Analysis:
First, the concept of montage
First, the main points of the concept of montage
Montage, originated from French MONTER, is a term in French architecture. Its original meaning means collection, composition and combination. We borrow this term from film and television art, which means that lens groups are connected according to certain purposes and procedures to form a complete film and television art work, which is a qualitative leap.
Film pioneers and film theorists have many definitions or explanations of montage. For example:
Meng Daqi is the language of film directors. Just like the language in life, there are "words", that is, a piece, and "sentences", that is, the combination of these fragments.
-pudovkin: "Film Directors and Film Materials"
From the unfolding theme elements, take out two fragments, A and B, and juxtapose them to form an image that best expresses the theme content.
-Eisenstein: Montage at 1938
Roma thinks: "This is the artist's idea, his thoughts and his view of the world. This kind of vision is reflected in how to choose the lens and lens contrast, so that the film action becomes the most expressive and thoughtful form. " (Rome: On Montage); Metz believes that montage in a broad sense is "organizing the combined elements into a movie chain through appropriate ways"; Jacques? In film aesthetics, Omon and others think: "Montage is the principle of determining the fabric form of the elements by juxtaposing and connecting the video and audio elements of the film and/or determining the time length, or the combination principle of these elements." Zhang, a famous director in China, thinks: "The meaning of montage has at least the following aspects: (1) the organizational relationship of the picture (lens); (2) the organizational relationship between sound and music; (3) the organizational relationship between pictures and sound music; (4) The significance and function of these organizational relationships. " (Zhang Junxiang: On the Special Means of Expression of Film) I think: Montage is an important means of expression of film and television art, and it is the general name of the forms and methods of film and television composition. The unity of sound picture and montage makes film and television have the ability to reproduce the real world in all forms of motion. Montage is a special film and television language that can be compared with literary language and musical language.
As a unique film and television language, montage has rich connotations and complete concepts. In his book "Montage Principles", Mr. Deng summarized the montage theories of all countries in the world into nine types:
1. montage is the method of lens editing;
2. Montage is the method of lens combination;
3. Montage is the conflict of shots;
4. Montage is a method to deal with reality;
5. Montage is a method to imitate the observer's attention;
6. Montage is a special technique of film;
7. Montage is the decomposition and combination of actions:
8. Montage is the structural method of scenes and paragraphs in movies;
9. Montage is a method of time modeling in movies.
Montage is a structural method held by film and television. Its function comes from the combination of different lenses. It has the function of organizing, creating and adjusting the rhythm. I think montage should be understood from the following aspects.
(A), the principle of montage
Montage has its own set of principles, that is, montage principle. Its principle does not come out of thin air, but has sufficient life foundation, physiological foundation, audio-visual aesthetic foundation and psychological foundation. Cameras and video recorders represent people's eyes, and the lens reflects people's habits and ways of observing things and exploring various phenomena, which can not only be farsighted, panoramic and macroscopic; You can also observe it carefully, explore it in caves and examine it with a microscope. The lens looks like the eyes are flexible, or inclined up and down, back and forth, left and right, or continuous gaze, or selective gaze, whole and division, stillness and flow, order and jump, imitation and selection, reproduction and expression, clarity and ambiguity ... It forms TV aesthetic and viewing behavior according to specific media factors.
A movie, TV series or TV art film is always made up of multiple lens groups. "I didn't hear anything, I didn't write anything." Just one shot can't constitute a modern film and television work. Meng Daqi is the product of mobile phone photography and editable and bondable wave plate. It is one of the main narrative means and expressive means of film and television art. A TV movie and TV series are always divided into many segments. The method of combining several segments into scenes, several scenes into paragraphs and several paragraphs into a movie is called montage. It is "a segmentation and combination method developed to a perfect form with the help of film technology" (pudovkin's collected works, page 15l). Pudovkin thinks; A shot is just a word, a concept of space, and a dead object. Only by putting it with other objects can the film be given life. Kuleshov, a famous old director of the former Soviet Union, and his students Eisenstein and pudovkin first explored the mystery of montage seriously. Kuleshov once did such a montage experiment: select a large close-up of the famous actor Mo Youxin's expressionless face from an old movie, and connect three different shots-a plate of soup, a coffin and a little girl playing in front of it, from which the different meanings of "hunger", "grief" and "kindness" are extended. This experiment is called "Curry Schouw Effect". Pudovkin has also done similar montage experiments of "showing cowardice" and "showing courage". When a person faces a pistol, whether it is associated with "frightened face" or "a person is laughing", the effect is the opposite. The former is timid, the latter is brave.
1. A person is laughing.
2. pointing a pistol-showing cowardice
3. A frightened face
1. frightened face
2. pistol aiming-show courage
3. A person is laughing
Through the above experiments, pudovkin came to the conclusion that every single shot is a dead matter, and only by combining them can we get life. However, in fact, every single gun has its potential, and pudovkin is biased. He only emphasized the combination of shots, but ignored the significance of a single shot. You know: a shot is an indispensable part of the whole movie. The content of a single shot often determines the meaning of group connection. In the Soviet montage school, there are differences between Eisenstein and pudovkin. Eisenstein thinks that "montage is conflict", and pudovkin thinks that "montage is just a combination of shots". The former emphasizes that the conflict between the two elements produces a new concept; The latter focuses on strengthening the narrative power of movies. Is to clarify a theme,
Eisenstein is versatile. He is proficient in English, French, German and Spanish, and has also studied Japanese. He found in Japanese characters and hieroglyphics in China that the structure of Chinese characters contains montage factors, such as: ten dogs with mouths = ten barking dogs = ten dogs with mouths = ten products with mouths.
Eisenstein was fascinated by hieroglyphics and traced their roots and radicals in China. For example, the word "horse" still maintains the meaning of this radical word-the image of a horse, whether riding, galloping, riding, driving. And so on. "Tears" is a conventional picture, showing the water side plus a person's eyes; "Listening" is the image of an ear leaning against the door; "forbearance" is to add heart to the sword, that is, ten hearts are equal to forbearance. It's a pity that Eisenstein didn't read Ma Zhiyuan's Jing Tian Sand and other China classical poems, and he couldn't understand the works of Li Changgong, Wu and others.
Co-writing the article "Montage of Movies and Fu, Bi and Xing of Poetry" will be more enlightening and meaningful. Take Tianjingsha as an example:
The old vine is a faint crow, the bridge is flowing, the old road is a thin horse with a west wind, and the sun sets, and the heartbroken people are in the end of the world.
This poem has only 28 Chinese characters, including 12 relatively independent image shots. The first sentence uses the declining scenery-"dead vines", "old trees" and "dim crows", just like Bella? Balaz said: "Once the upper and lower lenses are connected, the extremely rich meanings hidden in each lens are emitted like sparks." From quantitative change to qualitative change, that is, three video shots constitute a unified new idea-a "bleak". Eisenstein believes that the juxtaposition of several montage shots is not addition, but multiplication-the product of two numbers. The second sentence is also a pair of three images-"bridge", "running water" and "people".
Column and collision form a new tone-"loneliness", which is quiet, far away from the world, isolated from the world, lonely and lost. The third sentence is also the lens of three images-"ancient road", "west wind" and "thin horse". A continuation, a symbol, an association and three video shots constitute a new idea of "wandering" (an ancient road leading to the end of the world without grass). When the sun sets, heartbroken people are at the end of the world, which means "when the sun sets, the good times will not last long" and "nostalgia" (relatives are far away and full of worries). The whole poem is as expensive as gold, and the scenery words are all sentimental. "There is a real meaning in this, but I forget what I said when I tried to distinguish it" (Tao Qian). The images, scenery, meaning beyond rhyme and meaning beyond taste between the lines are beyond the interpretation ability of my generation. If the truth is between the lines, then the mystery of TV art is often hidden in the gap and combination between two shots.
Film montage is a unique structural method of film and television art, and it is also a structural method on which TV works of art are built. It is equivalent to the grammar of the article, so it is very important. The director should not only study the performance of the lens in different scenes, but also pay attention to the artistic effect produced by the lens connection. A director should have a whimsy in the use of the lens, which restricts the purpose and weight of each lens, including length, speed, weight, thick ink and light pen, or prominence, or passing, or microscope, or scanning, or rendering, or sketching, or coherence, or jumping, or symbol, or metaphor, or hint, or suspense, or care, or flashback, or association, or association.
(B) Montage mode of thinking
Montage is a way of thinking for film and television artists to know and understand life, and an artistic method to reflect life. That is, montage thinking mode-thinking in images. Film and television directors use montage language to conceive future works (movies). When conceiving, we should pay attention to the lens design, mobilize various elements of film and television (including visual elements and auditory elements), and do not enter, light, sound, color, scenery, objects, space, composition, special effects, etc. It can be said that the beauty of painting is combined with audio-visual entertainment, and performance, photography, scenery, art, props, clothing, recording, architecture and makeup are equal to one furnace. Grasp it through the whole art, connect it through the lens, and rely on "imagination and image"
Fly into the distance ",produce visual images, and form a series of" invisible "future screen images, with sound pictures, thousands of miles in size, thousands of miles in weather and vivid pictures.
With montage thinking, the director has a lens in his head and a soundtrack in his chest (including the overall idea and sound soundtrack), and announces the shooting step by step, and carries out artistic processing in the early and late stages according to the script and storyboard, and finally completes the finished TV art product.
(C), montage art aesthetics
As a rhetorical device of film and television, it produces a strong artistic effect through metaphor and rhythm.