Vera Kropf & Matthias Zeppelzauer (Vienna)
Introducing the project "Digital Formalism: The Vienna Vertov Collection"
The project
One of the main interests of "Digital Formalism: The Vienna Vertov Collection" is to develop new digital means of formal film analysis. The recently initiated project (February 2007) focuses on the elaboration of computer-based media tools for the analysis of films by Dziga Vertov (1896-1954) on the foundation of theoretical and historical film research. As a cooperation between the Department of Theatre-, Film- and Media Studies (Vienna University), the Interactive Media Systems Group (Vienna University of Technology) and the Austrian Film Museum the project is supposed to guarantee the intertwining of theoretical, historical, editorial and technical knowledge.
Digital Formalism: From a film historical and theoretical point of view
The digitalization of films from the Vienna Vertov Collection has the purpose of making them accessible for the general public and an international film research community. We believe that Dziga Vertov’s very own highly elaborate film practice reveals the two basic features on which the project is based – a formalist and a ‘digital’ approach towards the sensual.
On the one hand, formalism may serve as a theoretical interface between technical and aesthetical aspects of the cinema, allowing the investigation of more general questions like “What does form – as ‘the particular something without which art is impossible’ (Ejchenbaum) – reveal about the senses of the cinema?” The idea of the digital, on the other hand, is addressed as a concept comprising several components - the computational, the technical-material (as opposed to analogue film recording and projecting), the historical (as a form of cinematic écriture differing from the analogue in style and devices). Our interactive approach, bringing together film theory, archival research, and media processing science, should not only allow us to develop means of transferring formalist film studies into the digital era, but also deliver an extensive and functional description of the cinematic elements in Vertov’s work and their impact on auditive, visual or haptic as well as synaesthetic aspects of perception.
Digital Formalism: From a technical point of view
The project Digital Formalism aims at the development of content-based digital media tools for the analysis of films by Dziga Vertov. From a technical point of view, the analysis comprises the automated identification of high-level film elements, such as rhythm, contrast and montage sequences.
We will implement semi- and fully-automated tools in order to analyze typical aspects of formalistic film, based on the findings of the film theorists. The tools will support the identification of formalistic practices and help to reveal (obscured) structures in Vertov’s films. We believe the formal nature of Vertov makes his films eligible to content-based digital video analysis due to their highly structured composition.
A first analysis step will identify and describe basic parameters, such as shot cuts, camera motion and transitions. In the second step we aim to combine these low-level parameters in order to derive higher level semantic concepts of montage. The user should have the possibility to refine the analysis by adjusting parameters and provide expert annotations.
The two parts of the paper will be presented as a dialogue between the involved film theorists and media processing scientists, in order to ascertain the interdisciplinary merging of film theory, advanced digital technology and materiality of film.