Where does the montage of film shooting techniques come from?

Montage means "editing" in French, but it has been developed into the theory of lens combination in movies in Russia.

Montage generally includes two aspects: picture editing and picture synthesis. Picture editing is a unified picture work formed by juxtaposing or overlapping many pictures or patterns. Picture composition: The art or process of making such a combination. This film combines a series of shots taken in different places, from different distances and angles and in different ways to describe the plot and portray the characters. However, when different lens groups are connected together, they often have meanings that each lens does not have when it exists alone.

? The basic element of a film is the lens, and the main way and means to connect the lens is montage, and it can be said that montage is a unique expression means of film art. Since the smallest unit of a film is the lens, what is the basic element of this film-the lens? What does it have to do with montage? As we know, a lens is a piece of film shot from different angles, different focal lengths, different times and after different processing. In fact, montage has been used since the shooting of the lens. As far as the lens is concerned, shooting from different angles naturally has different artistic effects. For example, frontal shooting, overhead shooting, side shooting, backlight, filtering and so on, the effect is obviously different. As far as the lens with the same focal length is concerned, the effect is different. For example, distant view, panoramic view, middle view, close view, close-up and large close-up have different effects. Furthermore, different processed lenses will also produce different artistic effects. In addition, due to the use of spaces, abbreviations, upgrades and other techniques, it has also brought a variety of specific artistic effects. In addition, because of the different shooting time, there are long shots and short shots, and the length of the shots will have different effects. At the same time, when connecting scenes and paragraphs, we can choose to use different connection methods according to different changes, different rhythms and different emotional needs, such as fading in, fading out, arranging, cutting, circling, pinching, pushing and pulling, etc. In short, what kind of shots to take and what kind of shots to arrange together. In what way to connect the arranged shots, the way and means for filmmakers to solve this series of problems is montage. If picture and acoustics are the "vocabulary" for the film director to communicate with the audience, then the montage means of using picture and acoustics to form shots and combining shots to form film rules is the director's "grammar". For a film director, mastering these basic principles does not mean mastering "grammar". Montage often presents a variety of faces in the specific content and aesthetic pursuit of each film. Montage is from point to surface for the audience. For the director, montage is divided into parts, that is, editing, and then divided into parts, that is, combination. The smallest unit of cutting is the lens, so the director has to write a storyboard. As an audience, how should we appreciate the director's art from the perspective of montage? After all, montage is a way for directors to tell stories; The audience always wants the story to be fluent, vivid and infectious, which can arouse the audience's association and interest. These requirements fully apply to montage. The audience is not only satisfied with finding the outline of the plot, or roughly understanding the ideas and concepts of the film, but also requires clear and smooth perception of every link and detail of the film narrative process. The montage of the film should be shown to the audience first.

The arrangement of coherent organization is to use the unique montage means of film art, which is also what we call the structural problem of film. From the above examples, we can see the importance of this arrangement and combination structure, which is an important means to organize the materials together to express the film ideas. Meanwhile. Due to the different arrangement and combination, different artistic effects such as positive, negative, deep, shallow, strong and weak have been produced.

The use of montage can bring new meaning to the connection of shots, greatly enrich the expressive force of film art, and thus enhance the appeal of film art. On this issue, we can also get great inspiration from a phenomenon in physics: as we all know, carbon and diamonds are the same in molecular composition. But one is surprisingly brittle and the other is unusually hard. Why? Scientists' research results prove that this is caused by different molecular arrangements (character structures). That is to say, it is really thought-provoking that the same material, because of its different arrangement, can produce such diametrically opposite results?

"Montage is the connection method of movies. The whole movie has a structure, and every chapter, section and section should also have a structure. In the film, this connection is called montage. In fact, it is to combine the lens group into a segment, then combine the short segments into a large segment, and then organize the large segment into a movie. There is no mystery or trick in this process, which conforms to the logic of rationality and sensibility, the logic of life and vision, and looks' smooth',' reasonable', rhythmic and comfortable. This is a splendid montage, and vice versa. There is no such simple explanation and elaboration as montage.

Montage can be divided into performance montage and narrative montage, and can be subdivided into psychological montage, lyric montage, parallel montage, cross montage, repeated montage and so on.

The role of montage

? By means of montage, the narrative of the film has gained great freedom in the use of time and space. A skill can jump from Paris to new york in space or span decades in time. Moreover, the juxtaposition and intersection of actions in two different spaces can cause nervous suspense, or show the relationship between people living in two places, such as the lovesickness of lovers in two places. Montage in different periods can repeatedly describe the relationship between the past psychological experience and the current inner activities of the characters. This freedom of time and space transformation makes movies provide freedom for novelists to express their lives to a great extent. The use of montage enables film artists to greatly compress or extend the actual time in their lives, thus producing the so-called "movie time" without giving people the feeling of violating the actual time in their lives. However, it should be noted that the grasp of montage should not be too long, otherwise it will be boring and not too short, which will make people feel hasty.

Montage, the ability to manipulate time and space, enables film artists to extract the parts that he thinks can best clarify the essence of life, the characters' personalities and relationships, and even the artist's own feelings, combine them together, decompose them, keep the most important and inspiring parts, discard and omit a lot of trivial things, and refine life in a trivial way to obtain the most vivid narrative and richness. Griffith's performance in "Against Alienation with the Party" is that when he looks at the pain of the convicted wife of an innocent husband in court, he only pays attention to her convulsive hands. In Red women soldiers, Qionghua saw the landlord go south for eight days and shot in violation of reconnaissance discipline. The next scene is that the captain shoots Qionghua's gun on the table in order to avoid reporting to the company commander. The action is interrupted, but the plot is continuous and the relationship between characters is developing. This decomposition and combination make the film highly concentrated and generalized, so that a film in less than two hours can introduce a person's life like Citizen Kane, involving decades of social changes.

Montage has two undeniable important functions. One is to let the film freely use narrative angles alternately, such as from the author's objective narrative to the subjective expression of the characters' hearts, or to see a certain state of affairs through the eyes of the characters. Without this alternation, the narrative of the film will be monotonous and clumsy. The second is to influence the audience's psychology by changing the rhythm of the action through the lens.

The various functions of montage have convinced several generations of film artists and theorists that "montage is the foundation of film art" and "there is no film without montage", and the film should adopt a special way of thinking-montage thinking.

The main functions of montage are:

* Through the cutting and combination of shots, scenes and paragraphs, the material is selected and accepted, so that the performance content is prioritized, highly summarized and concentrated.

* Guide the audience's attention and stimulate the audience's association. Although each shot only shows a certain content, a certain shot sequence can standardize and guide the audience's emotions and psychology and inspire the audience to think.

* Create a unique film and television time and space. Every shot is a record of real time and space. After editing, the time and space are reconstructed to form a unique film and television time and space.

Types of montage

Montage has two functions: narrative and ideographic. Accordingly, we can divide montage into three basic types: narrative montage, expressive montage and intellectual montage. The former is a narrative means, while the latter two are mainly used to express ideas. On this basis, it can also be divided into two levels, as follows:

narrative montage

This montage was initiated by movie master Griffith and others in the United States, and it is the most commonly used narrative method in film and television. Its characteristic is to explain the plot and show the events as the main purpose, and to cut the combination shots, scenes and paragraphs according to the time flow and causality of the plot development, so as to guide the audience to understand the plot. This montage is clearly connected, logically coherent and easy to understand. Narrative montage also includes the following specific skills:

1. Parallel montage

This montage is often represented by two or more plot lines in different time and space (or at the same time and in different places), which are described separately and unified in a complete structure. Griffith and Hitchcock are masters who are very good at using this montage technique. Parallel montage is widely used. First of all, because it is used to deal with the plot, it can cut down the process, save space, expand the information content of the film and strengthen the sense of rhythm of the film. Secondly, because this technique is a parallel expression of several clues, it is easy to produce a strong artistic infection effect by comparing with each other. For example, in the movie "Fighting against the North", the director used parallel montage to show the scene that I captured the Motianling with the enemy, which caused a tense rhythm.

Cross montage

Also known as alternating montage, it quickly and frequently appears alternately in two or more plot lines in different areas at the same time. The development of one clue often affects other clues, and each clue is interdependent and eventually blends together. This editing technique can easily arouse suspense, create a tense and intense atmosphere, and strengthen the sharpness of contradictions and conflicts, which is a powerful means to grasp the audience's emotions. Thrillers, horror films and war films often use this method to create chase and thrilling scenes. For example, in the Battle of the Northern Expedition, the third line of our army and the enemy marching towards Dasha River and the third line of guerrilla dam bombing were alternately spliced together, showing that thrilling battle.

Inverted montage

This is a montage that disrupts the structure. Explain the present state of the story or event first, and then go back to introduce the whole story, which shows the reorganization of the past and present in the concept of events. Often through overprint, underline, voice-over, narration and other means into flashback. The use of inverted montage disrupts the order of events, but the relationship between time and space should be clearly explained, and the narrative should conform to the logical relationship. This is how the review and reasoning of events are constructed.

4. Continuous montage

This kind of montage does not develop many clues like parallel montage or cross montage, but follows a single plot clue and follows the logical order of events in rhythmic and continuous narration. This narrative is natural and smooth, simple and smooth, but due to the lack of time-space and scene transformation, it is impossible to directly express the simultaneous plots, it is difficult to highlight the antagonistic relationship between plot lines, it is not conducive to generalization, and it is easy to feel procrastinating and straightforward. Therefore, it is rarely used alone in a film, but mixed with parallel and cross montage techniques to complement each other.

montage

Performance montage is based on the arrangement of shots, and the connected shots contrast and collide with each other in form or content, thus producing rich meanings that a single shot itself does not have, so as to express some emotion or thought. Its purpose is to stimulate the association of the public and inspire the thinking of the audience.

1, lyric montage

It is a kind of thought and emotion that transcends the plot while ensuring the coherence of narrative and description. Jean mitry pointed out that its original intention is not only a narrative story, but also a vivid rendering, and it pays more attention to the latter. Major events are decomposed into a series of close-ups or close-ups, which capture the essential meaning of things from different sides and angles and render the characteristics of things. The most common and easily felt lyric montage often cuts into the empty lens symbolizing emotion after a narrative scene.

2. Psychological montage

It is an important means of psychological description of characters. It vividly expresses the inner world of characters through the combination of pictures and cameras or the organic combination of sound and painting, and is often used to express the spiritual activities of characters such as dreams, memories, flashes, hallucinations, reverie and thinking. This montage is often used in stitching techniques, such as crossing. It is characterized by the fragmentation of pictures and sound images, the discontinuity of narration and the jumping of rhythm, and the sound and picture images have strong dramatist subjectivity.

3. Metaphorical montage

The author expresses a certain meaning implicitly and vividly through the analogy of lens or scene. This technique often highlights some similar characteristics between different things, so as to arouse the audience's association, understand the director's meaning and appreciate the emotional color of the event.

Contrast montage

Similar to the comparative description in literature, that is, through the lens or scene in the content of strong contrast (such as poor and rich, bitter and happy, life and death, noble and humble, victory and failure, etc. ) or form (such as the size of the scene, the warmth and coldness of the color, the strength of the sound, the action, etc.), which produces a conflicting effect to express the creator's certain meaning or strengthen the expressed content and ideas.

Intelligence montage

Jean mitry's definition of intellectual montage is that it expresses its meaning through the relationship between pictures, rather than through one simple and coherent narrative. The difference between intellectual montage and coherent narration is that even though the picture belongs to the facts that have actually been experienced, the facts combined according to this montage are always subjective. This kind of Monbenchi was founded by Eisenstein, the main representative of the Soviet school, and mainly includes:

1, variety montage

Eisenstein's definition of juggling montage is: juggling is a special moment, during which all the elements are aimed at instilling the idea that the director intends to convey to the audience into their consciousness, making the audience enter the mental state or psychological state that causes this idea, thus causing emotional impact. This kind of hand banyan can be chosen at will in content, and is not bound by the original plot, which promotes the final effect of explaining the theme.

Step 2 reflect on montage

Different from vaudeville montage, it randomly and stiffly inserts symbolic pictures irrelevant to the plot content, but the things described and the things used for metaphor are in the same space, and they are interdependent: either contrast with the events, or determine the reaction between the connected things, or reveal similar events contained in the plot through reflection and association, thus affecting the audience's palace view and consciousness.

3. Montage of thoughts

This was created by Wiltoff by re-expressing an idea by using literary materials in newsreels. This montage form is an abstract form, because it only shows a series of thoughts and emotions inspired by reason. The audience looked on coldly, which caused a certain "alienation effect" between the screen and them, and their participation was completely rational. Ordinary Fascism directed by Rome is a typical work.

Montage prohibition theory

The main content of the theory of montage prohibition put forward by Bazin is that montage should be banned if two or more action elements exist at the same time. He believes that montage is far from the essence of film and should be denied.

Bazin's main argument against montage is that montagists don't recognize single shot and unedited film clips as art, and Bazin thinks that single shot contains rich significance and artistic value. He accused Eisenstein of "hiding the event and replacing it with another synthetic reality or event" and "adding something" to the described object. Montage controls the fuzziness of the film and leads to singularity. The director becomes a guide to guide the audience, and the audience can only accept his point of view but can't understand the meaning of the film by themselves. Bazin thinks that reality is a multi-level structure, while Eisenstein cuts the meaning of nature into his own personal explanation. He especially opposes "juggling montage" and intellectual montage such as metaphor and symbol, and thinks that this is to impose ideas on the audience, while directors who respect reality should "disappear" in front of reality. Montage is literary and anti-film. What the film wants to express is the real time flow, the real depth, and the space-time continuity of photography and montage are incompatible.

Bazin proposed replacing montage with depth-of-field lens. Because the depth-of-field lens has a sense of depth, different people and events between them can be presented to the audience in the same lens, and the audience can "appreciate" themselves. Of course, this also includes the use of actor scheduling and lens scheduling, that is, using the shift of actor position and the movement of lens to keep following the characters. The shot taken in this way must have a long length, so Bazin's theory was once called "long lens theory". In fact, the more accurate name should be "Continue shooting". The depth of field is to maintain the integrity of plot space, and the long shot is to maintain the integrity of plot time, that is, to achieve the "real-time flow and real depth" required by Bazin, without being destroyed by the segmentation of montage. Bazin believes that montage is about events, while continuous shooting is about recording events, which reserves the audience's right to freely choose and explain stages or events.

Bazin's theory has caused great changes in film creation around the world, and also promoted the development of film aesthetics that has been stagnant for a long time. However, the film industry generally believes that Bazin completely denies montage and advocates continuous shooting with depth of field lens, which is one-sided.

First of all, it is right for montage to regard a single shot as meaningless, but it cannot be regarded as complete in sense or require all shots to shoot continuously. The so-called long shot essentially cancels the difference between "shot" and "series shot", requiring each shot to be a "series shot" with the same and complete sentence, or even a self-contained scene. Any film must have a large number of shots with incomplete meaning, and it must be connected with other shots to have a clear or complete meaning. Sometimes it may be just for the convenience of narration, sometimes it is for the dramatic effect, and more often it is to let the audience see the meaning that can't be seen when the lens exists alone, such as the above-mentioned cross montage and metaphor montage. This is a way to let the audience realize the rich inner activities or the profound ideological connotation of the plot that the characters can't see through the visible concrete images. Therefore, the lens is both closed and open, closed by the action content, but open because of the connection and opposition with other lenses. The shots are independent and interdependent, and even a series of shots can not be separated from the overall content and form of the film and become a complete artistic existence.

Secondly, don't give up the convenience of film space and film time, the unique function of concentration and generalization, and the vast world of sound and picture montage because you prefer depth-of-field lens and continuous shooting. We should fully understand and attach importance to the role of depth-of-field lens and continuous shooting, and at the same time, we should also see its limitations. The depth of field lens can't get rid of the frame of the picture, unlike the eyes that are not affected by the frame and the interference of perspective problems. People's levels are different, and the scales of near and far things are different, so it is necessary to cooperate with the scene scheduling mirror, so "photography nature" still depends on human intervention. In fact, long shots only use scene and shot scheduling instead of montage combination to realize the replacement of picture range and content. So some people call this technique "in-camera montage" or "depth montage".

In addition, continuous shooting can only be used in one scene, and it is impossible to adopt the continuous shooting method for all events in different places and at different times.

Reality doesn't depend on montage or continuous shooting. Montage can be used to cover up false things, but it is not necessarily untrue. On the other hand, continuous shooting's depth-of-field lens can't guarantee a realistic work.

The biggest reason for Bazin's opposition to montage is that he thinks that the director has become a guide to direct the audience, which cancels the ambiguity of the film. However, montage that meets the audience's psychological requirements and the requirements of line-of-sight shift is necessary for film narration. Artistic permission also needs the guidance of artists. Literary works, as ideological forms, are the products reflected by people's lives in artists' minds. Realism is not a photographic representation of life, but a reflection of life according to the artist's world outlook. The director's use of montage is not to add anything to reality as Bazin accused, but to reveal what exists in reality according to his own feelings. There is no purely objective record. The "reality" captured by the so-called "cold-eyed" camera is still inevitably chosen according to the director's point of view.

Montage sentence pattern

In the combination of film and television shots, a series of shots are organically combined to form a logically coherent, rhythmic and relatively complete video clip.

Montage Sentences —— Progressive, Backward, Cyclic, Interpolation and Equivalence Sentences

Progressive sentence patterns. Combine shots in the order of panorama, middle shot, close shot and close shot.

Backward sentence patterns. Combine shots in the order of close-up, close-up, middle-view and panorama.

Circle sentence patterns. This sentence pattern is a combination of forward sentence pattern and backward sentence pattern.

Intersperse sentence patterns. The scene change of sentence patterns is not gradual, but alternating far and near.

Equivalent sentence patterns. In other words, the scene remains the same.

Division of montage paragraphs

According to the natural paragraphs of the content of film and television works.

According to the transformation of time

Segmenting according to the shift of position.

According to the rhythm of the movie.

Therefore, the division of paragraphs is determined by the development of plot and the need of content or the intermittence and transformation of rhythm.

Montage transition

It is the problem of time-space transformation in lens assembly. Coherent transition means direct switching between scenes and paragraphs, which is clean and compact. Similar transition. The transition is made by using the same or similar shape and number of upper and lower shots at the junction of the scene and the paragraph.