These two documentaries embody the endpoints of two aesthetic orientations, primitive and modern. "Nanuk of the North" is not a rigidly recorded scene-like reproduction of life, but a documentary that reproduces real life with characters, plots, and poetic imagery. It celebrates beauty and eschews the aesthetic principle of ugliness. He is deeply distressed by the destructive power of modern civilization but does not directly touch it, but spares no effort to describe, record, and even reenact the goodness and beauty of ancient civilization, and inject his own praise into it. Flaherty wants to show the audience a picture of a primitive life outside of an industrial society, where human beings are weak in the face of low productivity. Human beings have to fight against nature, just to survive. Flaherty was even called an idealist, and in order to achieve enough "primitive ecology", he even let fisher-hunters hunt with the methods of their fathers, even if they already had more advanced methods. On the contrary, in "Man with a Camera" Vertov follows closely the modern elements and rhythms of industrial society. He aptly and truly shows the style of the just-beginning metropolis era. In the era of widespread industrialization, machinery has defeated nature, human beings have risen as the masters of nature, and people have begun to pay attention to self-expression. So much so that Vertov pioneered the use of the "self-exposure" shooting method, allowing the photographer to appear in documentaries many times, emphasizing the status of the "human" holding the camera. The camera is a machine that extends the human eye, making it invisible Nowhere, nowhere. There are direct and indirect entry points to true adjudication. In "Nanuk of the North", Flaherty made friends with the subject for a long time, made in-depth observations, accurately grasped the life form, and made the subject highly natural in front of the camera. He carefully chose to shoot the natural scenes and human activities he was interested in. The original igloos of the Arctic residents were low and dark, making it inconvenient to shoot. Flaherty built a new igloo and incorporated the building process into the film. The so-called intervention is the skillful use of reenactment and subjective intervention, abandoning the rigid natural documentary, but pursuing the objective effect to the greatest extent. In the clip of Nanook and his family getting up in the morning, Flaherty actually cut the ice in half because the light in the igloo could not be photographed, and shot in the open air. The vivid scenes of Nanuk carrying the children ashore from the small raft barn and the dramatic seal hunting are all artistic reproductions based on real life. Looking at "The Man with the Camera" from the side, Vertov's film mainly divides the audience into the seat, the dawn of the city, the work and rest of the people, sports and artistic practice, and presents a new Soviet society by depicting all aspects of the people's life. ideal city. And in this, every picture is exquisitely edited, Emphasis is placed on the camera to replace the eyes everywhere, to express the real vitality of a modern city with a great sense of rhythm and authenticity. Sometimes even covert shots are used. In the film about the movement of the athletes, a slow motion projection is used, so that the audience can carefully and clearly see the details of the athletes in the movement process. The athletes in slow motion are free and easy and graceful, with a lyrical sense of rhythm. Form differences in recorded stories. In "Nanuk of the North", Flaherty uses feature films to express non-fictional life stories, making the documentary storytelling, and intervening with subjective enthusiasm to strengthen the plot and shape the characters. In the vast ice sheet, the North American Eskimo Nanuk and his family had to travel from one place to another by canoe or dog sled to survive. Their houses are made of solid ice, and walruses and seals are their main food. The harsh environment and primitive productivity make the survival of the Nanook family extremely difficult, and they often go out to hunt in extremely low temperature conditions... The film highly realistically reproduces the life scenes of the North American Eskimos. On the contrary, in "The Man with the Camera", Vertov caught the audience's attention. It seemed that Vertov decided what he wanted the audience to see and think. He told the audience through the camera that the film's eyes transcended the human eye. This arrogant gesture interrupts the original narrative and subordinates everything to the beauty of the film's form and rhythm. Every scene of society, the women who dress, the citizens who squeeze the car, the operation of the factory, everything is natural. Differences in artistic expression. "Nanuk of the North" uses a long shot and a large volume. On the basis of selective shooting and selective editing, the composition of pictures is used to create rhythm changes and artistic atmosphere, so that the structure of the work is climaxed and the attraction is enhanced. Another example is to make full use of long pictures, and use concise and humorous subtitles at key points to supplement and explain the content of the picture; in post-editing, material clipping is used to highlight details, create rhythm changes and structural climax, and so on. Use relatively effective feature film techniques. In the section of hunting seals in "Nanuk of the North", Flaherty perfectly grasped the relationship between time and space. This classic long shot satiated the audience's appetite. In the beginning, people didn't know what he was doing for a long time. Gradually, black spots appeared in the distance, and the helper came. After a lot of hard work, they finally realized that it was a seal that had been pulling. This long shot brings out the dramatic elements of suspense and conflict. But "Man with a Camera" takes montage to the next level. Vertov emphasizes observation and the organization of the picture, focusing on editing. He believes that montage is the best way to interpret and express ideas. There's this part of the film: the camera is facing the flowers, the focus is now sharp and then blurry, then a comical juxtaposition of a woman blinking while wiping her face with a towel, the shutters open and close, and the two intersect at the same time. In a shot, the aperture of a camera lens opens and closes at the end. This section actually uses editing to personify the camera, Vertov not for narrative but for expression.
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