Metric Editing – Based on the length of a shot. It creates the tempo of the film.

The iconic training montage of Rocky uses metric editing combining the length of the shots and the music to create a music video feel.

Rhythmic Montage – Based on both the length of a show and the dynamics of the scene. This technique considers the need to provide continuity of action within a scene.

The final scene of Whiplash uses fast cut editing matching the beat of the music that the character is playing.

Tonal Editing Montage – Focuses in the light, shadows, and colours of the edited scenes to provide an overall “mood”.

Battleship Potemkin is a film made entirely out of montage.

Over-Tonal Method – Brings together the first three methods (time/rhythm/colour) in a combined (holistic) approach.

In the movie UP. When the wife passes away a montage is shown. The use of music, colour and shot length created an over-tonal method. This combines different elements of film to create a mood.

The Intellectual Method – The most complex method and Eisenstein’s favourite – Creates new meaning by combining shots on the basis of a conceptual connection between them.

The Kuleshov effect is an intellectual montage. It’s use of this is in many films now a days.

Identify at least one or more films which appear to have been influenced by the visual style of classic Soviet Constructivist Cinema.

              The Breakfast Club:

Soviet Constructivism Cinema used a lot of montages. In ‘The Breakfast Club’ montages are constantly used to show the passage of time of the students in detention.

Battleship Potemkin:

 The dominance of red and black was used in many Soviet films. In ‘Battleship Potemkin’ the whole film is in black but there are clear thing such as a red flag and blood which represent the alertness of the colour red.

Name at least 3 other films identified by critics as classic constructivist films.

The Diplomatic Pouch (1927)

The Diplomatic Pouch is a 1927 Soviet silent thriller film directed by Oleksandr Dovzhenko. The first two parts of the film are lost

Mother, (1926), Vsevolod Pudovkin

Pelageya can’t undertand why her son is organizing a workers’ strike, while her boorish husband is trying to suppress it. When the latter is killed, Pelageya unwittingly gives up her son to the authorities, and is horrified when he is sent to jail. Gradually, as she begins to understand her son’s ideological position, she commits herself to the revolutionary cause and fights to free her son.

The End of St Petersburg-Vsevolod Pudovkin (1927)

A Russian peasant unwittingly becomes a scab, putting him at odds with a relative leading the strike.

How does the Gerasimov institute operate now?

The VGIK in Moscow, Russia has changed significantly since its founding in 1919 by the film director Vladimir Gardin. It is the oldest film school in the world.

Its work in the early years was hampered by the shortage of film stock. During the period of the Soviet Union it was a requirement of the state to attend VGIK in order to be allowed to direct a film.

More recently, its alumni were drawn from the USSR. In 2023, it remains one of the most prestigious film schools in the world. The school has become more focused on international collaboration and has opened its doors to students from around the world.

Describe some of the stylistic conventions associated with the expressionist art movement. Post some additional examples if constructivist art.

These pieces of art use extreme angles, flattened forms, garish colours, and distorted views. This art style flourished between 1905 and 1920, especially in Germany and Austria.

Explain how the political, social and economic upheaval created by the aftermath of both the Russian Revolution and WW1 affected the production and content of classic Soviet Constructivist Cinema.

WW1 and The Russian Revolution had significant impacts on classic Soviet constructionist cinema.

Cinema was a tool for propaganda designed to inspire the working class and promote socialist views. The films often depicted the struggles of being in the working class and the countries developments in technology. Almost every film illustrated how a collective society is better than an individualist one.

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/7f1139b6-8b6b-410e-9837-c2fe45db587c

Identify at least one film which appears to have been influenced by the visual style of classic German Expressionist Cinema:

The Nightmare Before Christmas by Tim Burton

Jack Skellington, a being from Halloween Town, finds Christmas Town and is instantly enchanted. The situation becomes riveting when his obsession with Christmas leads him to abduct Santa Claus.

There were many similarities in set design and costume between “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.

Make-up:

Cesare heavily inspired Jack Skellington’s look. Both have very pale white skin resembling a dead person, they both also have black surrounding their eyes creating an unhuman feel.

Costume:

Both Jack and Cesare have very thin legs and a wide ribcage. They are clothed with a full black pantsuit. Covering their arms and legs.

Set:

Both movies include outside eerie sets. In these specific photos they are both in elevated places with the same camera shot and angle the same to show the height of the structures.

Name at least 3 other films from this period which were being directly influenced by classic German Expressionist films:

Vertigo (1958) by Alfred Hitchcock

Detective Scottie who suffers from acrophobia is hired to investigate the strange activities of an old friend’s wife. She commits suicide while Scottie becomes dangerously obsessed with her.

Stranger on the Third Floor by Boris Ingster

Michael Ward, a reporter witnesses a murder at the diner. His influential evidence is enough to prove the accused guilty for the murder. But Ward is clueless about the new secrets yet to be revealed.

Touch of Evil (1958) by Orson Welles

When a car bomb explodes on the American side of the U.S./Mexico border, Mexican drug enforcement agent Miguel Vargas (Charlton Heston) begins his investigation, along with American police captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles). When Vargas begins to suspect that Quinlan and his shady partner, Menzies (Joseph Calleia), are planting evidence to frame an innocent man, his investigations into their possible corruption quickly put himself and his new bride, Susie (Janet Leigh), in jeopardy.