100 Years, First Dolly Shoot
Multimedia Event / co-author
Friday / 23rd of AUGUST, 2013 / 7pm / Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade
А multimedia event authored by Bozidar Zecevic and Dusan Nadjevic dedicated to the centenary of the first dolly shot (dolly shot: “driving a camera fixed on a moving vehicle”), which where was filmed the entire length of Kneza Mihaila Street in Belgrade, from Kalemegdan to Terazije, without interrupting the camera, and thus achieved an exceptional film historical document.
Filming with a film camera the solemn return of the victorious Serbian army from the First Balkan War to the Serbian capital, and the unveiling of the monument to leader Karadjordje on Kalemegdan, the first Serbian cinematographer Slavko Jovanovic (1887-1962) performed the first film dolly-shot in the early morning hours of August 23, 1913. driving a camera attached to a vehicle (“tracking-shot”, “traveling” or “dolly-shot”) in the history of Serbian, and probably film in general. Namely, with the exception of the footage of Limier’s cameraman Promio from the gondola in Venice (which is not a ride, ie a dolly-shot in the narrow sense of the word), the history of the dolly-shot does not record the use of this specific means of expression before the autumn of 1913. (Italian director Giovanni Pastrone in the film “Cabiria” and only after him the great David W. Griffith) while for Jovanovic the exact date and time of filming was determined, as well as the fact that a specially equipped vehicle was used to perform this ride, as well as a camera that could to receive a larger amount of film tape.
This is how this exceptional document was created, which represents a milestone in the history of film. Releasing the camera from being stuck in one place was an epochal step in the development of film language.