What is the technique of movie montage?

To put it simply, montage is to shoot a film into many shots according to the content to be expressed in the film and the psychological sequence of the audience, and then put them together according to the original concept. In a nutshell: montage is a means of joining together split shots. It can be seen that montage is a means of connecting the shots captured by the camera according to the logic of life, the order of reasoning, the author's perspective and tendency, and its aesthetic principles. First it was the means of using the camera, then of course the means of using the scissors. Movie montage is mainly achieved through the re-creation of directors, photographers and editors. The screenwriter of the movie designs a blueprint for future movies, the director of the movie uses montage to recreate it based on this blueprint, and finally the photographer uses the expressive power of the film's modeling to concretely embody it.

In the production of a movie, the director shoots many shots according to the theme of the script or the film, and then organizes and edits these different shots organically and artistically according to the original creative concept. Together, they can produce coherence, contrast, association, suspense and other connections as well as different rhythms, thereby selectively forming a film that reflects a certain social life, thoughts and feelings, and is understood and loved by the audience. These constitute The form and means of composition are called montage.

To sum up, it can be seen that the basic element of film is the lens, and the main way and means of connecting the lenses is montage, and it can be said that montage is a unique expression method of film art. Since the smallest unit of a film is the shot, what exactly is the basic element of the film - the shot? What does it have to do with montage? We know that a lens is a piece of film shot from different angles, at different focal lengths, at different times, and processed differently. In fact, the montage technique has been used since the beginning of the filming. As far as the lens is concerned, shooting from different angles will naturally have different artistic effects. For example, front shot, Yangbai, overhead shot, side shot, backlight, filter, etc., the effects are obviously different. For lenses shot at the same focal length, the effects are also different. For example, long shot, panorama, medium shot, close shot, close-up, extreme close-up, etc., the effects are different. Furthermore, the lenses after different processing will also produce different artistic effects. In addition, due to the use of spaces, indentation, promotion and other techniques, various specific artistic effects are also brought about. Furthermore, due to the different time taken during shooting, long lenses and short lenses are produced, and the length of the lens will also produce different effects.

At the same time, when connecting scenes and paragraphs, you can choose to use different connection methods according to different amplitudes of changes, different rhythms and different emotional needs, such as talking, melting, drawing, cutting, Circle, pinch, push, pull, etc. All in all, what kind of shots are shot and what kind of shots are put together. What method is used to connect the shots that are arranged together? The method and means used by the filmmakers to solve this series of problems is montage. If pictures and sounds are the "vocabulary" used by a film director to communicate with the audience, then the montage method used to combine pictures and sounds into shots and use the combination of shots to form the rules of the film is the director's "grammar". For a film director, mastering these basic principles does not mean mastering "grammar". Montage often presents various appearances in the specific content and aesthetic pursuit of each film. For the audience, montage is from point to point. For the director, montage first goes from closing to splitting, then splitting, and then from splitting to closing again, that is, combination. The smallest unit of cutting is a shot, so the director should write a shot-by-shot script. As an audience, how should we appreciate the director's art from the perspective of montage? After all, montage is a method used by directors to tell stories; listeners always hope that the story will be told smoothly, vividly, and be infectious, and can arouse the audience's associations and arouse the audience's interest. These requirements are fully applicable to montage. . The audience is not only satisfied with understanding the plot outline, or generally understanding the ideas of the film, but requires a clear and smooth perception of every link and detail of the film's narrative process. The montage of a film should first be understood by the audience. .

Nowadays, a contemporary story film generally consists of about 500 to 1,000 shots. The scene, angle, length, movement form of each shot, and the way the picture and sound are combined all contain elements of montage. It can be said that montage has been used since the beginning of the shot. At the same time, the photographer's will, emotion, praise and criticism, and ingenuity are already included in the handling of the angle, focal length, and length of the lens.

In the arrangement, combination and connection between shots, the subjective intention of the photographer is more clearly reflected. Because each lens part does not exist in isolation, its form must be related to the upper and lower lenses connected to it, and different relationships produce different artistic effects such as continuity, jump, strengthening, weakening, parallelism, and contrast. On the other hand, the combination of shots not only plays a role in vividly describing the content of the shot, but also generates new meanings that the individual shots themselves may not be able to express.

Griffith's first attempt to use montage for expression in the history of film was an experiment that combined a shot of a man on a desert island with a close-up of his wife waiting at home. After such " The audience felt "waiting" and "sorrow", and created a new and special imagination. For another example, if a group of short shots are arranged together and connected by a quick cut method, the artistic effect will be completely different from if the same group of shots are arranged together and connected by a "lightening" or "blurring" method. .

For another example, if the following three shots A, B, and C are connected in different orders, different contents and meanings will appear.

A. A person is laughing; B. A pistol is pointed straight at it; C. The same person has a look of fear on his face.

What kind of impression do these three close-ups create on the audience?

If you connect them in the order A-B-C, the audience will feel that the person is a coward or a coward. Now, if the shots remain unchanged, we only need to change the order of the above shots, and we will draw the opposite conclusion.

C. A person has a look of fear on his face, B. A pistol is pointed directly at him; A. The same person is laughing.

If you connect them in the order of C-B-A, the person's face shows a look of fear because there is a pistol pointed at him. However, when he thought about it, he felt that it was not a big deal, so he laughed - laughed in front of death. Therefore, he gives the audience the impression of a brave man.

In this way, changing the order of shots in a scene, without changing each shot itself, completely changes the meaning of a scene, draws diametrically opposite conclusions, and receives completely different effects. .

This coherent organizational arrangement is the use of the unique montage method of film art, which is what we call the structural issue of the film. From the above examples, we can see the importance of this arrangement and combination structure. It is an important means of organizing materials together to express the ideas of the film. at the same time. Due to the different arrangement and combination, different artistic effects such as positive and negative, deep and shallow, strong and weak are produced.

The Soviet film master Eisenstein believed that A shot plus B shot is not a simple synthesis of A and B shots, but will become the new content and concept of C shot. He clearly pointed out: "The alignment of the two montage shots is not the sum of two numbers, but more like the product of two numbers - this fact was correct before and still seems to be correct today. The reason why it is more like The product of two numbers rather than the sum of two numbers lies in the fact that the result of the arrangement is always qualitatively (or "dimensionally" if you want to use mathematical terms) different from the individual constituent factors. Let's go back to the above. Example. The woman - this is a picture, and the mourning clothes on the woman - this is also a picture; both pictures can be expressed in real objects, and are produced by the juxtaposition of these two pictures. "Widow" is no longer something that can be expressed in real objects, but a new appearance, a new concept, and a new image."

It can be seen that the use of montage techniques can make the lens more beautiful. The connection creates new meanings, which greatly enriches the expressive power of film art, thereby enhancing the appeal of film art. Regarding this question, we can also get great inspiration from a phenomenon in physics: As we all know, the two substances, carbon and diamond, are the same in terms of their molecular composition. But one is surprisingly crunchy and the other is extremely hard. Why? The results of scientists' research prove that it is caused by different molecular arrangements (character structures). This means that the same materials, due to different arrangements, can produce such completely opposite results, which is really thought-provoking.

Hungarian film theorist Bela Balazs also pointed out: "Once the previous shot is connected, the extremely rich meanings hidden in each shot are emitted like electric sparks." It can be seen that this "electric spark"-like meaning is the "potential" of a single lens that people are not aware of. Only after "assembly" can people have a new and special imagination. When we talk about montage, we first refer to the relationship between lens and lens, and also include the relationship between time and space, sound and picture, picture and color, etc. As well as the meanings and functions generated by these group relationships.

In short, "montage is the connection method of the film. The whole film has a structure, and each chapter, each large section, and each small section must also have a structure. In the movie, this connection method It's called montage. In fact, it means composing the individual shots into a segment, then organizing the individual segments into a large segment, and then organizing the individual large segments into a movie. There is no mystery or anything in this process. What's the trick? If it's in line with the logic of reason and sensibility, in line with the logic of life and vision, and looks 'smooth', 'reasonable', rhythmic, and comfortable, that's a clever montage. Otherwise, it's a bad montage." There is no such in-depth and easy-to-understand explanation and elaboration of montage.

Montage can be divided into performance montage and narrative montage, including psychological montage, lyrical montage, parallel montage, cross montage, repetitive montage and so on.