Post 18: Further Research - Montages

As I am going to be including a montage into my short film, I felt I should do some background research into and around different elements of the media technique, so that when it comes to filming the montage I have an understanding and can edit it together in a creative and innovative way, that follows the correct conventions of a film montage. A montage sequence is usually used to suggest a passage of time rather than having a symbolic meaning. I feel this technique would be useful in my film as I only have a short amount of time of which to portray the story, so by adding in a montage it enables me to add more depth about the characters and into the story, enabling the audience to have a wider understanding of the piece.

In film making, a montage is an editing technique in which shots are juxtaposed in an often fast passed fashion that compresses time and conveys a lot of information. Montages can be created by either editing still images together or by editing video footage together, which is what I am going to do in my short film. Montages can be used to portray a wide range of information depending on the film but should not be used to create strong emotions, montages are used to inform the audience and make the audience know more information.

Here is an effective example of a Montage from the opening of Hot Fuzz. It is used here to introduce the main character in a short amount of time, of which is similar to what I want to do in my short film.

I found this video clip effective as it shows the characters life and what he has achieved in 2 minutes, giving the audience a wider insight in to the story, conveying a lot of information in a short period of time, which is the main purpose of a montage. I feel that by editing the different angled shots and footage together has created a fast passed piece of film that conveys a lot of information and allows the director to compress time which is what I want to portray and is why I am going to use this technique in my short film. This task was influential to further ideas for my real film montage and gave me a better understanding of how a montage works and the process behind creating one.