montage

plural montages

1. countableA composite work, particularly an artwork, created by assembling or putting together other elements such as pieces of music, pictures, texts, videos, etc.First known use early 20th c.

   Near-synonyms: collage, bricolage

   3 more examples

   Examples of montage are seen in many modern films, and it is not a device which is physically difficult to use. The difficulty lies in the proper conception of the complete montage, for the cameraman must so completely visualize the finished result that he can proceed to assemble the various units without, at any time, seeing them as a whole until the film is processed.

   1936, American Photography, volume 30, New York, N.Y.: American Photographic Pub. Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 184, column 1

   If you have mastered the art of spot printing and dodging, you are ready for something really advanced, a post-graduate course in montage. As a matter of fact, montage used to be called "dodging" by most photographers, and "multiple printing" by the fussy few.

   1938, Mario Scacheri, Mabel Scacheri, “Montage, Simple and Multiple”, in The Fun of Photography, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace & Company, →OCLC, page 295

   In the dissonant dynamics of [Hannah] Höch's simultaneous Dada montages the "nothing" and the "everything" of Dada were related to each other, both pessimistically and in a utopian manner.

   2003, Hanne Bergius, edited by Stephen C. Foster, “Dada Triumphs!”: Dada Berlin, 1917–1923: Artistry of Polarities; Montages – Metamechanics – Manifestations (Crisis and the Arts: The History of Dada; 5), New York, N.Y.: G. K. Hall & Co., →ISBN, page 291

   Synonyms: collage, bricolage

2. uncountableThe art or process of doing this.

   Near-synonyms: collage, bricolage

   1 more example

   There was a period in our cinema when montage was proclaimed as being 'everything'. We are now coming to the end of a period where montage has been regarded as 'nothing'. Since we consider montage to be neither 'nothing' nor 'everything', we now think it necessary to recall that montage is as essential a component of film-making as all the other affective elements of cinematography. […] The fact is that the makers of a number of films in recent years have so thoroughly 'parted company' with montage that they even forgot the basic aim and function, inseparable from its cognitive role, which every work of art sets for itself: the function of providing a coherent, consistent exposition of the work's theme, plot, action and events, and their progression both within each sequence and within the film as a whole.

   1991, Sergei Eisenstein, “Montage 1938”, in Michael Glenny, transl., edited by Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor, S. M. Eisenstein: Selected Works, volume II (Towards a Theory of Montage), London: British Film Institute, →ISBN; republished as Sergei Eisenstein: Selected Works, London: I.B. Tauris, 2010, →ISBN, page 296

   Synonyms: editing, collage, bricolage

3. countablebroadcastingA sequence of brief clips, often set to music, used to compress a long event or series of events into a short scene.

   Unfortunately, nothing much happens in the rest of the episode either. It gets to the point where a montage is devoted to establishing Sam's monotony at Oldtown.

   2017 July 16, Brandon Nowalk, “Chickens and Dragons Come Home to Roost on Game of Thrones (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 04 Dec 2017

   2 more examples

   THE MYTH: Training montages are inspiring, harmless fun. At some point in any sports movie, the grossly unqualified underdog will start training to the sound of some inspirational rock song.

   2013 October 29, Cracked.com, The De-Textbook: The Stuff You Didn't Know About the Stuff You Thought You Knew, Penguin, →ISBN, page 177

   The day after that, I was still in pain, so I cycled. The day after that, the pain was manageable, so I ran again because I love to run. This was my training montage all the way up to the paratriathlon.

   2020 11, Paul D. Lowe, and 21 Global Authors, Mastering The Game Of Life: World Game-Changers Sharing Their Inspirational Stories Of Transformation, Paragon Publishing, →ISBN, page 141

present singular third person montages · participle present montaging · participle past montaged · past montaged

1. transitiveTo combine into, or depict as, a montage.

   The two background photographs shown in Fig. 2 were selected from the office files of Blakeslee-Lane Studios and then montaged together by copying onto a negative.

   1941, Keith Henney, editor, Photo Technique, volume III, New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill Education, →OCLC, page 14

   5 more examples

   The Keartons and our staff had out-montaged [Vsevolod] Pudovkin. The result viewed to-day may be somewhat out of date—though I'm not sure—but of one thing I am certain—that it is as fine an example as I know of a maximum effect of cinematic movement achieved by patience in editing.

   1936, Adrian Brunel, Film Production, London: George Newnes, →OCLC, page 17

   Active in the field of environmental art since the 1960s, Nils-Udo builds structures, elaborates on the landscape in a scale that fits, montaging natural materials on site.

   2004, John K. Grande, “Nature Vision: Nils-Udo”, in Art Nature Dialogues: Interviews with Environmental Artists, Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, →ISBN, page 95

   Being ‘talking pictures’, [Mikhail] Romm’s and in particular [Fridrikh] Ermler’s films, based on huge conversation scenes, led both directors to discover a ‘deep mise en scène’, when in order to avoid splitting up the action, ‘the actors themselves, coming out of the depths into the foreground, alter the scale of the portrayal. They montage the film on the move, so to speak, moving along the longitudinal axis of the frame.’

   2008, Evgeny Dobrenko, “Shots from Underground: Dialectics of Conspiratorial Imagination”, in Sarah Young, transl., Stalinist Cinema and the Production of History: Museum of the Revolution, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 243

   There are plays by playwrights and then there are theatre texts. What do I mean by this? […] Texts are woven; they are nets that gather meanings. They are braided, knotted, threaded, sewn, patched together, edited, montaged. They evolve in the process of making performance.

   2011, Anna Furse, “Introduction”, in Anna Furse, editor, Theatre in Pieces: Politics, Poetics and Interdisciplinary Collaboration: An Anthology of Play Texts 1966–2010, London; New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page v

   Max, who developed creative approaches and methods to use mobile devices and smartphones for moving-image and video production during the last eight years, is interested in further exploring ephemeral media and transcending the moments captured in micro-movies on location into immersive viewing experiences. He montages the first impressions captured on location into abstract micro-movies, which can be screened on mobile devices, tablets, and/or smartphones in any environment.

   2017, Max R. C. Schleser, Anthony Nevin, “Shifting Our Horizons: Exploring Mobility in Micro Production and Floating Exhibitions”, in Camille C. Baker, Kate Sicchio, editors, Intersecting Art and Technology in Practice: Techne/Technique/Technology (Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies), New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 142