003 Storytelling + the Role of Montage
Cinematic Storytelling
Please review an early and late film by D.W. Griffith, as well as examples of Metric, Rhythmic, Tonal, Overtonal, Intellectual Montage. Also read the material on Soviet Montage.
D.W. Griffith, The Adventures of Dolly (1908)
D.W. Griffith, A Corner of Wheat (1909)
D.W. Griffith, Judith of Bethulia (1913)
D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation (1915)
D.W. Griffith, Intolerance (1916)
D.W. Griffith, Broken Blossoms (1919)
Buster Keaton, The Neighbors (1920)
Continuity Editing
Rear Window Illustration of Principles of Continuity Editing
Soviet Montage
“The shot is defined by editing but editing also works to join shots together. There are many ways of effecting that transition, some more evident than others. In the analytical tradition, editing serves to establish space and lead the viewer to the most salient aspects of a scene. In the classical continuity style, editing techniques avoid drawing attention to themselves. In a constructivist tradition such as Soviet Montage cinema, there is no such false modesty. Vertov’s Man with the Movie Camera (Chelovek s kinoapparatom, USSR, 1929) celebrates the power of the cinema to create a new reality out of disparate fragments.” Yale University Film School
Kuleshov Workshop – Experiment
Eisenstein’s Montage Theory, fromWikipedia
Eisenstein’s montage theories are based on the idea that montage originates in the “collision” between different shots in an illustration of the idea of thesis and antithesis. This basis allowed him to argue that montage is inherently dialectical, thus it should be considered a demonstration of Marxism and Hegelian philosophy. His collisions of shots were based on conflicts of scale, volume, rhythm, motion (speed, as well as direction of movement within the frame), as well as more conceptual values such as class.
Methods of montage
Metric – where the editing follows a specific number of frames (based purely on the physical nature of time), cutting to the next shot no matter what is happening within the image. This montage is used to elicit the most basal and emotional of reactions in the audience.
- Metric montage example from Eisenstein’s October.
- Metric Montage on Youtube
Rhythmic – includes cutting based on time, but using the visual composition of the shots — along with a change in the speed of the metric cuts — to induce more complex meanings than what is possible with metric montage. Once sound was introduced, rhythmic montage also included audial elements (music, dialogue, sounds).
- Rhythmic montage example from Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo where the protagonist and the two antagonists face off in a three-way duel
- Another rhythmic montage example from The Battleship Potemkin‘s “Odessa steps” sequence.
- Rhythmic Montage on Youtube
Tonal – a tonal montage uses the emotional meaning of the shots — not just manipulating the temporal length of the cuts or its rhythmical characteristics — to elicit a reaction from the audience even more complex than from the metric or rhythmic montage. For example, a sleeping baby would emote calmness and relaxation.
- Tonal example from Eisenstein’s The Battleship Potemkin. This is the clip following the death of the revolutionary sailor Vakulinchuk, a martyr for sailors and workers.
- Tonal Montage on Youtube
Overtonal/Associational – the overtonal montage is the cumulation of metric, rhythmic, and tonal montage to synthesize its effect on the audience for an even more abstract and complicated effect.
- Overtonal example from Pudovkin’s Mother. In this clip, the men are workers walking towards a confrontation at their factory, and later in the movie, the protagonist uses ice as a means of escape.[1]
- Overtonal/Associational on Youtube
Intellectual – uses shots which, combined, elicit an intellectual meaning.[2]
- Intellectual montage examples from Eisenstein’s October and Strike. In Strike, a shot of striking workers being attacked cut with a shot of a bull being slaughtered creates a film metaphor suggesting that the workers are being treated like cattle. This meaning does not exist in the individual shots; it only arises when they are juxtaposed.
In The Godfather, during Michael’s nephew’s baptism, the priest performs the sacrament of baptism while we see killings ordered by Michael take place elsewhere. The murders thus “baptize” Michael into a life of crime. - At the end of Apocalypse Now the execution of Colonel Kurtz is juxtaposed with the villagers’ slaughter of a water buffalo.
Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera
