Methods Of Montage

Metric

Where the editing follows a specific number of frames (based purely on the physical nature of time), cutting to the next shot no matter what is happening within the image. This montage is used to elicit the most basal and emotional of reactions in the audience. 

Example from Eisenstein's October.

Rhythmic 

Includes cutting based on time, but using the visual composition of the shots, along with a change in the speed of the metric cuts, to induce more complex meanings than what is possible with metric montage. Once sound was introduced, rhythmic montage also included audial elements (music, dialogue, sounds). 

Example from The Battleship Potemkin

Tonal 

A tonal montage uses the emotional meaning of the shots - not just manipulating the temporal length of the cuts or its rhythmical characteristics - to elicit a reaction from the audience even more complex than from the metric or rhythmic montage. For example, a sleeping baby would emote calmness and relaxation. 

Example from Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin. 

Overtonal/Associational 

The overtonal montage is the accumulation of metric, rhythmic, and tonal montage to synthesize its effect on the audience for an even more abstract and complicated effect. 

Example from Eisenstein's Strike

Intellectual 

Uses shots which, combined, elicit an intellectual meaning. Intellectual montage examples from Eisenstein's October and Strike. In Strike, a shot of striking workers being attacked cut with a shot of a bull being slaughtered creates a film metaphor suggesting that the workers are being treated like cattle. This meaning does not exist in the individual shots; it only arises when they are juxtaposed.

Example from Eisenstein's Strike

Parallel editing

Parallel editing is a technique that allows two or more simultaneous sets of action to happen within a single film sequence. Its main uses are to; create tension, show more vantage points and can create dramatic irony. 

Crosscutting

Crosscutting is a technique that pieces together sequence that at occur at the same time, but in different places in order to create narrative tension. Crosscutting’s most famous practitioner was W.D.Griffiths, his collaboration of films contain textbook examples of crosscutting. Some of his pieces of work that include this editing type are; A Corner in Wheat and The Lonedale Operator.

Motivated Editing

In its most basic form, a motivated edit is one that alludes to something not in the frame and then cuts to that item or event. If you accept that any edit breaks the illusion of continuity, then we put forth that the motivated edit is one of the least jarring forms of transition. For this reason, it is used often in Hollywood-style narrative filmmaking. In its most basic form, a motivated edit is one that alludes to something not in the frame and then cuts to that item or event. You see it all the time in horror films: a woman is standing in a spooky place all alone and then hears a startling sound. She spins her head around and sees nothing. The sound then comes from another area, and the soon-to-be victim jerks her head in that direction. Eventually, the viewing audience gets to see the object of terror, usually along with a loud, startling sound. 

Shot- Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot (or shot/countershot) is a film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character. Since the characters are shown facing in opposite directions, the viewer assumes that they are looking at each other.

Example from The Hunger Games