Photo- and Cine-Amateurism in the Club
by Grigorii Boltianskii (translated by Maria Vinogradova)
Sovetskoe kino no. 6-7 (1926): 2-3.
General Approach
Cinematic and photographic amateur work in our society is only one component of socialist construction in the material and the cultural realms. In building cinema, in developing it, the masses of workers and peasants should be intimately involved. Knowledge of cinema and cinematic technologies, the history and culture of cinema, film literacy amongst the masses (especially amongst the youth) are important prerequisites to the development of our culture of cinema. We should prepare cadres of working-class youth from which, in the future, new forces of cinematic development will be recruited.
But the regime of frugality proclaimed by the party and Soviet power also places photographic and cinematic amateur practices under certain constraints. In the coming years we cannot count on steady imports of small-gauge film cameras and stock for the amateur. However, this does not at all prevent us from establishing amateur filmmaking activities in workers’ clubs. A planned approach to this work requires that amateur circles initially work in still photography for perhaps a year or two to ensure adequate preparation for shooting motion pictures.
Photo-Work
Still cameras are not hard to buy. They are inexpensive, and many photography circles of workers’ clubs already have them. It is best to buy glass plate cameras since photographic film for still photography cameras is also imported, meaning it is almost nowhere to be found here. A photographic camera can and should serve as preparation for shooting motion pictures. Over the course of a year or two, amateurs, through use of photographic cameras, should acquire adequate familiarity with the working features of the motion picture camera, its optics and mechanics, the development of film on plates, the photochemical processes involved, and be able to work in a variety of light conditions, adjusting exposure and so forth.
Amateurs should also strive to master artistic photographic techniques: composition of the frame (i.e. adequate combinations of objects exposed to the plate), an ability to select interesting and original camera positions, an ability to convey the dynamic of movement in snapshots and so forth. Photography shoots should be guided by considerations of culture and social utility. They should be the photo-eye of the public and reflect the activities of a given club, city, locale, or factory. Periodical exhibitions of photographs may be organized at clubs on standalone billboards with titles such as “Photo-Eye” no. 1, 2, etc. Photographs exhibited on such billboards should not only be used for exhibiting the results of amateur activities but also for critical analysis of technique, content and artistic qualities by fellow circle members. Photographs can be used for a club’s wall newspaper, and the best among them may be published in illustrated magazines and photo journals such as Sovetskoe foto.
Capturing Motion Pictures
From all this it does not follow, of course, that we should create obstacles for specific circles or cells in pursuing amateur photographic and cinematic work within workers’ clubs when they have managed to attain a small-gauge motion picture camera and safety film and are able to undertake useful work on central1 and local assignments.
Our film amateur, unlike his foreign petit-bourgeois counterpart, should by no means over-indulge in filming family groups and other frivolities. He should strive to capture with his camera, the life, daily chores [byt], work, and culture of his specific club, factory, trade union, or city in general. The everyday occurrences within our society, its industrial production, and all that is socially significant – this is what the “kino-eye” of the amateur’s motion picture camera should reflect.
The question of what to film should be debated with the active involvement of all participants of the photography and cinema circle within the club. It is necessary, jointly, to clearly outline topics, debate them, and work out directives for how to approach filming a given scenario – what to reveal through it and how the operational plan for production should unfold. It is advised to start off with relatively simple, uncomplicated, and short productions, and then later take on more complex ones. One might film his club’s or his factory’s participation in recreational sports competitions, or involvement in a celebration or rally. One could also film characteristic types of workers at their factory (hero of labor, female worker in a position of elevated responsibility etc.). Thus, a club may gradually assemble a body of material characterizing its cultural, political and economic life or that of the factory or town in which it is based. From such disparate pieces of footage a larger production may emerge, one which could potentially be screened in the workers’ club, in local theaters, and even be acknowledged in the Sovkino-Journal.2
But before all this, amateur filmmakers must become familiar with the cameras most often used in amateur filmmaking ([Debrie] Sept, Kinamo, etc.) and all of their parts. The presence of an experienced technical instructor at the club, adequately familiar with the working of the motion picture camera in a variety of production conditions, is extremely important. Until such instructors become available, an experienced photographer can stand in as technical supervisor, as he will easily understand the features of the motion picture camera.
Amateur Film Corners and Excursions
The work of cinema cells within workers’ clubs does not end there. Through the efforts of each club’s film circle, a model amateur practice can be established. Film corners (kinougolki) should function as technological preparation and as sites of development of the photographic and cinematic literacy of each member. Diagrams and photographs of the most common types of motion picture cameras may be exhibited in these corners of the club, along with handmade wooden models of camera parts, such as the shutter, the drum, and other mechanisms. The projector may be displayed in a similar way. Further, samples of film stock – with and without emulsion, perforated and non-perforated, tinted and non-tinted – cand be set up, along with pictorial demonstrations of different types of camerawork. Finally, amateur lab equipment may be displayed (for instance, a model of a drum for drying film, a developing tank, etc.,) along with the chemicals (glass vials with samples) used in the processing of negatives.
No less important than these types of pedagogical aids are regular visits to the club’s projection booth, and to mobile projection units. Amateur filmmakers from film circles can also visit a nearby Sovkino editing facility and see various film factories – if these exist in their area. Amateurs from workers’ clubs should also ensure that such excursions are sensible, that is, well-prepared, accompanied by necessary clarifications and demonstrations.
Cultural Enlightenment Work Around a Film Screening
Of huge importance is the work which amateur photo- and film circles at clubs could develop around film screenings organized at a given club. A film screening at a club requires the creation of a particular cultural and political-enlightenment environment [politiko-prosvetitel’noi obstanovki]. It is necessary that for each screening amateurs from film-circles select specific material of relevance to the demonstrated picture, and exhibit this material in a visible place, near the screening room in which the picture is demonstrated, and where spectators gather as they await [the screening]. This material may consist in an exhibition of books related to the subject of the given picture or, at least, a list of them; a libretto of the picture, photographs and, if possible, models, illustrations from magazines or copies of paintings related to the historical period reflected in the picture; a written evaluation or explanation of the meaning of the picture – arranged in a circle. Finally, with the help of the club’s art circle, portraits of historical figures relevant to the picture may be sketched, alongside satirical images and caricatures highlighting and accentuating typical moments if a foreign film is demonstrated, etc.
An extremely important side of the work of amateurs of a club circle in the sense of creating a cultural environment around cinema, is overseeing correct maintenance and correct care of the projector to avoid causing damage to film prints. In the same way, amateurs should watch that prints would not be damaged by the projectionist or someone else, by cutting out interesting frames. It has been mentioned that in many worker clubs offenders standing close to the booth like compiling interesting collections of frames from films for themselves, cutting them out of a new or perfectly usable print, and devaluing it this way. Club cine-amateurs should hang relevant posters near the booth and at film-corners where the materials for the given screening is concentrated, and energetically combat this phenomenon.
Organizational Forms
The key question that arises is what organizational forms photographic and cinematic work should take at workers’ clubs. At the moment, this work taking place in clubs is rudimentary and provisional. Photo circles do exist, although not everywhere. At some clubs they represent a standalone initiative, one which is only tangentially connected to the general cultural work of the club. At other clubs, photo work is more integrated into the curriculum and is overseen by art circles.
Cinema circles have also appeared, and their number is growing. Their functions are delimited along the same lines as the cinema circles and cells of the Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema [ODSK]. The work taking place at clubs largely consist of coordinating film screenings and discussions; in part it also involves boosting the wider cultural environment of the club.
Amateur cinema work as such (filming, setting up film corners) still does not function as it ought to in workers’ clubs. Where both exist in the same club, cinema circles are separated in their work from photography circles. The work of cinema circles is typically subоordinated to the cultural commissions of clubs, and, in generally to the cultural sections of unions – united by joint directives of the cultural section of All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions [VTsSPS].3
We think that cinema circles in clubs, and their work, should be organized in the same way as in all ODSK [Society of Friends of Soviet Cinema] circles. Photographic work should be combined with cinematic work. Through the work of these combined photography and cinema circles, amateur filmmaking and photography can take develop within its own niche. Aspirations for the shape of this new type of amateur endeavor have been stipulated in this treatise. Photography and cinema circles at clubs should simultaneously be ODSK cells. All members of these circles should thus also become members of ODSK.
Existing frictions between the cultural section of VTsSPS and ODSK over the question of cinema circles within workers’ clubs and who should be in charge of these are largely the result of misunderstandings and misperceptions. Nothing prevents radio amateurs at clubs and members of Aviakhim4 from joining their respective associations. We think that ODSK and the cultural section of VTsSPS could sign an agreement on the question of governance of the work of photography and cinema circles within workers’ clubs. This agreement could also strengthen governance and ensure fulfilment of tasks of the cultural section of VTsSPS, while at the same time formalizing these circles as ODSK cells.
Such a resolution of this issue would only benefit these circles, while also promoting the development of photographic and cinematic amateurism in workers’ clubs.
1. Words such as “central” or “center” in this text refer to any central authority that coordinates production of newsreels.↩
2. Newsreel highlighting local achievements of industrialization that was issued monthly (all years except 1929 when it was bi-monthly) in 1929-1937.↩
3. VTsSPS (Vsesoiuznyi tsentral’nyi sovet professional’nykh soiuzov), or All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions (ACCTU), was the national trade union federation of the Soviet Union that existed between 1918 and 1990. It provided significant economic support to amateur activities, including amateur photo- and cine-clubs.↩
4. Aviakhim was a paramilitary society formed in 1925 promoting a broad range of skills and hobbies related to aviation and chemistry. At the time it was also the central organization coordinating radio amateur clubs.↩