Film Montage

"The word montage identified specifically the rapid, shock-cut Eisenstein employed in his films. Its use survives to this day in the specially created 'montage sequences' inserted into Hollywood films to suggest, in a blur of double exposures, the rise to fame of an opera singer or, in brief, model shots, the destruction of an aeroplane, a city or a planet" ?Arthur Knight?[1]

Avant-garde filmmakers, in their revolutionary approach, collaged multiple images within a single frame, 'painted and scratched film, or revolted against the indexical identity of cinema in other ways'?[2]. Their work was a bold departure from 'normal' filmmaking procedures and the intended uses of film technology, operating on the periphery of commercial cinema aesthetically and technically.

One general effect of the digital revolution is that avant-garde aesthetic strategies became 'embedded in the commands and interface metaphors of computer software'.?[3]?In short, the avant-garde became materialised in a computer. The avant-garde strategy of collage re-emerged as a "cut and paste" command, the most basic operation one can perform on digital data.

The idea of painting on film became embedded in the paint functions of film editing software. The avant-garde move to combine animation, printed texts and live-action footage is repeated in the convergence of animation, title generation, painting, compositing and editing systems into single computer packages.

Finally, another move to combine several film images together within one frame (for instance, in Leger's 1924 'Ballet Mechanique' or in 'A Man with a Movie Camera') has also become legitimised by technology since all editing software, including Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects, assumes that a digital image consists of several separate image layers.

What used to be exceptions for traditional cinema became the standard, intended digital filmmaking techniques 'embedded in technology design itself.'

Painting on film can be seen in one of my favourite films directed by Jorge Grau', The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue' 1974, which was filmed around Derbyshire, Manchester, Lancashire and Spain. In the film grab below, which was filmed at Winnats Pass, Peak National Park, Derbyshire, you can clearly see the church has been painted negatively onto the film to give an illusion the church is located there.

The church is actually St Michael and All Angels Church, School Lane, Hathersage, Hope Valley, Derbyshire and most of the film is based around Hathersage.

Being a film buff and a large collector of rare and out-of-print films, I could not write this blog without researching more on Soviet Russian film director and theorist Sergei Eisenstein (1898 – 1948). Eisenstein is often cited as a revolutionary figure who used montage in films. Some of his most famous works include the silent films Strike (1925) and October 1927 (1927).? The editing of his films is often connected to the earliest presence of montage elements in cinema. Early filmmakers cited him as the innovator in montage, and he met with Fritz Lang during the filming of Metropolis (1927). His influence can be seen in the film.

Other movies used film montage scenes, the most famous one being OrsWells'lls' (1941) movCitizen Canene, which used an impression of pastime in the scenes of the breakup of CitizKane'sane marriage while sitting at the breakfast table at different stages in time in consecutive shots. As the characters age, we also see a marked difference in their appearances and lack of interaction.

Viewing the artistic works of artist Remedios Varo, whose most famous w,ork, 'Useless Scien,ce' 1,955, depicts a montage scene of science and dreams, I can't help but think that? this painting inspired Lang'Metropolis.s.' The solitary figure sits on a stool wrapped in black-and-whiteite checked material, turning a crank handle and proving how film and photography inspire each other.

[1]?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montage_(filmmaking)

[2]?Russett, Robert and Starr, Cecile Starr, 1976 'Experimental Animation' New York: Van

Nostrand Reinhold Company pp. 117

[3]?Stephen Kovats Stephen 1999 "Avant-Garde as Software," iFrankfurt and New York: Campus Verlag pp 10