Soviet Montage Essay

Soviet Montage Essay

This is a type of montage that was first conceived by the soviet filmmakers, around the 1920s, thus it is known as “soviet montage”. In the beginnings of film, editing was notused at all, but little by little, it was incorporated in it. The soviet montage represents a big change in the conception of film, first of all because editing plays the most important part forachieving the purpose of the film, and because it introduces new ideas in the conception of how to make a film. As a part of the study of the soviet montage, we had to create a short video made fromappropriated footage using the editing techniques developed by the Russian filmmakers. However, the question that has to be asked is; was the objective fully accomplished?

Before answering the question,it is necessary to define what soviet montage is and what its characteristics are. The definition of soviet montage is quite a controversial topic, for there is no single universal definition for it.Nevertheless, one of the most widely accepted views of what it is, is Sergei Einsenstein’s. For him, it is “an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots where each sequential elementis perceived not next to the other, but on top of the other”. In the soviet montage new worlds are created because there is no spatial or temporary continuity because the shots are cut in certain partswhich take out this continuity from the film.

Einsenstein, in his essay “film form”, he divides the montage in five categories or methods; metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal and intellectual. Inthe metric montage, the images are cut after a specific number of frames have passed, no matter what was going on in the video. This type of montage is used for arouse feelings and emotions in people.The second type of montage described by Einsenstein, the rhythmic, includes cuts based on time and the speed of the cuts can vary in one film, and this is used to give a deeper message than the...