In the first initiative post I talked about one documentary of Vertov. He use camera to capture the life moments of people. In order to show the diversity of life activities, he used montage skills to create the actual feeling on the abstract footages, such as the low motion, stop motion, time-lapse and fast-motion, split screen. Actually, Vertov used the montage to provoke the truth. However, when the technical tolls emerged, some things have been changed. The professional-quality 16-mm cameras, and the lightweight, new sound recording equipment, which offered high quality and new mobility on-location sound help directors are able to conveniently and effectively behind of the camera to record the reality. (Chychota, 2003)

Depending on those tools, the director also can record the synchronous sound during the filming process. As a result, the new filming style appeared. We may call this style- Direct cinema. In direct cinema, director must remain true what is actually occurred during the shoot, meanwhile, the director has not used the dazzled edit skills, While, the hand-held shots and long takes are used more often. As the remarkable film Don’t Look Back directed by D.A Pennebaker presents, the whole film do not have narration, instead, only have a synchronous sound of the filming subject. Also, this is film shooting depend on the real people and thing, which is a record of the United Kingdom tour Bob Dylan had in 1965. This record in combined with the concert and backstage conversation between the manager and band members of Bob Dylan.

The director want to shows the different genuine aspects of Bob Dylan, his glory, frailty, talent and insecurity as natural as possible, so the camera records his daily life as complete as possible. For example, in some conversations in this film, the camera usually immediately zooms in, zooms out and moves to other sides. Those usages remain viewer that the director totally records the real moment which occurring in the shooting progress. The director seem like an observer who has never get involved into the film. This is a big difference with The Man With a Movie Camera. Even they both aim to show the truth to viewers, but the montage supports the latter one.

Whereas, Don’t Look Back not objective in one hundred percent. Admittedly, Pennebaker add his subjective mind in this film. He edited the materials, as he believed it is should appear. (Pennebaker, 1968) Setting an example in the editing parts of this film. When the journalists ask some basic questions to Bob Dylan, the scene suddenly cuts to Bob Dylan’s youth performing. It seems like Pennebaker acknowledges that this film affirm one opinion of Bob, which is that everything all in the music.

Reference

Chychota, J. Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment, CM Board, Manitoba Library Association, Winnipeg, 2003

Pennebaker, D. A 1968. Dont Look Back. New York: Ballantine Books. Print.