Montage

Defining Montage;

The term left in film refers from the French.
Monter [Verb] - to assemble
Montage [Noun] - assembly

When montage refers to techniques within film editing techniques, it has three senses:
- In French film practice, "montage" has it's own literal French meaning. For example; assembly, installation and simply identifies editing. 
- In Soviet film making within the 1920's "montage" was a method of juxtaposing shots to derive new meaning that did not exist in either shot alone.
- Whereas, in classical Hollywood cinema, a "montage sequence" refers different and is a short segment in a film which narrative information is presented in a more condensed fashion. 

An Example of Montages:

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBNnHlqO4cs)

Hollywood Montage:
- This is a different montage style that became convention during the classical Hollywood era and remained one of the very popular techniques to be used by directors and editors throughout the twentieth century and still do now.
- The montage sequence which it is referred to consists of a wide series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense the overall narrative. It usually used to advance the story as a whole, often to suggest the passage of time, rather than to create symbolic meaning.
- In most but not all cases music is tended to be played in the background this reinforces the message which is being conveyed. 

An example of Hollywood Montage;


(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO45Dr_NA8o)

With the music which is introduce within different times within the many scenes which are shown. This allows me to see that it is condensed into the way that it is converted around in many short scenes. Which also conveys more into expressing what the scene is meant to show. This therefore allowing a clearer understanding for the audience to gain from the music montages. 

Soviet Montage:
- In this theory, the editing of shots tend to create different meaning such as its symbolic meaning.

Lev Kuleshov:
- For Kuleshov editing a film is like constructing a building. Brick-by-brick (shot-by-shot).
- He conducted an experiment which was conducted to show that montage can lead the viewer to reach certain individual conclusions about the action in any films. 

The Kuleshov Experiment:
- Kuleshov edited together a short film in which a shot of the expressions face of Tsarist matinee idol Ivan Mosjoukine was alternated with various other shots. For example; a plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, a woman on a divan.

Original Kuleshov Experiment:


(https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=4gLBXikghE0)

The experiment explained, the audience believed that when looking at Mosjoukine's face that he was sharing three facial expressions at to what he was looking at:

- Soup                           - Hunger
- Girl in Coffin                 - Grief
- Woman on the divan             - Desire 

- The footage of the idol, Mosjoukine was actually the same shot used three different times within the experiment. 

Kuleshov's Conclusion:
- Montage only works because viewers infer meaning based on the context which is given.