Montage is French for ‘assembly’.
The term is used in cinema to describe 2 different things:
1) A classic montage sequence
A sequence of shots which show a length of time (in the story) but condensed into a small amount of screen-time.
Rocky Montage This sequence from Rocky is a good example of montage (a sequence of shots which shows an amount of time compressed). Why would we use this editing technique to show the sequence of events in the story?
2) Soviet Montage
Soviet montage is a theory of editing that developed in Soviet Russia, that states that the way in which a sequence is edited will influence the audiences understanding of what they are seeing. Montage uses juxtaposition between different shots to create conflict and create new meaning.
Soviet MontageSoviet montage believes that editing is at theheart of film-making.
It is in the process of editing that film-makerscreate meaning and “truth” for the audience.How?
The birth of Montage Sergei Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin) was the father of montage.Eisenstein thought that by placing seemingly unrelated shots side by side ( juxtaposition ) film-makers could create new meanings, create visual metaphors and manipulate their audiences emotions & understanding.
Methods of Montage
Eisenstein didn’t think that montage was just used to create visual metaphors…..
In 1929 he stated that there were 5 different types of editing techniques that could be used to influence audience. He dubbed these the Methods of Montage:
1) Metric
2) Tonal
3) Rhythmic
4) Over-Tonal
5) Intellectual
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