Soviet Montage

Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein is credited as the godfather of the montage and innovator of the Soviet montage theory. He developed his famous “methods of montage” across his career, predominantly featured in his landmark achievement Battleship Potemkin. 

Montage is a filmmaking technique that uses a series of short images, collected together to tell a story or part of a story.

 

Montage being a French word means for “assemble” or “edit”. This is usually used to advance the plot , without using any words and  without showing all the detail of what’s going on. There are an infinite number of different types of montages

 

 These five basic methods of montage. are as follows:

·         Metric montage

·         Rhythmic montage

·         Tonal montage

·         Over tonal/Associational montage

·         Intellectual montage

 

1.     METRIC MONTAGE

 

This first method of montage example is perhaps the simplest method technically achieved. The metric montage method edits together different shots by following to an exact measurement or number of frames. These measurements of frames aren’t picked based on any feeling or emotional connection. Instead, the creator goes by a strict measurement and sticks to it.

The overall effect is a bit the effects of this method can be frustrating as well as cinematically shaking.

 

2. RHYTHMIC MONTAGE

This “rhythmic” method is defined by editing shots together according to the context of each shot.  Many scenes and sequences employ this rhythmic montage technique by making compositional decisions as to how long each shot plays before the next one intercuts.( To intercut is to contrast one shot or scene with another contrasting one. When a film sequence jumps backward and forward between the two scenes, we call it an intercut. For example, a car chase scene .)

 

3. TONAL MONTAGE

Another example from Eisenstein’s editing  the “tonal” method of montage.

It’s defined by how it edits based on the emotional meanings—or tone—of each shot. This tonal style has helped inform filmmakers’ editing decisions across decades of cinema classics.

 

4. OVERTONAL/ASSOCIATIONAL MONTAGE

This method further combines all the elements of metric, rhythmic, and tonal montage methods together to create montages that have an even greater effect on how audiences can perceive a film’s “tones” or “overtones.”

In  over tonal montage ,  filmmakers can further use all elements of filmmaking—composition, soundtrack, and editing—to create abstract themes and rich tapestries of meaning. 

 

 5. INTELLECTUAL THE MONTAGE MONTAGE

 By the late 1920s, his approach to this aim was the related goal of understanding how images could be combined so as to provide the viewer with an awareness of abstract concepts. On a superficial level, such brainwashing by images would seem to arise by the ideas and values conveyed in the films. But in trying to arrive at a means of producing abstract concepts.  

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MUSICAL MONTAGE

a.  In a musical montage, the shots are accompanied by a song that somehow fits with the theme of what’s being shown.

B. NARRATED MONTAGE

If the montage is not set to music, there might be a character narrating what’s going on. As we tell the story, the viewer would see a montage of the officer stepping over the line with suspects in various situations.

c. PHOTO MONTAGE

Instead of filmed shots, a montage can also be formed out of still images. This technique is also frequently set to music, creating a “musical photo montage.