Editing Styles & Conventions

A montage is a film editing technique. There are three senses of the term:
French film
Soviet Filmmaking
Montage Sequence


Soviet montage theory is an approach to understanding and creating cinema that relies heavily upon editing. An example of a Soviet montage is from the film 'Battleship Potemkin' the 'Odessa's steps' sequence. A montage sequence is a series of shots which are then edited into a sequence. It is normally used to advance the story. Sometimes a song will play in the background to enhance the mood. An example of this can be seen in the 1968 film '2001: A Space Odyssey'.


Vsevolod Pudovkin has said that the editing process is the one phase of production that is truly unique to motion pictures. Edward Dmytryk 'rules of cutting' that good editors should follow.

Rule 1: Never make a cut without a good reason for it.
Rule 2: If undecided about the exact frame to cut on, cut longer rather than short
Rule 3: Try to cut in 'movement'.
Rule 4: The 'fresh' is preferable to the 'stale'.
Rule 5: All scenes should begin and end with continuing action.
Rule 6: Cut for proper values rather than proper 'matches'.
Rule 7: Substance first, then form.

When it comes down to film editing, there are six main points on how to decide on where to cut. This is according to Walter Murch. These are in order of their importance.

Emotion (51%) Is the cut that is being shown reflecting the characters emotion and making the audience feel how the character is feeling.
Story (23%) Does the cut advance the story?
Rhythm (10%) Does the cut occur at a moment that is interesting.
Eye trace (7%) Does the cut pay respect to the movement of the audience's focus of interest within the frame.
Two-dimensional plane of the screen (5%) Does the cut respect the 180 degree rule?
Three-dimensional space of action (4%) Is the cut true to the physical/spatial relationships?