COLLAGE REPORT

-Vyom Ramani (2898)

Using this collage, I am attempting to showcase the work of the directors who made Soviet
Montage what it is. It all began after the Russian revolution, when the Moscow Film School
was established mainly to spread propaganda using cinema as a medium. However, over here
instead of making films, they studied the theories of films like “The Birth of a Nation” and
“Intolerance”. These intricate studies and editing of these films led to the making of one of
the earliest forms of montage called “The Kuleshov Effect” by Lev Kuleshov. As seen in the
collage, the same shot of the man when cut with other shots conveys different emotions, for
example, with the soup, it shows hunger; with the coffin, it shows sadness and with the
woman, it shows lust. Using the Kuleshov effect as a base, Sergei Eisenstein made his own
theory of montage which showed 5 types of Montages; Metric, Rhythmic, Tonal, Overtonal
and intellectual. In metric montage, the scenes are paced according to the metre (pacing) of
the music being played. Rhythmic Montage is used to maintain the pace and continuity of any
scene. Tonal Montage is when two shots with similar emotional tones are edited together.
Overtonal Montage is a when multiple types of montages are used in the same scene.
Intellectual Montage is edited to showcase intellectual ideas. Some examples of these are
seen in movies like “Man with a Movie Camera” by Dziga Vertov, “Battleship Potemkin” by
Sergei Eisenstein, “The End of St. Petersburg” by Vsevolod Pudovkin. There have been some
modern adaptations of montages as well and some of them are parodies of earlier films like
“Battleship Potemkin”, these adaptations are in “The Age of Innocence”, “Untouchables”,
“The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and “Star Wars”.