Montage theory

Montage theory

 

 Kuleshov demonstrated the necessity of considering montage as the basic tool of cinema art. In Kuleshov's view, the cinema consists of fragments and the assembly of those fragments, the assembly of elements which in reality are distinct. It is therefore not the content of the images in a film which is important, but their combination. He likened it to constructing a building, brick-by-brick/ shot-by-shot. The raw materials of such an art work need not be original, but are pre-fabricated elements which can be disassembled and re-assembled by the artist into new juxtapositions creating new responses.

 

 

 Here are some stills with the responses we give to his facial expressions. I also found one of Hitchcock, one image creating a feeling of lust and the other happiness.

Battleship Potemkin

 

Montage Editing

 

Montage editing is a film editing technique where by a series of shots are are edited in a sequence to condense space, time and information.  The images do not provide a sense of the narrative moving forward in time but are still full of meaning. The rapid cuts force the viewer to consider the connection between the shots that are shown, however there may be no significant connection or they may be put together as they are deliberately unconnected.. Montage scenes are often used to show a lot of information fast, represent chaos, tension and disturbance. A good example of montage editing would be the scenes shown within the movies Rocky:

 

 



 

This scene shows multple moments of time all strung together. They help to create anticipation and tension. We are able to witness how intense Rockys workout and how simple his oponents work out is, this creates tension. Without the montage scene we would not be able to obtain as much information about Rocky as a person.