most important and necessary conditions of the creative group's fruitful work in the cinema. What is creative method and style in the camera-man's art ? In critical analyses of his work one frequently comes across superficial lefinitions of his style as the unity of the technical methods applied in snooting, if, suppose, the camera-man shoot all his pictures with softfocus lenses, not infrequently the conclusion is drawn directly from this that it is the characteristic )f an impressionist treatment of the film. Moreover, not infrequently many camera-men themselves strive mechanically I preserve a kind of unity in choice of representational resources, assuming that :hus they create their ■ style ', which determines their creative features. In the Western cinema such ' style ', based on a mechanically worked out representational nethod, is usually regarded as a positive quality. Independently of the theme ind content of the film, independently of its ideological tendencies, the cameranan invariably retains his manner of snooting worked qut once for all, his ' style ' )f softened or sharp optical treatment. He does not penetrate into the content )f the scenario, he does not trouble to analyse the images of the film, but works n his ' style ', which is his professional pride. In the average European or American film, constructed on the simple cinenatographic exposition of the subject, it is difficult to notice any antagonism >etween the directorial and the representational treatment, simply because the epresentational composition of such films is generally at a very primitive level, kit in films of higher artistic quality this distinguishing characteristic of Western exponents of the camera-man's art is very noticeable. Such a method of ' superficial formulation ' of a film irrespective of any :reative analysis of the scenario is a by no means fortuitous phenomenon in 217