Montage Table of Contents 1 Miseenscène in classical American films 2 Montage in classical American films Montage in Classical American Films As miseenscène montage must help a narrative move on without distracting the attention of the viewer from it ID: 325264
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Slide1
Classical Realist Texts: American Films between 1916 and 1960
MontageSlide2
Table of Contents
1.
Mise-en-scène
in classical American films
2.
Montage
in classical American filmsSlide3
Montage
in Classical American Films
As
mise-en-scène,
montage must help a narrative move on without distracting the attention of the viewer from it.
Smooth flow from a shot to the next shot
CONTINUITY EDITINGSlide4
Montage
in Classical American Films
Continuity editing
PURPOSES
To tell a story coherently and clearly;
To map out the chain of actions in an un-distracting way Slide5
Montage
in Classical American Films
GRAPHIC CONTINUITY
Shot-Reverse Shot
The positions of figures, the balance of compositions, and the set designs must be kept consistent over shot-reverse shots.
The overall lighting tonality and colour schema must remain constant over shots.Slide6
Continuity EditingSlide7
Continuity EditingSlide8
Non-Continuity Editing
An example which ignores the rule of continuity editing. Ozu
’
s filmsSlide9
Montage
in Classical American Films
EYE-LINE MATCH
Shot A presents someone looking at something off-screen; shot B shows us what is being looked at by him/her. Slide10
Montage
in Classical American Films
Eye-line match
Alfred Hitchcock
’
s
Rear Windows
(1954)
In one shot Jefferies looks through his camera and the next shot shows what he is watching.Slide11
Montage
in Classical American Films
180-DEGREE RULE
Two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other.
The
axis of action
(or
centre
line, 180º line) is assumed between two characters. Then, this axis of action determines a half-circle, or 180º area, where the camera(s) can be placed to present action.Slide12Slide13Slide14
Montage
in Classical American Films
Examples of the scenes which blatantly ignore the 180-degree rule
Jean-Luc Godard,
A bout de souffle
(1960)
Ozu Yasujiro,
Tokyo Story
(1953)
Slide15
Montage
in Classical American Films
TEMPORAL CONTINUITY:
Time, like space, is organized according to the development of the narrative.
ORDER, FREQUENCY, DURATIONSlide16
Montage
in Classical American Films
ORDER
Continuity editing typically presents the story events in a 1-2-3 order.
With the exception of occasional flashbacks.
Christopher
Nolan’s
Memento
: its narrative told in a backward 3-2-1 orderSlide17
Montage
in Classical American Films
FREQUENCY
Classical editing also typically presents only
once
what happens in the story.
Non-classical
montage
Sergei
Eisenstein’s
Battleship Potemkin
(1925)
Spike
Lee’s
Do the Right Thing
(1989)Slide18
Montage
in Classical American Films
DURATION
In the classical continuity system, story duration is seldom expanded or shortened. The story time is equal to the film time.
Story time is extended in the famous Odessa Steps scene in Sergei Eisenstein
’
s
Battleship Potemkin
(1925)Slide19
Montage
in Classical American Films
JUMP CUT
A device to compress (dead) time. (A man enters a large room at one end and must walk to a desk at the other end. Jump cut eliminates most of the action of traversing the long room.) Slide20
Montage
in Classical American Films
Unobtrusive jump cut - a cut which does not make the viewer aware of it.
Excess dead time must smoothed over either by cutting away to another element of the scene or by changing camera angle sufficiently so that the second shot is clearly from a different camera placement.
Jump CutSlide21
Expressive
Montage
Obtrusive, jugged jump cut
An action is abruptly interrupted before it is completed or a scene begins in the middle of an action after it has already started.
Jean-Luc Godard,
A bout de
souffle
(1960)
Lars von Trier,
Dancer in the Dark
(2000)
One of the avant-
garde’s
favourite expressive techniques.Making artificiality evident.Slide22
Expressive
Montage
CROSS CUTTING
Alternates two or more lines of actions taking place in different places simultaneously.
Cross cutting could be employed to enhance reality and truth effects, but is generally associated with more formalist editing.
Edward Yan
’
s
Yi, Yi
(A One and a Two, 2000)
Francis Ford Coppola,
Godfather
Slide23
Expressive
Montage
David Lean as a master editor
Lawrence of Arabia
(1962)
Formative editing jumping thousands of miles in space over two shots Slide24
Expressive
Montage
The most audacious editing
2001 Space Odyssay
Time travels million years in one editing.