Montage research

Montage -  A sequence representing a compressed amount of time in a storyline using pieces of work including photographs or moving images, usually also including music. Montages are used to speed up or slow down the pace of a story whilst keeping the audiences attention, keeping the key parts of the story and giving a sense of time. An example in Rocky, where the story includes a montage of the main character training over months amount of time. The further the montage progresses, the more intense the training becomes, therefore the stronger Rocky becomes- Examples of montages like Rocky are Hollywood/ more modern based, in comparison to early 1900's films with the practise of soviet montage. 

Kuleshov effect- A editing theory discussed by Lev Kuleshov, the act of using a characters expressionless face out of context, then adding shots in sequence and having the audience interpret what emotion the character is showing, depending on the next shot. Kuleshov felt that one frame may not be enough to portray a characters feeling, therefore giving the audience two/more separate shots for subconscious interpretation. His experiment proved that the audiences perception changed each time they were given a different situation, even though the characters face remained the same. 

Kuleshov's effect is used to modern day globally by filmmakers, an example being Everything, Everything. In the scene, Maddy looks out her window. Her face shown below. Without given context, Maddy could be looking at anything, e.g -

If looking at stars or the night sky, she looks intrigued and innocent. 

If looking into the street at a group of friends misbehaving, she looks rebellious, seems like she wants to join. 

Soviet montage- A particular type of montage that incorporates various shots, relying heavily on editing to create alternate meanings bigger than what would be visually evident. Originating during the time period of 1920's to the 1930's with Russian history, when Filmmakers found themselves short on film supplies due to the Russian revolution. Sprouting off Kuleshov's work, one of Kuleshov's students named Sergei Eisenstein was famously known for using the technique, his main goal being that he took propaganda in Russian society and presented it in a demolishing way, contributing to a revolutionised society. His Soviet montages would include altered images, depending on their composition and movement, time on screen, background information and how all of this would affect the audiences feelings. His most known montage, "Strike" practises the 'intellectual montage' theory that Eisenstein explored, along with 3 others.
Intellectual or dialectical montage - A series of moving images composed by the filmmaker that have subtle messages, deeper than whats visually seen. 
"Strike" Includes footage of two significant events, one being a bull butchered, the other of civilians going to war. Though visually separate, the meanings behind what is being shown proves the same - at the beginning, the bulls are running, as are the people. Theoretically speaking, they're running towards danger. This is labelled as "The carnage" After footage of people being shot and running with the bull being butchered, the next stage,"The defeat" consists of both the animal and thousands of people dead. 

A modern example of intellectual montage is included in a music video for band The 1975. The video contrasts between visually pleasing aesthetics of the band playing, to raw, impactful footage of global issues.The video challenges the audiences ideas on society. 

Another one of Eisenstein films including soviet montage is Battleship Potemkin. In the sequence "Odessa Steps," the perception of time is stretched. Included in the shot is footage of an incident that in real life would take a couple minutes, but in the montage, has been stretched to last 7 minutes. 

Associative or tonal montage - A series of unrelated clips, used to make the audience feel, not think about what they're seeing. Used more commonly in Hollywood music videos as an aesthetic. This type of montage practises Einsteins theories of collision. An example being a music video by group Oh Wonder. The video consists of random activities undertaken by various amounts of people, with no clear meaning or intention, but a positive and uplifting emotion.