Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929) is traditionally viewed as one of the most vivid examples of the database films. The concepts of the ‘database’ and ‘algorithm’ in relation to the media began actively developed by Lev Manovich in his work (Manovich, 2000). The detailed examination of these concepts is possible with the focus on the actual examples of database films. This essay discusses how Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera can be analyzed in terms of such Manovich’s concepts as ‘database’ and ‘algorithm’ because Vertov’s film can be viewed as challenging the tradition of relying on the sequential or logical presentation of ideas and the narrativity.
In his essays, Manovich (2000, 2001) introduced the concept of the database connected with the media. Manovich noted that the computer era influenced the development of the media while giving the origin to the database concept. Thus, a database can be discussed as a collection of different objects and items that are equal in their significance and that are not connected or organized thematically (Manovich, 2001, p. 39).
A database is not narrative, and it cannot tell a story because of the lack of logical connections in items. However, a person can manipulate a database for the certain purpose while searching it (Manovich, 2000, p. 177). In addition to the concept of a database, Manovich (2000) also introduced the idea of an algorithm. Thus, an algorithm is the set of rules and principles according to which the logical sequential can be created (Manovich, 2000, p. 179). From this point, an algorithm is developed by a person who chooses to work with a database, reorder, and manipulate it.
While applying the concepts of database and algorithm to Man with a Movie Camera, it is possible to state that this film addresses both theories. The film ignores the narrative tradition, and it depicts how people can work with a database while choosing and arranging shots from it according to their needs and purposes. In addition, the shots in the film are usually not ordered. Manovich (2001) claims in his essay that Man with a Movie Camera “is perhaps the most important example of database imagination in modern media art” (p. 56).
The result of applying the database concept to the film is the representation of the life from the social perspective as a set of illustrations that are hardly connected in terms of the causal relations (Undervoid, 2013). However, the film can also be viewed from the point of adopting an algorithm.
Man with a Movie Camera relies on the certain algorithm adopted for the film. While working on the film, Vertov seems to choose not all shots in their sequence to represent the real life, but he aims to demonstrate the structure of the society, and the socially important shots are selected based on the algorithm chosen by the filmmaker (Undervoid, 2013). Manovich (2001) states that the goal of the film is “to decode the world purely through the surfaces visible to the eye” (p. 56).
Thus, the best shots are selected according to the certain algorithm in order to create the most appealing and significant picture. After watching the film, it is possible to assume that Vertov applies the idea of an algorithm in selecting and arranging shots in the film in order to compensate ignoring the narrativity in the work. On the other hand, the narrativity can be created through the multiple changes in the order of shots and the accentuation of certain shots to add to the meaning of the film.
In his film Man with a Movie Camera, Dziga Vertov does not use the traditional narrative forms. On the contrary, the idea of the film is represented with the help of specific techniques that can be discussed today as Lev Manovich’s concepts of ‘database’ and ‘algorithm’. Thus, in his film, Vertov aimed at demonstrating the life without adding the causal relationships and logical lines in Man with a Movie Camera, and the main idea was depicted through the effective arrangement of non-associated shots known as a database, according to Manovich’s terminology. Man with a Movie Camera can be viewed today as one of the most provocative examples in the cinematography that clearly challenge the idea of narrativity.
References
Manovich, L. (2000). Database as a genre of new media. AI & Society, 14(2), 176-183.
Manovich, L. (2001). Database as symbolic form. In L. Manovich (Ed.), The language of new media (pp. 39-60). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Undervoid. (2013). The Man with the Movie Camera (1929). Web.