There are endless creative possibilities when it comes to putting together a montage, but the basic elements which will make your sequence engaging remain the same across the board.įirst and foremost, given that film is a visual medium, the actual images you as a filmmaker choose to include in your montage are extremely important. No matter what type of story you’re looking to tell, you’ll find that incorporating a montage will help you keep your rhythm varied, your visuals engaging, and your plot efficient. Nowadays, there’s no shortage of inspiration to be tapped from existing films and TV, which have found many creative, out-of-the-box ways to execute this technique.

The craft of filmmaking has come a long way since the Soviet avant-garde era, but the use of montage is no less significant. Though there were some instances of montage in films made in the leadup to and during World War II, it wasn’t until American and British filmmakers started putting their own spin on this tool in the 1950s that it regained popularity and continued to evolve. Thanks to Kuleshov and Eisenstein’s critical work, filmmakers in the Soviet Union began using and experimenting with this technique.Īs Soviet power became increasingly strict and repressive, the usage of montage became less popular, giving way once again to simpler, stripped down techniques.

He determined that a film montage would, by definition, be made up of small pieces that lacked meaning alone but gained significance once strung together. Following Kuleshov’s lead, Sergei Eisenstein studied montage further.

Creative montage definition