One thought on “Montage Group 2 – Kyi, Gill, Roy, West

  1. Katherine Gill Post author

    Montage Manifesto
    Cori West, Georgia Roy, Katie Gill, Khando Kyi
    3/21/11

    We interpreted this song to be about the pain and fear associated with change, even if that change is positive. Although the lyrics seem to deal directly with change in relationships we felt that this could be expanded into a boarder context and this is what we aimed to show in our video. Our main focuses in shooting this film were juxtapositions of day versus night, winter versus spring, and movement versus stability. We tried to show various combinations of these shots with or without people in order to bring to light the loneliness often involved in these transitions.

    We wanted to convey a mood or emotion and we felt that the combination of images used in the montage format does this better than the linear plots used in long takes. The reason that the montage format is able to convey our meaning so well is that we were able to use the comparison in images to show a change. As Eisenstein said in his essay, “The combination of two representable objects achieves the representation of something that cannot be graphically represented” (16). In our case, this representation is of the pain and fear of change. An example of this representation is the combination of images of each us looking upwards juxtaposed with the bright flash of the distorted sun. Another example is in the final sequence of our montage, where shots of us walking away from the camera are juxtaposed with a shaky and unstable point of view shot of footprints. This juxtaposition is meant to convey the feelings of an upset person, shaking and possibly even crying as they approach the future. Even though there is visible sunlight over the hill, they must first pass though the literal and metaphorical forest of uncertainty to get there-a terrifying process.

    The form of montage allowed us to have repetition in the short film, which permitted us to repeat shots such as the sun and the swing set. These shots promoted continuity, despite the various settings of our shots. Montage also allowed us to repeat the same shot right next to each other, such as the long shot of Katie falling in the snow, and the boot splashing into the water. The falling shot shows the struggles in life, and later when Katie is shown again, it shows that you can come back from those hardships. The repeated shots of the boot splashing in the water symbolizes the missteps that happen in life, and how they can happen over and over again.

    The various techniques and freedom that montage allows helped to convey our mood and theme of the film despite the lack of a distinct plot.

    Works Cited
    Eisenstein, Sergei, and Jay Leyda. Film Form: Essays in Film Theory. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1977.

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