Montage Editing

Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948)

Montage is a technique in film editing where different shots are cut together into a sequence to condense space, time and information within the shots, Montage editing was primarily introduced to cinema by Sergei Eisenstein a Soviet filmmaker during the 1920's, and was later influenced by his contemporaries such as Lev Kuleshov. Early Russian directors used montage as a synonym for creative editing whereas in France the word "montage" simply denoted cutting from one shot to another, a montage sequence was primarily used as a way to show the passage of time and space within  a sequence and during later development during the 1930's and 1950's it was combined with special optical effects to transition between shots such as fades,dissolves, split screens and was combined with dance and music and were usually assembled by someone other than the director.