Contradiction

Time Code seemed like an experimental film like Man With a Movie Camera. It was experimental in that it had 4 screens showing at the same time, each containing different vantage points of the cameramen. There are many characters in the film and each is shown dealing with different problems at the same time on the screen. The fact that the entire movie was a continuous take in real-time is astonishing to me. It must have been hard for the actors to maintain their characters for such a long time. Also, it must have been hard for the cameramen to coordinate their positions because they had to make sure that one couldn't see the others.

I was very annoyed at times because I couldn't help thinking that I was missing what was happening in some of the other screens. If I was concentrating on one screen, I found that equally interesting things were happening in the other screens when I glanced at them. So I had to decide whether or not I should continue with the screen I was currently watching or move on. This happened several times and I did not like it because I would rather focus on one thing and get all I can get from it rather than feeling as if there are things that I'm missing that are happening at the same time. However, it was definitely more interesting to see the lives of these people depicted in this original way.

The background sounds were interesting to notice because it seemed like the clearest sound always came from the screen that had the most happening in it, while the other screens were muted. The music as well suited best for the screen in which the most significant event was happening.

Dziga Vertov's objective was clear in his experimental film: to separate the human eye from the camera. What is the objective in this one? The best I can come up with is to show that this type of filming and presentation can be used to depict small stories simultaneously. However, just because all these stories are shown on the screens doesn't mean that the person watching them is going to follow them all. In fact, this style of filmmaking only makes it harder to follow the stories. So I think there is a contradiction between the objective of the film and what the film actually accomplishes.