Montage
몽타주
한국어로 읽기A montage compresses a long span or a repeated process into a rapid string of short shots, written in the script as 'MONTAGE' followed by a list of cuts.
Also written as: 몽타쥬 · 시퀀스 몽타주 · montage sequence · 훈련 몽타주 · 시간 경과 편집
Meaning
A montage strings short shots together rapidly to compress time or a process. Months of training, a season of a deepening relationship, a week of investigation shown in thirty seconds to two minutes. In the script it opens with MONTAGE – or S#40. MONTAGE (over several days) and lists each shot on its own line. The shots may be in different locations but share one scene number. In editing theory montage originally meant "the collision of different images produces new meaning"; in script practice it means a time-compression sequence.
Why it matters
Montage is nearly the only way a script can write "time passed" without being dull. A novel can move on with "three months went by," but a drama has to show those months somehow. Without montage you are left with a title card or narration, both weak. A good montage has an axis of change: the same action repeats, but something shifts a little each time. The person who fell in the first shot is standing in the last. The distance between two people in the first shot is gone in the last. A montage with no axis is a music video. When adapting a web novel's repetition narratives, such as a daily writing routine, montage is essential.
Example
S#40. MONTAGE – The deposit-site pilgrimage (over two weeks)
– Gangneung. Outside a bank. Yuri shows the bankbook to an old man. He shakes his head.
– Intercity bus. Yuri asleep against the window. The bankbook on her lap.
– Daegu. A small bank inside a market. The teller looks at the bankbook and pauses. Calls someone from the back.
– Busan. Yuri on a seaside bench. She finds pencil writing inside the bankbook's cover.
– Intercity bus. Yuri is not asleep. The bankbook is open.
END MONTAGE.
Five shots, two axes: from refusal (head shake) to clues (the pause, the pencil writing), and from a Yuri who sleeps to one who does not. Two weeks compress into five lines, and the character has changed with them.
Common mistakes
- Pretty shots with no axis. Decide what changes per shot. The first and last shots must contrast.
- Dialogue inside the montage. A montage is a sequence of images. If a line is needed, pull that shot out into a proper scene.
- Skipping a major event in a montage. A reunion forty episodes in the making cannot be one montage shot. Montage is for preparation and repetition.