In the framework of film and media aesthetics, a montage is the thematic placement and arrangement of event images that once arranged, create a greater event or portrays a deeper meaning. A montage is a technique that allows producers to swiftly reveal certain event details in a quicker, more condensed manner. Montages can sometimes build a narrative by use of images, scenes or sequences. An analytical montage is one that analyzes and event for its thematic and structural elements, selects the vital elements, and then synthesizes them into an intensified screen event. Sequential analytical montages are when the event is shown as the original cause/effect relationship within the same continuous time it would normally happen. Sectional analytical
This analysis will explore these cinematic techniques employed by Pontecorvo within a short sequence and examine their effects on our understanding of the issues and themes raised within the film.
The movie Gangs of New York takes place in Lower Manhattan’s Five Points’ neighborhood. It begins in 1846. The main protagonist Amsterdam Fallon, Priest Fallon’s son, watches his father who is the leader of the Dead Rabbit gang prepare and die in battle. As his father is on his last breadths of life giving his son counsel, Billy “the Butcher” Cutting snaps the Priest Fallon’s head. Amsterdam runs away from Cuttings henchmen to hide his father’s knife before he is captured by the Natives gang. He is taken to Hellgate orphanage. In 1862 Amsterdam returns to Five Point’s neighborhood and finds his old friend Johnny Sirocco. Johnny works now for Billy “the Butcher” and introduces Amsterdam to Cutting. Amsterdam makes his way into Cutting’s inner circle of Natives. Amsterdam also meets Jenny Everdeane while hanging out with Johnny. She bumps into Johnny to pickpocket his watch. Amsterdam notices and lets Johnny know. Johnny claims he always lets her take things. As both Cutting and Jenny take a liking to Amsterdam Johnny becomes jealous. He notices young Vallon quickly making his way into Cutting’s gang’s high ranks and into Jenny’s heart. Out of jealousy, Johnny reveals Amsterdam’s true identity to Cutting. Cutting decides to make Vallon angry. He succeeds by playing a dangerous game that involves knives with Jenny at the annual celebration of Priests Vallon’s death. Amsterdam then attempts to assassinate Cutting but fails and is taught a lesson by Cutting. Amsterdam lives at the help of Jenny. To avenge his father he starts the outlawed Dead Rabbit gang up again. He proposes a challenge to Cutting after his friend “Monk” McGinn is killed by Cutting. The fight takes place at Five Points’ neighborhood on the day the ...
The film in which I have chosen to focus on throughout the semester is that of Stephen King’s Carrie (1976). While reviewing the film, I noticed the use of montage during the ending prom scene when Carrie has become enraged with anger, and begins murdering her tormentors. The montage begins shortly after the pig’s blood is poured on her, and the editing swifts to slow-motion. The sound of her mother saying “They’re all going to laugh at you” starts repeating in Carrie’s mind while she glances at classmates as they are laughing. This is all done in a way that seems like a part of her imagination, since the images are shown in a kaleidoscope like effect. Consequently, the scene quickly changes to a faster pace with a split-scene as she uses her powers to wreak havoc which ultimately kills everyone. These separate scenes were put together to create a cause and effect while also speeding up the process. This forms of montage is very different from one that was viewed during class, mainly due to the use of editing techniques.
Vertov uses montage make the viewer understand the connection between individual potential and societal potential, and furthermore, how technology is able to factor into this connection. To achieve his goal, Vertov uses one scene which begins with a close-up, eye-level of a woman cleaning her face with a towel (Vertov, 11’42”-12’11”). The use of a close-up, eye-level shot pins the viewer on the woman’s eyes. The woman abruptly peers up, and as she does so, Vertov fluidly cross cuts to a close up shot of blinds of a window looking out the city opening, successfully blending together the motion of both shots. The window of the house is a unit of the community, and by blending the motion of the woman’s eyes with the blinds of the windows house, Vertov establishes the woman as a unit of her greater society. Vertov uses another crosscut to connect the shot of the blinds to a close up shot of a camera. The camera focuses in and out on a subsequent close-up shot of flowers. Just as the woman can use
In the documentary “Fed Up,” sugar is responsible for Americas rising obesity rate, which is happening even with the great stress that is set on exercise and portion control for those who are overweight. Fed Up is a film directed by Stephanie Soechtig, with Executive Producers Katie Couric and Laurie David. The filmmaker’s intent is mainly to inform people of the dangers of too much sugar, but it also talks about the fat’s in our diets and the food corporation shadiness. The filmmaker wants to educate the country on the effects of a poor diet and to open eyes to the obesity catastrophe in the United States. The main debate used is that sugar is the direct matter of obesity. Overall, I don’t believe the filmmaker’s debate was successful.
In the film V for Vendetta the director James Mcteigue uses a range of different film techniques in order to gain the audience's attention and to make the movie more interesting. The four film techniques I’m going to focus on in this essay are editing, music, camera angles and the lighting. I am going to do this by analysing the ‘Domino Montage’ scene.
The film Sunset Boulevard, presented in 1950 is a black and white film. The film is about Norma Desmond an old actress, who has issues accepting that she is becoming old. The main actor in the film is Gloria Swanson, who plays Norma Desmond, an older woman who believes she is still young. Desmond is not content with the fact that Hollywood has replaced her with younger actresses. The next actor Nancy Olson, plays Betty Schaffer who falls in love with Gillis despite being engaged to his friend. The third actor is William Holden who plays as Joe Gillis, who has financial problems and decides to turn himself into a gigolo to earn money. The dilemma with Joe is he does not want Betty to know about his job because he knows he might lose Betty as
Analyze a film shot or scene to explain how filmmakers use cinematic techniques to tell a story, develop characters, create atmosphere, and evoke emotions.
Filmmaker and theorist, Lev Kuleshov, is known today as the grandfather of Soviet Montage theory. His works include The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924), Death Ray (1925), The Great Consoler (1933) and We from the Urals (1943). Kuleshov’s life work has had a profound influence on the filmmakers around him and filmmakers today. One of his greatest triumphs was cofounding the Moskow Film School, the world’s first film school. In a time when filmmaking was still in its infancy, Kuleshov was perhaps the first to theorize about the power of this new story telling medium. These theories and experiments would pave the way for future Russian film giants like Pudovkin and Eisenstein (who briefly studied under him).
I watched a movie for the first time ever last night. That movie was Napoleon Dynamite. I’ve always heard funny lines and jokes from the movie so I decided to give up some of my time to watch it. Now I know you’re probably thinking ‘oh that movie is funny but dumb and doesn’t have anything to do with pop culture analysis.’ I beg to differ. In this movie we see a high school student, Napoleon who gets picked on for being a nerd. Many students in high school experience this kind of bullying. Nothing was done about Napoleon being bullied just like today, many people feel like teachers and administration don’t do anything for bullied students. Bullying is defined as “ to frighten, hurt, or threaten (a smaller or weaker person) : to act like
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
In scene 49, a 'montage ' shows the passage of time as Ricky Baker and Hector move through the woods as Paula, officers, and hunters chase after them. Except, instead of cutting between these moments in time, the camera slowly turns 780 degrees and characters appear and disappear in parts of the forest as needed. It 's a one-take montage. It 's a clever shot and it indicates Waititi is exploring other ways of presenting montages. It 's a very noticeable stylistic choice, but it doesn 't distract from what 's happening on screen. The montage itself is similar to previous ones in the film--passages of time are shown as humorous bits. The chase through the forest is a serious one--Hector is accused of molesting Ricky Baker and if Ricky Baker is caught, he would be sent to juvenile prison. And yet, since the film 's world includes incompetent police officers and hunters, the montage is
A genre is a type or category of film (or other work of art) that can be easily identified by specific elements of its plot, setting, mise en scène, character types, or style. (Goodykoontz, 2014) The gangster film is a sub-genre of the broader genre of crime film. A genre main objective is to classify the depiction of entertainment. The genre of my movie is a gangster film. My movie I chose was Scarface. Directed by Brian De Palma.An update of the 1932 film, Scarface (1983) follows gangster Tony Montana and his close friend Manny Ray from their trip on the Cuban Boat Lift for refugees to their arrival in Miami. (Scarface, 1983a)
Recently there has been an increase in movie adaptations of popular books. Novels from new teen fiction to classics are finding their way on screen. When the public hears their favorite book is being brought to life by Hollywood, excitement swells inside them. When the movie is revealed however the fans are let down because the story line has been altered in some way. Sometimes the sequence of events is out of order, an awesome scene is eliminated , or the cast just does not live up the characters in the original. The audience is constantly disappointed. They can't understand why Hollywood would mess up a story that is literally written for them. While many people believe that directors and screenwriters are unjustified in altering the movie, they actually have many reasons for making changes in the adaptation.
A good example for time alteration is the use of a montage, this can be used for training, such as that seen in Rocky, or for cleaning up a building destroyed and/or filthy from a party or years of abandonment. A montage represents the action(s) would take hours, days, or even weeks if shot in real time but because they are being shown in a film, the audience is shown flashes of scenes to represent the progress in mere minutes. Parallel editing is a favorite amongst narrative sequencing that focuses on more than one main character, in this editing multiple shots can be played side by side or cut to in rapid succession to show they are occurring at the same time, possibly referring to a convergence of two story arcs causing a change for the rest of the film. These scenes are meant to create suspense as the audience may be waiting for a detective to finally catch a long-hunted killer, a character performing a dangerous or risky action is about to be trapped in a terrible turn of coincidence, or an intense climax is about to take