Montage

When I first began reading Eisenstein, I thought that he was talking about music, giving us an analytical examination into how composers use montage to give movement, rhythm, contrast, and emotional drama to musical pieces.  Despite my initial error of context, I think there's an interesting relationship to consider between montage and music (symphonies in particular). Both music and film mediums are time based and so tempo and duration of sections are important to give a necessary structure. The major difference to me between the two, besides the obvious visual distinction, is that movie montage relies more on a collage process where parts are broken up and reassembled with cuts, while music is able to grow and swell more seamlessly without harsh cuts. This distinction is perhaps inherent in the constructive processes presented by each medium. Still, in the end, both mediums become linear experiences to the audience. It is interesting to consider the cut in film montage as a rhythmic element with the order of scene sequences becoming tonal elements. If we think abstractly enough, we should be able to consider different visual parts in film montage as melody or even high and low pitched notes.

I enjoyed the enthusiasm of Dziga Vertov's Kino Eye essay. It stands on the shoulders of the Futurism manifesto as embracing something new and progressive. It is easy to see that the camera lens is more sensitive and able than the human eye, which is something to be celebrated, explored and experimented with. Still, Vertov links his excitement of the camera to the human eye in his title Kino Eye, which I think is important. The ability of the camera to record in a similar way to how we naturally see gives it importance foremost as a tool for recording visual experience and phenomena.  We cannot do away with the eye, because this is our filter for viewing the world. The camera lens therefore adds a second filter, a second separation from direct experience. To use the camera for purely capturing the way we see seems foolish in this light, for how can we believe that the camera represents a natural experience of the world. It is a machine, a tool. Therefore, I agree that it should be exploited as such, to expand the ways in which reality is experienced beyond what is merely capable our own two eyes.