Intro – Film’s are built on many elements after the filming is complete. One of those elements is the way the shots are cut together or the editing of the film. One of the pioneers of this idea was a man called Sergei Einstein, a Soviet director, born 1898. Famous for films such as Battleship Potemkin and Ivan the Terrible. One of his ideas is that there are 5 methods of montage. To this day most directors follow these ideas, one of which being Edgar Wright, born 1974. A modern director who’s becoming quite well known for his work on films such as Shaun Of The Dead and Baby Driver. Today I’ll be looking at how modern directors, such as Edgar Wright, still follow Sergei Einstein’s ideas of Montage and the influence that Einstein has left upon the film industry. for this study, I’ll be looking at Sergei Einsteins Strike, as well as Edgar Wrights Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.
Point 1 – Sergei Einstein suggested that there are 5 main methods of montage, the first of which being metric montage. Metric montage is a form of editing, where the length of each shot is based purely on the length of each shot, rather than being dependent on the contents of each shot. Metric Montage is meant to give the audience adrenaline, making them feel panicked. A quote from Sergi Einstein’s book ‘Film Form’ on Metric montage states… “The fundamental criterion for this construction is the absolute lengths of the pieces. The pieces are joined together according to their lengths, in a formula-scheme corresponding to a measure of music. Realization is in the repetition of these ‘measures’.” I think a good way of describing metric montage, is in an example given by Sergi Einstine later in this book. It goes ” A similar example may be found in Vertov’s Eleventh Year, where the metric beat is mathematically so complex that it is only ‘with a ruler’ that one can discover the proportional law that governs it. ” where Einstein says ‘only With a ruler’ is the perfect definition of metric montage, because Metric montage is not something that happens due to what happens in the clips, but rather based purely on length.
In strike, there’s an example of this just after the worker “Yakov Strongen” has committed suicide. The first example of metric montage here is while the old Capitalist is getting beat up. The cuts here are made to a rhythm, regardless of the content of the shot. There’s another example a few moments later just after a worker shouts “Stop Work!. In both of these examples, metric montage is used to show us the audience that the workers are rushing, acting on instinct.
While in Scott Pilgrim vs the world is Scott’s battle Vs. the third ex-boyfriend. In this scene, it cuts between the 2 characters to a beat that’s getting faster throughout. Here metric montage is used to build up tension through the battle, making this bass battle more intense. The use of metric montage gives the audience the feeling of the rhythm of the battle, as the battle is a musical one after all. Shocking right?
Point 2 – The next 3 methods of montage are Rhythmic, Tonal and overtone. But for the sake of time- I’ll focus in on Tonal montage. Referencing back to Sergi Einstines book, ‘Film Form’, Einstien says that ” In tonal montage, movement is perceived in a wider sense. The concept of movement embraces all effects of the montage piece. Here montage is based on the characteristic emotional sound of the piece-of it’s dominant. The general tone of the piece. “. In essence, Tonal montage is when two clips are linked via a visual or audio medium, in order to transition between or connect the two shots.
(34:50) Strike uses tonal montage to connect the working class with the capitalist bourgeoisie, Einstien does this with the medium of smoke, first with a child making a make-shift chimney, to a working-class man smoking a cigarette, to the capitalist smoking a cigar. This use of tonal montage connects the three clips, which shows off that we’re all the same regardless of class or age.
While in Scott Pilgram, when Scott is thrown into a dream sequence, where he’s trapped in a desert, here a different form of Tonal montage is used, where a shining light is used to transition into the dream, while the dust from Ramona’s roller skates are used as a visual transition of mist into the next scene. The effect these transitions give off is the idea that all of this is happening so fluently, he’s drifting in and out of this dream so smoothly and naturally.
point 3 – The final method of montage comes in the form of intellectual montage. Einstein defines this method of montage as ” Intellectual montage is montage not of generally physiological overtonal sounds, but of sounds and overtones of an intellectual sort: i.e., conflict-juxtaposition of accompanying intellectual affects. ” or another way of putting it, intellectual montage is when two clips that seem to have no relational, are given meaning together- suggesting that the two clips hold a strong connection, by playing one after another.
For example, in Sergi Einstein’s Strike, the scene at the end of the film where the police are beating up the workers from the factory. At the same time, a clip of a cow being slaughtered is played over the top of the clip. This is there as a metaphor of the police, who are slaughtering the defenceless workers as if they were a cow being bought to the slaughter. It’s a subtle technique that can only be achieved through the medium of film, where editing can bring two seemingly un-related scenes together, to form a third meaning through connotation and association.
intellectual montage can be used in another way though, as such this example in Scott Pilgrim, where Intellectual montage is shown off a couple times, but always in a similar way. For instance, the scene where Steven Still leads everyone to a party. in the first shot, he is in a band room with the rest of the band. As he walks off the screen, the next shot it taken from the street as they walk to a party, but the way it’s edited it’s made to seem like one shot. A similar thing happens later on when Scott wakes up just before he’s introduced to the Katayanagi Twins . Where Scott turns to face the camera, just for the shot to change to one of Steven Stills doing the same thing. In Scott Pilgrim, intellectual montage is used to show how Scott is drifting through life, just as the audience are fluidly drifting through scenes. This makes the audience feel confused, and as if the film is going too fast, which is just how Scott feels in this film, eventually everything just becomes one big blur to him, and different parts of his life just seem to blur together.
Ending – Edgar Wright is only one of many directors who still use Sergi Einstein’s methods of montage, most modern directors tend to adopt his ideas, which proves Einstines theory right. Most editing can be boiled down to related to one of his 5 methods, This shows how Einsitne was clearly ahead of his time. Being one of the first world-renowned teachers in film, his influence is important for the film industry. he knew how to elicit emotion through different ways of editing films, and modern director have taken note of that and took heavy influence from him.
