Transcripts from filmmaking seminars 1933-1935

Sergei Eisenstein believed that none of the generally accepted academic methods were suitable for teaching filmmaking. His workshops at VGIK (The Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography) were based on practical exercises – finding directorial solutions – such as mise-en-scène, color, light and genre solutions – in the course of group work. Eisenstein would provide a task – a riddle – and the students would suggest the solutions. These were immediately analyzed and discussed and Eisenstein, by comparing the solutions proposed by the attendees, would demonstrate the appropriate compositional solution. In this way, he would reveal the objectives of the process of invention to students in slow motion and, at the same time, provide them with the understanding of the process. He believed that anyone could be taught how to make films, but some would need two years to learn and others – two hundred years. The brevity of the presented transcripts conveys the dynamics and tension of the Socratic dialogues in the director's workshop, Eisenstein’s sharp criticisms of his colleagues’ works, his analysis of his own mistakes and a detailed discussion of student work.