SERGEI M EISENSTEIN

An innovator is one who explodes the evenly measured flow of evolution into a
revolutionary leap of a new quality within the general process of development.
The process of casting a deadly object remains, but within it is the innovative
explosion, from the bowstring that propels the arrow to the powder that shoots
outtheshell.
Fromthesolidbulletletfly–totheexplodingshell(shrapnel,etc.).
Thepioneerisanothermatter.
Thefirsttofigureouthowtomakeaplateforengravingwasapioneer.
The one who recognized the possibility of making moveable type from this was
aninnovator.
The inventor of the press was a pioneer (although in relation to the transition
from feet – that were and still are to this day used somewhere in France to
squeezejuice fromgrapes–toamachine: hewasdoubtless aninnovator).While
the man who “saw” the press in a qualitatively new function – as a means of
automaticprinting,andwho,bydoingthis,explodedthetraditionofthe“roller”
orthesmoothinghand astheonlymeansofgettingaprint–wasaninnovator.
Thus I exploded from within the convention (tradition) of the chronicle and
document (and the popular-science “educational” film) in Strike – having taken
thatconvention,Ireconceiveditfromwithinwithanewqualitativeexpression.
In the same way, I exploded from within the convention of the editing principles
ofGriffith(viaKuleshov)withaneditingtropeandimage[obraz].
In the same way, in the following phase Pudovkin exploded the “revolutionary”
abstraction of Death Ray (Ray is a contemporary of Strike) through his hatred towardsitandhisrepudiationofit(undertheinfluenceofStrike)intherealrevolutionaryconcretepastofMother
9 .
In the same way, putting Gorky in the place of Pushkin and Tolstoy in the tradition
of dramatization of literary works, he made a leap from “progressive” to
revolutionary-Bolshevik and he himself made a jump from Protazanov – from
revolution as material for film – to film in the service of revolution, to the directorasrevolutionaryagentusingthetoolsofcinema.
In thesame way, “contradicting” (overcoming) the primacy of themasses (Strike-
Potëmkin)withintherevolutionarytheme,Pudovkinproceedstorevealtheimages
of the individualities of revolutionaries and [people] moving towards revolution
inMother.
Sharplyaccentuatetheideaoftheprogressiveinputofeachandhowthebatonis
passedtothenext membersofthegeneralmovement.
pioneers and innovators 249