Kino Eye- Samuel Gallardo

For me I translate it into him saying that a camera can not just be another extension of your eye. It is a piece of equipment that has to be manipulated into creating a scene. Basically there has to be a natural eye flow and not just a static picture. All in all it's pretty easy to understand what he is trying to interpret, his examples are well explained and can be helpful in any way of using a person's creative purpose. 

Kino-eye - Austin Smith

When I was reading this it made me think of Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. I even read it in his voice haha  I found this interesting and after I read it as I left the computer I was imagining I was a camera and everything I saw was being shot in film, also how a a picture and make something boring so much more interesting because it is from a angle we might not be able to see.

Kino-Eye Eric Barron

The camera is a mechanical eye that can show perspectives that the human eye is unable to record. It can be positioned in places and angles not normally seen with the human eye and when a scene is recorded from multiple clips and placed in a compilation, it can portray meaning in a very unique way.

Kino-eye - Serena Milan

I found this excerpt by Dziga Vertov fascinating. When he mentions that "the use of the camera as a kino-eye; more perfect than the human eye.." I don't think he means in the eye is flawed or is less in value to a camera,  he means that when you pair an artistic eye and liberate the constraints of replicating things the way you normally see them extraordinary things can happen. I take from the excerpt, that in ukraine/russia in 1919, people who shoot video were merely recording things the way the are used to seeing them.  Kino-eye is a call to have freedom of expression by using the camera to record things in ways never imagined and to witness how the camera can change and enhance things.  We all  know a Hollywood bomb explosion doesn't look as cool in real life. I am almost positive that before kino-eye, recordings of bombs exploding were pretty boring. I love that Vertov is challenging the way things had been done for so long. He strives to no longer replicate life through a recording of it, but enhance life through the freedom of recording it experimentally.

Serena Milan

Kino Eye - Trang Pham

I have read Kino Eye and I believe through the Kino eye, the author want to use it as a tool to create a perspective, an angle behind the kino eye that no other have seen before. Each aspect of thing around us, from shape to size, from people to other, each perspective is hidden with a meaning that viewing from one angle can not convey the entire definition of it. Through the kino eye, cutting and editing to create a passage, a word from the author to the viewers through visuals, just like how a storyteller deliver a story to a kid through his/her voice.

Nowadays, movies and videos are highly demanding in CGI and the effect artist to create colorful flashing effect to entertain the viewer, rather than focus on the hidden meaning that the author, through the kino eye, trying to deliver. Take one of my favorite movie "Requiem for a Dream" for an example: The movie is not category with horror, but through the repetition sequences of popping drug, dilated eye pupil, action of putting drug into the body..., it gives the chill to the viewers that haunt them without using the CGI effects of blood and gore in today generic horror movies. And what we understand from that repetition sequence is drugs give the body those effects, but through the close up shot through the kino eye, it creates the scary feeling rather than entertaining effects it gives.   

Kino Eye - P. Carter

     Ok, so I have read, and re-read, Kino-Eye on three separate occasions trying to the best of my abilities to fully comprehend the arguments presented by the author of this piece. I must admit that it was a bit difficult for me personally to follow what the author was trying to say. That being said, I will make my best attempt to explain what I took from the excerpt.

     It is mentioned early on that the camera is better at capturing images than the human eye, and while yes I will agree that technically a modern camera can capture more information than the human eye can process, I personally disagree that the camera is in any way superior to the eye of an artist. For example, we have all grown fully accustomed to the ever watchful eyes of security cameras posted nearly everywhere in our everyday lives. If any one of us were to sit and watch a video feed from one of the aforementioned security cameras we would soon find ourselves bored with even the highest resolution of this type of static footage. However, take this same camera and place it in the hands of a skilled artist and there is a chance of magic being created from an artist's touch. Therefore, from my personal perspective, the technical superiority of the camera is nothing without the human eye of the artist.

     Later on in this piece the author sites an example of, "shooting a boxing match not from the point of view of the spectator present, but shooting the successive movements (the blows) of the contenders." As I read this I could not help but to think of a scene from "Raging Bull" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wwItkoapuA . In this scene we see both types of shots, from both inside and out of the ring, merged together to form a narrative. In my opinion the use of theses shots together add to the dramatic tension of this scene.

     Perhaps if the author wrote this piece during the modern era of filmmaking he might have a different stance. Today we can shoot first person point of view shots (POV) with an off the shelf Go Pro camera. I have noticed a growing trend in the use of first person POV in modern media that rivals that of the "Shaky Cam," from not long ago. Here's a movie trailer from Hardcore Henry demonstrating my point https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv33e0TyL6M .

     For me personally the current trend of over using  POV filmmaking like the over use  the shaky cam craze before have diminished the art of cinematography. To me a skilled artist knows when and what tool to use when telling his tale. For example, in the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg expertly uses both steady shots and handheld camera (not to be confused with "shaky cam") to draw us into his narrative. Through his use of camera techniques we can clearly see the action that is taking place AND we feel like we are there storming the beach with the rest of the soldiers. Sadly this seems to be a dying art form that is grossly being replaced by overly kinetic camera movements and filmmaking is suffering for it.   

Kino Eye - Felix Kreidel

I feel the story was about the difference in the human eye to the kino eye. Using the kino eye, more perfect than the human eye, for the exploration of the chaos of visual phenomena that fills space he was able to direct the audience to what he wanted them to see and not what they wanted to look at first. I feel this is used a lot in some modern techniques in filming.

I look forward to creating memories through the lens of the camera.  I look forward to creating stories that future generations can look at and be inspired.  I look forward to conveying a message of hope that my generation will embrace and be encouraged through it.  I look forward to seeing, writing and editing a colorful vision through the mechanical eye.

I found the information below from: http://kino-eye.com/about/kino-eye/

Why the name Kino-Eye?

I’m often asked about the name kino-eye. It is a term with many meanings and interpretations. Dziga Vertov, a filmmaker best known for the classic A Man With A Movie Camera, used the term in a 1923 manifesto,

I am kino-eye, I am a mechanical eye. I, a machine, show you the world as only I can see it.

In 1929 Dziga Vertov explained the meaning in “From Kino-Eye to Radio-Eye,” (an essay that appears in Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov)

Kino-eye = kino-seeing (I see through the camera) + kino-writing (I write on film with the camera) + kino-organization (I edit).” … “Kino-Eye means the conquest of space, the visual linkage of people throughout the entire world based on the continuous exchange of visible fact” … “Kino-Eye is the possibility of seeing life processes in any temporal order or at any speed” … “Kino-Eye uses every possible means in montage, comparing and linking all points of the universe in any temporal order, breaking, when necessary, all the laws and conventions of film construction.

Joseph Schaub wrote in “ Presenting the Cyborg’s Futurist Past: An Analysis of Dziga Vertov’s Kino-Eye“,

…Kino-eye, then, is a cyborg construction that contains multiple positions for the production of film meaning.

The confluence of new and old media technologies are expanding our knowledge of the world and helping us see from perspectives that we could not have seen otherwise. Vertov’s films and writings were prescient and inspire an interest in media technology of the past, present, and future.

Dziga Vertov: Creating reality as we want to see it.

By Nancy Cantu Harris

Just as explained by Alfred Hitchcock, editing is more than cutting, it is assembling; and from the words and work of Dziga Vertov we realize that in order to convey a message through film, the way we connect one image to the next one is as relevant for the story as the music, lighting, and dialogues.

Original film poster of
Man with a Movie Camera

Pioneer of the documentary genre, Vertov reveals that, as determined as he was to capture and present reality on film, the editing process allows for the filmmaker to “amend” the truth in the way that best suits his or her intentions, either for technical convenience –for example, one scene that occurs later in the plot could be filmed earlier during principal photography due to weather conditions or location availability, or because it adds to the impact that the story wants to achieve –“such structuring of the film-object enables one to develop any given theme, be it comic, tragic, one of special effects, or some other type.¹”

Film editing or, for our purposes in class, video editing, is no different than editing a text. One can acknowledge that, in writing, words can lead the reader to perceive the characters according to the intentions of the author.

For instance, when telling a news story, the reporter might use adjectives or nuances that will cause a subject to be portrayed in a manner that will evoke either sympathy or rejection. We all do this “editing” of reality to favor our purposes. 

Let’s pretend for a moment that we are describing the appearance of someone we like; it is not the same to call someone “beautiful” as to say he or she is “striking,” even if our concept of beauty is always personal, we all would be inclined to think that someone “striking” is a little higher in the “looks” scale than someone who is simply “beautiful.”

The same thing happens when editing film. Even if the images we have filmed for a documentary are a true reflection of reality, the order in which we present them can project a constructed “reality” according to the way we see it. “I make the viewer see in the manner best suited to my presentation²”, explains the director of Man with a Movie Camera.

As someone who doesn’t feel that belongs in the realm of creativity, I feel a great amount of respect for the way Vertov used film to convey his vision of reality. “My path leads to the creation of a fresh perception of the world. I decipher in a new way a world unknown to you³,” he stated, and he certainly did.

(1) Vertov, Dziga, 1896. Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov (1984) University of California Press. Page 20.

(2) Vertov, Dziga, 1896. Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov (1984) University of California Press. Page 16.

(3) Vertov, Dziga, 1896. Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov (1984) University of California Press. Page 18.

Welcome to Digital Video + Advanced Digital Video at Richland College!

This blog is where we will discuss theoretical and historical readings assigned in class. Whenever the syllabus reads "Blog Post Due:", it means you are to create a new post here with your response. What I'm looking for in your responses is for you to show me how you're thinking about and integrating the reading. Don't tell me what it says, I already know. I want you to tell me, or show me, what it made you think about. This will be an aid to our conversation about the text in class. If you are having trouble thinking about what to make in your projects, these readings are meant to get you thinking about how other people have approached the subjects we will be covering. Please take these readings seriously! Looking forward to a great semester with all of you.