The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image Matthew Buckingham: a Man in the Crowd

A Mirrored Image of Reality Realism is a realm of cunning that focuses on an individuals perspective of the real world through the use of varying mediums. In historical times artist have eternally and e trulywhere sought to expand the subject matter of their track down as well as the media in which they realize. It would be accurate to say that the history of governmental suppression of the arts from Egyptian times to Byzantium to Nazism and Zhdanovism is a universeifestation of attempts to limit or abolish expansion of artistic subject matter or new forms or styles.The drive to break out of the boundaries of conventional representation arises from the need to express new gets and perspectives. And as innovations in artistic media reflect collimate technical discoveries and inventions, so also does the drive to expand the horizons of subject matter reflecting fundamental changes in social relations, social needs, and social values and objectives. In the moving picture Effect Illusions, Reality, and the Moving Image collection the various artists seek to create works that integrate cinema into our perceived notion of reality.Amongst the artists featured in the exhibition is Matthew Buckingham. Matthew Buckingham does a twenty minute film based off of Edgar Allan Poes The Man in the crowd also the same name of his film. Edgar Allan Poes The spell in the crowd is a narrative and not an actual film. Buckingham after reading the narrative was struck with how the story could be a metaphor and substitution class for the question of nonfiction filmmaking itself, Buckinghams film is a silent film produced in black and white.There argon servicemany couples with Poes narrative and Buckinghams film. Buckinghams film provides the visual aspect of Poes narrative. But, Buckinghams film is more(prenominal) contemporary, he changes the setting of the film from nineteenth century Paris to that of modern mean solar day Vienna. Poe didnt know capital of the United Kingdom and details are borrowed from Dickens, Poes London sounds more like New York versus nineteenth century London. The details that Poe uses come from a review that Poe did of a story by Dickens.Poe fictionalizes the story by saying, they covered and crossed the edges of the city which would have been impossible to do at that time, his description sounds more like modern day Vienna . With Poes The man in the crowd atomic number 53 man is following a complete stranger that it is unclear whether or not the follower is ever aware that he is being followed or if he ever acknowledges the man that follows him the difference with Buckingham is that he adds some some other character, he introduces the television camera as a character in the film.Edgar Allan Poes story is from one mans point of view, a man sits at a burnt umber shop and watches tribe walk by and describes them, of the people he sees walk by him he is intrigued by an elderly gentleman who walks by him, and theref ore the man in the coffee shop begins to follow him. A man simply becomes interested in another mans manner and then he commits himself to following him secretly for a two dozen hour period in hopes to learn something about the man . In this time frame, the elderly gentleman goes through out London in a distorted fashion going from one place to another in no particular path or reason.Matthew Buckinghams magnetic variation begins with a young man dressed in a black t-shirt and dark colored pants in a cafe. In is the and portion of the film where on that point is some dialogue, which is heard. The young man sits at a table with a large window that pears into the downtown area of Vienna, there are many people that walk by him and catch his eye. While he sits an elder man dressed in a grounds walks by and catches his attention. From this point on the young man begins to follow the sure-enough(a) gentleman in the suit.Throughout the duration of the film the younger man secretly f ollows the older gentleman. The older gentleman does not appear to sense that he is being followed, the man go to various places, there is no clear destination a parallel with Poes story but the older man of the two does not appear to be disoriented in any way whereas in Poes story the man is intrigued by the older man because of his distorted state. In the film most of the stage settings only feature the older man, there are very few scenes where the man walks around crowed areas and spaces allowing the viewer to only focus on this man.There is one part in the film where the man being followed acknowledges his follower, the men are both walking through what appears to be a walking through a bush garden, at this point the man in the suit starts racecourse as if he realizes that soulfulness is following him, but he never turns around to acknowledge the man following him from this point on the man in the suit has disappeared from the film but he is then show in another scene. In th e following scene this is the first time that the younger man is introduced in the film.Throughout the film only the back of the man in the suit is seen we never get a full view of either of the men, now, in this scene the camera is introduced as another character in the film. Before this point in the film is was ambiguous to know whether the younger man was also the camera guy but know it is clear that he is apart of the film as a character. The following scene begins to follow the man in the suit again but this time the viewer is able to get a closer view of him.Both men stand right next to each other and the angle of the camera shifts between the two men. There is a shift in the film the older man becomes a little more unwitting and disoriented as the film continues. The man in the suit begins walks into a crowded area and he looks as if he is trying to find someone or something, at this point both men are close enough to each other to the point where they can physically embrace one another. The older man is preoccupied in his thoughts that he literally brushes past the other man and leaves the building they are in quickly.Transitioning in the film the older man goes to a train station and he at this point appears very disoriented and confused he walks in the station and looks as if he is going to board one of the trains but stops himself and leaves. At this point the man is back outside and the focus shifts from the older man as people walk in front of him and he seems lost within the crowd, night falls and the man is becomes the focus again and he continues to walk aimlessly. He then goes into a bar and he is amongst the many people in the bar, once he leaves it is completely dark and the film ends.This film exemplifies a type of pragmatism because it depicts a realistic aspect of everyday life without exaggeration. The actual film is based on one man the film follows him throughout one twenty-four hour period. The only unrealistic aspect of the film is the film itself, that someone is secretly following another person. The mans actions in the film follow everyday activity. Buckingham created a film that eve allows the viewer to be superimposed within it. The film is displayed from two projectors. The projector is freestanding and has the appearance of a window, just like that of the window in the cafe where the film begins.So once we superimpose ourselves in front of the projector we are now apart of the film. The film becomes real and apart of the viewers reality because even the viewer can experience what is going on and be apart. The viewer now takes the role of the camera or the person following the man and experience what is going on. Also the man in the crowd is a relatable character we can all identify with the man in the crowd. The man that was followed was chosen randomly, he had no fancy he was being followed and he had no distinguishable traits that would make he an obvious candidate. Buckinghams film is similar to a doing by Vito Acconci.Vito Acconci does a performance similar to that of what Buckingham does in his film whereas Acconci follows a man around without his permission. Both artists push the boundaries of what art is and its interactions with life and its reality. Both artists with their work blur the line of artist and the perceived audience/subject. These works can be classified as avant-garde and how they move away from the considered standards and characteristics of art and what it should be art without a specific form and directed perception. In this same manner Matthew Buckinghams film is similar to the photos of Jeff Wall.Jeff Wall uses photography to capture the unalike aspects of our reality and perceived real life. One of Jeff Walls photos is A view from an Apartment, in this photo Wall depicts an ordinary scene amongst two roommates, but he has altered the photo slightly to make the photo appear more realistic, he uses this image to depict two different aspects of our re ality. His work like that of Buckinghams discusses our social ideas of the world. Like that of photography film is able to capture a moment as it happens, with technological advances in both there is the ability to go back and change or manipulate the imagery to something else.With both artist they are able to make their art appear as if it were natural and unchanged. Buckinghams film appears natural and organic without any manipulation, but the characters of the film where all aware of each other and Buckinghams concept and idea for this film thus making this reality artificial. There are interesting and informative accounts of art ranging from strict formalism to psychoanalysis, but that these had best be registered and tried against more general scientific theories of human society and kitchen-gardening.When this is done, the content of the work of art can be related to the means of scientific, realistic and empirical theories of culture and society. This film addresses social concerns within society. The concept of the film and the film itself push the barrier of what is socially acceptable as art. Buckinghams film does push the boundary of what is socially accepted for him to follow another person without their permission and to further document this as a film.