"The montage technique" in film studies..
- 1. “The montage Technique” in the film studies Prepared by - Hina Parmar Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
- 2. Personal information ★ Name - Hina Parmar ★ Roll No - 10 ★ Sem - 3 ★ Enrollment no - 4069206420220021 ★ Batch - 2022-24 ★ Email - [email protected] ★ Subject - “The montage Technique” in the film studies ★ Paper code - 22409 ★ Paper no - 204 ★ Paper - Comparative western theories and film studies ★ Submitted to - Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
- 3. Table of contents What is film studies ? What is Montage? Development of Montage 01 02 03 04 05 06 THE ROLE OF THE MONTAGE Alternative to Expression and Narrative Montage Montage Methods and Types Improvised by Eisenstein
- 4. 07 08 09 Critique of Montage, its Fall and Challenges ahead for Cinema CONCLUSION References 10 Thank You
- 5. ❖ Film studies is a discipline in the process of inventing itself and it was exciting to be at the cutting edge. ❖ What Is Cinema?, an English-language edition of the writings of Cahiers du cinéma critique André Bazin, was published in 1971 and formed a basis for influential work around medium specificity and realism and cinema. ❖ In France in the late 1940s the filmologie movement had called for a serious study of film, and the 1950s saw several efforts at naming the field; ‘cinematology’ was one suggestion. By the 1970s, though, film studies had become the most widely adopted name for the discipline. (Kuhn) What is film studies ?
- 6. What is Montage? ● The word montage originated from the French verb ‘monter’, which means “to mount” or “to assemble”. ● According to the filmmaker‘s idea, montage in a film study refers to “combining scenes together according to the original idea to make it produce comparison, association and foil back the scenes to complete works of film and television”. But according to Ed Sikov (2020) stated that “montage describes the various ways in which filmmakers string individual shots together to form a series.”(Xiang)
- 7. Development of Montage Li (2014) stated, montage has two types of theories: 1) “The first one is Sergei Eisenstein’s montage theory, headed by the Soviet Union director and film theorist, who insisted that using the film editing technique to rearrange the cinema scenes will produce a new meaning”. 2) “The second one is a French film theorist Andre Bazin’s long lens theory (also called paragraph lens), he considers that the montage techniques destroy a film’s truth and the new meanings that are produced by the montage combinations are a performance of behaviorism. However, the first theory has been used in real-life widely and is a cause to set up the film industry. The most famous representative can be seen in Hollywood.”(Xiang)
- 8. ● In the silent era, the film could make the audiences laughing through the exaggerated movements and expressions. ● But now, with the science and technology’s development and progress, the simple actions and expressions can’t satisfy the audience’s psychological needs, the gorgeous colors wonderful music compact rhythm and the perfect plot, all of these have become the measure scale that a film is good looking or not. ● Films like “2012”, “Avatar” or “Inception”, all do quite perfect in these aspects. (Li) THE ROLE OF THE MONTAGE
- 9. Alternative to Expression and Narrative Montage 1) American-Style Montage Sequence (Montage Sequence) In simple terms, montage sequence relies upon editing to condense or expand action, space, or time. 1) Soviet-Style Montage (Soviet Montage Theory) Sergei Eisenstein is the master of montage, especially the Soviet-style Montage. Eisenstein believed (1977) that montage is a “conflict of graphic directions, scales, volumes, masses, and depths.” he explains how the two different individual shots can create a new meaning: Shot A + Shot B = new meaning C, or Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis ● A dog + A mouth = To bark ● A mouth + A child = To scream ● A mouth + A bird = To sing ● A knife + A heart = Sorrow (Xiang)
- 10. Montage Methods and Types Improvised by Eisenstein 1) Metric Montage - This montage depends upon the length of the shots in a sequence or scene.(Sekher) - Example - Rocky III "Eye of the Tiger" (Hellerman) 1) Rhythmic Montage - If metric montage depends upon the timing and arrangement of shots in a scene, rhythmic montage is based on the content of the shots and scene. (Sekher) - One of the best directors using rhythmic montages is Edgar Wright. - Movies - Baby Driver and Shaun of the Dead. (Hellerman)
- 11. 3) Tonal Montage - It refers to the combination of shots with contrasting light and shade.(Sekher) 4) Overtonal Montage - is a combination of metric, rhythmic and tonal montage.(Sekher) - Example - Parasite movie where the story of a family conning someone over a few months. (Hellerman) 5) Intellectual Montage - Eisenstein was a master of the intellectual or ideological montage. This is a montage in which new suggestive meanings are created through visual analogies and comparisons. (Sekher)
- 12. Critique of Montage, its Fall and Challenges ahead for Cinema ❖ Revolutionary filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Latin American filmmakers Fernando Solanas, Octavio Getino, Santiago Alvarez, and Tomás Gutiérrez Alea used a modernist mode heavily influenced by a Soviet understanding of montage from the dialectical and Marxist point of view. ❖ As animation, digital editing tools, augmented reality and artificial intelligence are revolutionizing cinema and visual cultures at large across languages and cultures it would be interesting to see the survival and transformations of montage and film form in near future.(Sekher)
- 13. CONCLUSION A good works of film and television cannot do without the the editing art, the excellent editing cannot do without the support of montage theory and practice, in the film editing, montage theory is in the continuous development and improvement.(Li)
- 14. Hellerman, Jason. “What Is a Montage in Film and Television? (Definition and Examples).” No Film School, 5 May 2021, https://nofilmschool.com/what-is-a-montage-film-tv. Accessed 20 October 2023. Joon-ho, Bong, director. Parasite. YouTube, Barunson E&A, 31 Dec. 2019, youtu.be/ma1rD2OP85c?si=PgrlsuxD9aVobkax. Kuhn, Annette. “What is film studies? by Professor Annette Kuhn FBA.” the British Academy, 2019, https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/what-is-film-studies/. Accessed 28 OCTOBER 2019. Li, Xiaoshu. “Research on the Montage Technique in The Film and Television.” International Conference on Education, Language, Art and Intercultural Communication, 2014, p. 5. Sekher, Ajay S. “Ideology as Form: Montage and the Aesthetics and Politics of Cinema.” Dialogist : International Journal of Literary Studies and Interdisciplinary Research, vol. 1, no. 2, 2022, p. 13. Xiang, Wan, et al. “A Critical Review on the Use of Montage Technique in Film and Television.” Atlantis Press, 2022. References
- 15. Thank You