The technique of film editing (1958)

MONTAGE SEQUENCES The term montage has been loosely employed in so many different contexts as to need definition. It was used by early Russian directors as a synonym for creative editing and is still used in France to denote simply cutting. The term montage sequence as used in British and American studios means something more specific and limited : it refers to the quick impressionistic sequence of disconnected images, usually linked by dissolves, superimpositions or wipes, and used to convey passages of time, changes of place, or any other scenes of transition. It is with this last kind of sequence that we are here concerned. The very pedigree of the word bears witness to the fact that the modern montage sequence owes its origin to early Russian experiments and was gradually evolved to its present form. The only thing it still has in common with early Russian films is that both use short, disconnected strips of film. But there the affinity ends : where the Russians conceived their films in terms of expressive shot juxtapositions, the montage sequence as commonly used to-day makes its points through the cumulative effect of series of images. Where the Russian sequences proceeded by steps like : shot A contrasts with shot B (the juxtaposition giving rise to a new concept), is further illuminated by shot C . . . etc., the modern montage sequence aims at saying : shot A plus shot B, plus shot C . . . plus shot X, when seen together, imply a transition of events from A to X. Since the aim of the modern montage sequence is to convey a series of facts which together will convey a state of transition, individual shot juxtapositions become unimportant— even misleading — and are therefore largely ironed out by the use of dissolves. All this is simply to point out that the similarity between Russian 112