Montage

Montage

The term montage is French and means monter (verb) which means assemble. Montage (noun means assembly.

When montage refers to techniques in film editing technique is has three sense:

• In French film practice, “montage” has its literal French meaning and simply identifies editing.
• In Soviet filmmaking of the 1920’s, “montage” was a method of juxtaposing shots to derive new meaning that did not exist in either shot alone.
• In Hollywood cinema, a “montage sequence” is a short segment in a film in which narrative information is presented in a condensed fashion.

Hollywood montage

Hollywood montage is a montage style that became a convention during the classical Hollywood era and remained a very popular technique amongst directors and editors.

The montage sequence consists of a series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense narrative. It is usually to advance the story as a whole (often to suggest the passing of time), rather than to create symbolic meaning.

In many cases, a song plays in the background to enhance the mood or reinforce the message being conveyed. 

This is a video clip of the montage scene in Never Back Down. This is a typical Hollywood montage sequence and involves short clips of the main protagonist who is training and in the background is music that will enforce a message is being conveyed. There are a range of shots being used and the music is overlapping all of the clips which is building a sense of motivation. 

Soviet Montage

In Soviet montage theory, the editing of shots creates symbolic meaning. For Kuleshow editing a film is like constructing a building as you are putting the shots together. 

Kuleshov conducted an experiment to show that montage can lead the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film. 

Kuleshov edited together a short film in which a shot of the expressionless face of Tsarist matinee idor Ivan Mosjoukine was alternated with vaious other shots (a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, woman on the divan).

Kuleshov Explained

The audience believed that Mosjoukine's face displayed three different expressions according to what he was "looking at":

• Soup - hunger
• Girl in a coffin - grief
• Woman on the divan - desire

The footage of Mosjoukine was actually the same shot each time. 

Montage works because viewers infer meaning based on context.