soviet montage was film that heavily relied on editing and which could combine and contrast images to communicate ideas whilst using rhythm and pace of edition, and music, to change the audiences emotions.
Soviet montage began after the revolution when film stock was low, and film makers decided to experiment with found footage. The film makers found that the same shots could make a different story if they were placed differently. This became known as the Kuleshov effect after Lev Kuleshov showed shots of an actor, a bowl of soup, a coffin, and an attractive woman- and the audience said that the actor had different expressions to each thing, despite it being the same facial expression on the actor.
In Russia at this time there was a high demand for propaganda to be shown to undeucated people. Sergei Eisenstein wanted to use emotions and conflict ideas, such as in his film 'Strike' which showed a cow being slaughtered and then workers being killed. Then came the famous step sequence from 'Battleship Potempkin' which lasted 7 minutes rather than the three it would have in real time, therefore lengthening the time that people could feel emotions about it. Eisenstein also used vertical montage which involved how the image worked with the soundtrack.
Dziga Vertov used montage to make film making obvious for example 'man with a movie camera' was about how films were made which needed to show the above. He used imagery rather than explanations in his movies.
No comments:
Post a Comment