Thursday, 6 December 2012

Montage

Montage is featured in a variety of different films/music videos/TV programmes. It is an effective way of getting messages to audiences, setting the atmosphere/tone of the proceedings/good opening sequence.
For example, in the opening sequence of 'This Is England' there is a montage of clips from the 1980's, setting the tone of the film, it has political, popular, influencing and urban aspects of the introduction. Layered over the top of the montage is a song by Toots and the Maytals called "54-56 was my number". In an interview Shane Meadows said that they picked the music before they planned the shots. So using this song was decided before they even thought about using montage.
This is effective as the film has not started yet, but you get a feel for what is to come and what to expect. It is a foreshadowing method. It is also a very specific way to target audiences. For example, people with an interest in Politics, music, war, dancing etc, will take interest in this montage.

Another example is in 'The Killing' and 'Homeland', 2 TV dramas, they both use montage as a way of introducing charters and setting the tone of the rest of the hour of the show. This is an effective way of opening what is going to happen because it manages to show you enough of what has happened and what is going to happen in the montage.
The Killing's montage is edited in a slightly more edgy way than Homeland's, it is a little more distorted and the music that lays over the top is more mysterious and concerning also. It does not reveal as much information as for example Homeland does, it is more suggestive rather than just showing the audience.
 
Recently in a music video by Sub Focus ft. Alpines called 'Tidal Wave' it features patches of montage which has inspired us to use montage in our music video because of the effectiveness of 'Tidal Wave'.
This music video is similar to ours due to the fact that a majority is filmed either at a beach, or on cliffs over-looking the beach. Montage in this video is edited to the beat of the song, enhancing the effectiveness of the continuous beat in the song. It also sets a scene for the video, almost like a title sequence. It introduces the surroundings by flashing shots of the location.


In our music video we plan to create a montage on the instrumental section about half way through the song. It will be edited to the beat, but as it is a fast-paced song, maybe every other beat as we are going to use some iconic shots linking in with our inter-textual references. (The French Lieutenants Woman) This links in with Goodwin's theory - There is often intertextual refernces.This is the element we are trying to highlight. The use of montage in our video will (hopefully) be effective, and the end result will fit with the rest of the video.

1 comment:

  1. Areas to revise:
    1) You say.......charters and setting the tone of the rest of the hour of the show....
    This is confused!

    2) When referencing an example of a music video which you have uploaded could you introduce the subject by explaining a little about the artist, the country of origin, when the video was releasedand any quotes from critics or users which you could evaluate.

    Also you should explain the actual purpose of the montage and how it adds to meaning.

    Do watch phraseology and use media language as much as possible.

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