#Metric montage meaning portable

The rhythmic montage gives slightly more preference to the content while still following a mathematical formula. The content of the footage is subordinate to length of the edit. The metric montage is dictated by a strict time sequencing similar to a waltz. The montages were sectioned into four overlapping but independent categories the metric montage, rhythmic montage, tonal montage, and over tonal montage (Eisenstein, Taylor and Glenny, 1988: 51). Eisenstein, like early European scientists who proceeded to give Latin names to the living world, also began to label the perceived difference in the treatment of film-in particular the different kinds of montages.

#Metric montage meaning portable

Film was clearly not just a portable theatre or tool for documentation because it had the power to develop narrative outside of traditional channels. The montage became indicative of the new, alternative power, of film. This indicates a shift from thinking about film as an extension of theatre or document, to thinking about film in its own capacity with its own vernacular. Eisenstein argues that there is a semiotics for film, which, if understood correctly by the filmmaker, could allow for unbridled access to onscreen symbolism. S.M Eisenstein similarly employs a scientific methodology to further develop the montage theory. “The essence of cinema, its method of achieving maximum effect, is montage…thus for Kuleshov, the break between cinema and theatre was complete and final” (Taylor and Christie, 1994: 53). It was an illusion achieved through time which demonstrated that the succession of one shot by another would alter the apparent meaning of the component shots” (Kovacts, 1976: 34). Kuleshov’s argument, that the proximity of separate visual material would be understood in the audiences’ mind as one piece of visual material was seminal in the production of the Soviet Montage Theory. “Any discussion of experimentation in Soviet film in the twenties begins with ‘Kuleshov effect’ to illustrate the power of editing. These observations led Kulseshov to develop a theory. This is interesting because it reveals how self-aware the process of producing cinema for economically disenfranchised people was. Kuleshov focused his attention to the observations of “…the audience in the cheap seats” (Taylor and Christie, 1994: 53).

One of the filmmakers in the Soviet Workshop was Lev Kulseshov. This attitude allowed both film theorists and directors to experiment with the medium outside of strict documentary style propaganda pieces for the illiterate, disparate, population. In this regard, the question of whether or not a film was a ‘useless picture’ was inconsequential if it helped generate ‘audience’ (Taylor and Christie, 1994: 52). Lenin’s approach to cinema was strategic, he felt that first there needed to be an audience, an established appetite for film, and once there was an audience using it as a party medium would be more successful. However, the film initiative taken by the Bolsheviks party was more discursive than straightforward. The political interest in film was for its capacity to promote party propaganda.

Lenin argued shortly there after, “…of all the arts for us the most important is cinema” (Taylor and Christie, 1994: 53). The montage sets the narrative of the film into hyper drive in which the protagonist continues through cinematic time without the hindrance of dialogue or place setting. The history of the film montage, although likely as old as the medium itself, solidified in Russia with the advent of Lenin’s ‘Directive on Cinema Affairs’ in 1922. Typically they are characterized by short successive segments of film without dialogue but often a heavy reliance on music to communicate mood. Montage is popularly considered to be a cinematic trick for the passage of time (Hamilton, 2009: 1).

I am going to argue that the motivational properties of training montages create a false sense of self-determination and agency. In this paper I am going to examine how training montages in Hollywood motion pictures become symbols for the idea of easy transformation.