Fiction Adaptation - Workshop Films/Output

Workshop Films and Output 

Due to current circumstances we are studying from home, which means workshops have been conducted on Zoom and haven't been the same as what they would normally.

Our first workshop was with Sam who went through premiere pro with us, I felt confident in this stage as I have been an avid premiere pro user for around 7 years now; however, it was beneficial to have a refresher related to this unit. 

Our later workshop we looked at both the Soviet Montage and the Kuleshov Effect in which I will be researching and speaking about below. We also were told to look at a number of videos relevant to fictional adaptation that I would like to analyze. 

In 1942 the Soviet Montage evolved in Russia as filmmakers found themselves without the facilities to be able to make films, they began using film from previous projects which they re-cut and put together to create different meaning.  Soviet montage has also been used to manipulate time in films such as Battleship Potemkin, in which the events of the famous stairway scene are stretched across a seven-minute duration.

'According to prominent Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein, there are five different types within Soviet Montage Theory: Metric, Rhythmic, Tonal, Overtonal and Intellectual.' (Heckman, 2020)

Fig 1. Soviet Montage Theory 2020

1) Intellectual Montage - Using different shots in a layering montage to create a different tone with conflicting meaning. Allows the audience to gain a different perception of shots.

Fig 2. Intellectual Montage 2013

2) Tonal Montage - Tonal Montage helps to establish the tone of a scene through editing shots together that have the same thematic aim (Heckman, 2020)

3) Metric Montage - This style of Montage is fast paces and is used to create tension, suspense and drama. Longer scenes are shortened but without affecting the story.

4) Rhythmic Montage - Rhythmic montage is used to focus on the action taking place and to show emotion through sound. A great example is the film Whiplash. 

Fig 3. Whiplash (2014)

5) Overtonal Montage - Used to create more emotional layered content to impact the audience, its a mixture of Metric, Tonal and also Rhythmic.

Kuleshov Effect

The Kuleshov Effect is a filmmaking principle established in soviet Russia by Lev Kuleshov, an early film theorist. This theory of filmmaking relies on an experiment conducted by Kuleshov which proves that viewers react differently to the same image, depending on which images are shown before and afterwards. In the original experiment, the following shots were used, and the emotions that the audience drew are shown in the image below.

Lev Kuleshov a film theorist is behind the Kuleshov Effect, a film-making tool established in Russia. Kuleshov conducted the theory of film making which proves that an audience reacts differently to the same image, depending in the sequence images are shown either side. You can see the original footage below. 

Up until this point, filmmakers knew that you could cut and splice pieces of film together, but they didn’t thoroughly comprehend the purposes of doing so. The Kuleshov Effect was one of the first explorations of juxtaposition in the - something that is second nature to us now! The findings of Kuleshov's experiment heavily inspired Russian filmmakers of the time and played a huge role in the development of Soviet Montage.

Kuleshov's experiment was extremely influential to Russian filmmakers and helped the development of the Soviet Montage. Through this experiment people learnt how images and the order in which you can put them can not only tell a story, but can also impact the audiences emotion and feeling with the types of images and reaction shown. 

Conclusion 

This has been extremely helpful to learn about and I, myself feel the experiment was a break through in film making. Seeing how the film can impact the audience and create different tones and storylines through just changing one image. It actually makes me think about my own film and how this is relevant to what I am trying to perceive. I plan on having a montage within my film to show how the days are passing quickly, to allow my audience to get a gage into how quickly my characters mental health is deteriorating.   

List of Illustrations 

Fig 1. Unaffiliated Critic (2020) Soviet Montage Theory  [Google] At: https://unaffiliatedcritic.com/2013/01/battleship-potemkin-1925-independent-study-in-world-cinema/ (Accessed 29/12/2020)

Fig 2.  Studio Binder (2013) Intellectual Montage [Google]  At: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/soviet-montage-theory/ (Accessed 29/12/2020)

Fig 3. (2014) Whiplash [Google] At: https://medium.com/@worthittsocial/whiplash-a-movie-par-excellence-46295183753f (Accessed 29/12/2020)

Bibliography 

Heckman, C. (2020). Soviet Montage Theory At: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/soviet-montage-theory/#:~:text=Soviet%20Montage%20Theory%20is%20a,at%20the%20Moscow%20Film%20School. (Accessed 29/12/2020)

Kuleshov Effect / Effecto Kuleshov (2009) [Youtube Video] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gGl3LJ7vHc&list=PL45e2LFEOP-DIH66_9d13otkAzZrmEr_1 (Accessed 29/12/2020)