Montage

Montage comes from the French word for assembly 'montage' hence the phrase "assembly edit". In French film making montage has a literal meaning and simply identifies editing, in soviet film making of the 1920's montage was a method of juxtaposing shots together to derive new meaning that did not exist in either shot by them selves, and in classic Hollywood film making montage sequences are shot segments in a film in which narrative information is presented in a condensed way.

Hollywood montage is a montage style that became a convention during the classical Hollywood era and has remained a very popular technique for directors and editors throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century. the montage sequence consists of a series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense narrative, it is usually used to advance the story as a whole rather then create symbolic meaning.

Soviet montage leans more toward creating symbolic meaning, Lev Kuleshov was a Soviet film maker and film theorist, one of the founders of the world's first film school, the Moscow Film School. for Kuleshov editing a film was like the construction of a building- brick by brick, shot by shot. Kuleshov conducted an experiment where he edited together a short film in which the expressionless face of Ivan Mosjoukine was altered with various other shots. soviet montage works because it is the audience that infer meaning based on what they see and the context provided.

In-Camera Editing

In-camera editing is an editing technique where the shots in scene are all shot in a sequence which is already in the right order, this means that during post production the editor doesn't need to cut any of the scenes together later on.

This requires all the sequences to be planed in the right order before any filming is done but since no editing is required later it can still save time depending on how big the plan is and how long it takes them to finish the plans.

An advantage of using in-camera editing is high budget filming would require more time and money to edit but if they use in-camera editing it could save on time and money which allows them more budget for other aspects of their filming.

Due to the simplicity of in-camera editing many new media students/creators will favor this as they may not have much experience with editing or because it might save them trying to do any editing later on, it also can be seen as an educational medium because of time and organizational skills that are required.

180 Degree Rule

Creating pace

Creating pace in editing a film is when a films speed changes, by either getting faster or slowing down during certain parts of the film, an editor can create pace in a scene by moving from longer to shorter takes or by using fewer cuts in a given time to many cuts in a given time. The pacing in a film might increase because of the rising action during a scene, the time for the film is running out, to mount more tension in scenes or to increase the stakes in a scene.

Combining shots into sequences

Combining shots into sequences refers to the editors primary responsibility, this includes to cut selected shot together in such a way that the story told in the script and captured through image, sound and performance in production is preserved.
This can be achieved in all genres by establishing setting with wide shot, characters with medium shots and emotion through close shots.

Continuity editing and montage editing are the main two ways of combining shots into sequences. Continuity editing refers to making the editing smooth and fluid, so all the cuts flow together making it seem that there is minimal editing involved. Montage editing refers to making the editing more apparent as well as editing together less clearly related material, this challenges the viewers to make abstract connections between the different shots.

Creating Motivation

Shot motivation is when one shot motivates another shot, action in one shot can imply another kind of action in a subsequent shot or call for it or demands it. when a scene of action demands some sort of response it will drive the narrative forward. Film makers usually agree on the point that all shots whether static or moving should be motivated. An example of creating motivation would be a character looking at something or someone in a particular way, then that shot is cut to the next one of what the character is looking at. This helps us to understand why they were looking at the person/object in the way they are and we get a feeling of the purpose as to why the object or person was significant to the character in the previous shot.

Relationship to genre

The relationship to genre in editing refers to how the different shots are sequenced together are influenced by the genre of film.

In a drama an editor may use a wide  shot to start a scene to show the distance (physically and emotionally) between characters. an editor may shorten shots as the drama meets its peak, wide shot to medium shot to close up, the closer the shot the more emotion will be seen in the characters.

In an action or adventure film the editor may need to keep switching between wider shots which establish where the characters are as well as it covers a lot of the action that is going on to close ups on certain characters as it gives more details on action points as well as showing emotions that characters are going through as the action unfolds (wide production values shots to close coverage).

In a horror film the editor will use long shots over a longer period of time where there is minimal movement with occasional close ups on characters faces to show their emotions as the scene builds up, the longer the scene the more stillness is created and the more the audience anticipates something bad to happen or something to go wrong giving the audience more to fear adding to the immense tension of a horror scene.