Montage Editing
I used uncopyrighted music so was able to upload to YouTube.
To prepare for the Montage task, I read a chapter from both Voice & Vision and The Filmmaker's Handbook. These were both interesting and informative chapters on the history of montage and it's creators. It gave me insight into how a montage is expected to look and what montages are used for; both reaction sequences, time-moving sequences, and action sequences. This therefore allowed me to come up with some idea as to how I was going to create my final montage sequence. During the pre- and production stages I was able to choose which piece of music I wanted to use and which bits of footage to use in my work. It was difficult choosing key shots from 1hr30mins and even more difficult choosing a piece of music that would suit to work my chosen theme of conspiracy. The footage was full of a variety of shots and so it was relatively easy to find something to suit my theme. I was able to find two shots that worked well as a motif - one that was obvious, and another slightly more metaphorical - a woman on a typewriter and rats trapped in a box. The result of the motifs allow my spectators to link them to the disaster they see on-screen. To get my edit cut between 60 and 90 seconds, I had to edit the piece of music down, finding places where there were repetitions in the song and cut bits out to make them fit. I chose to edit quite quick shots together to create a tense sequence, and I also wanted to keep my audience engaged throughout. I overlayed some of the clips in order to create a link between two images in a way that is subtle and sleek. All of my decisions allowed me to create a montage piece that fitted well with the music, fast paced and action-based through the heavier sections and slower during the more mellow sections, creating a reminiscent effect for the spectators. I believe that every decision I made was a wise one, including editing to the beat and using very few transitions (only one fade-to-black). I am very proud of my overall finished piece, completing it in 3 hours, and I believe that I managed to create the feel of conspiracy with people trying to get away and others witnessing the disasters. Compared to other items in the domain, I have managed to create contrast, parallelism, symbolism and leit - motif within my montage, but I would liked to have been able to include simultaneity in order to achieve all 5 of Podovkin's editing rules. Using these rules has allowed me to create something that may be seen in a film, about conspiracy, reflecting and contrasting on what it was like before, and I believe that it is only the technical quality of the footage used that would not compare to the more high-tec, high-definitioned montages that are seen in films today.