DPHU1005 Chap.6 Editing and Montage
Editing and Montage
Editing joins one shot to the next, and the Week 5 lecture sets out two broad approaches. Continuity editing, the norm of popular cinema, hides its joins so that space and time feel continuous: establishing shots, the 180-degree rule, shot and reverse shot, eyeline matches and matches on action all serve that goal.
Montage, associated with Soviet filmmakers of the 1920s and with Sergei Eisenstein in particular, makes the join itself meaningful, arguing that ideas arise from the collision of shots.
The Week 5 screening is Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin (1925), discussed in the Week 6 tutorial through Pramaggiore and Wallis's chapter on editing and Marilyn Fabe's chapter on the art of montage.
Its Odessa Steps sequence is the classic demonstration of montage expanding time and turning a massacre into an argument. This chapter gives you a process for classifying any cut, the four relations between shots, and the vocabulary of rhythm and duration. Editing is one of the formal qualities in both analysis rubrics, and the topic is tested in Quiz 2.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Continuity editing and its goal of invisible cutting
- 02
The 180-degree rule and screen direction
- 03
Establishing shot, shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, match on action
- 04
Cross-cutting and parallel action
- 05
The Kuleshov experiments and Soviet montage
- 06
Battleship Potemkin and the Odessa Steps
- 07
Graphic, rhythmic, spatial and temporal relations between shots
- 08
Rhythm, shot length and the expansion or compression of time
Worked example · free
Classifying a cut and its effect
- +1Name the transition: a straight cut.
- +1Identify the convention: an eyeline match, so we read the doorway as what she sees.
- +1Describe the relation: spatial, building the room from her point of view.
- +1Interpret: the empty doorway suggests waiting or absence, which her face alone could not state.
Key terms
- Axis of action
- The imaginary line between characters that the camera stays on one side of, keeping screen direction consistent.
- Eyeline match
- A cut from a character looking to the object or person they see, linking the two shots in space.
- Match on action
- A cut made during a movement so that the action continues smoothly across two shots.
- Cross-cutting
- Alternating between actions in different places to suggest they happen at the same time.
- Kuleshov effect
- The tendency of viewers to read a neutral shot differently depending on the shot placed beside it.
- Dissolve
- A transition in which one shot fades out as the next fades in, briefly overlapping the two images.
- Long take
- A shot held for an unusually long time without a cut, slowing rhythm and inviting the eye to explore.
Editing and Montage FAQ
What is the 180-degree rule?
It is a continuity convention: the camera stays on one side of an imaginary line drawn between characters, so each keeps a consistent screen direction. Crossing the line can make people appear to swap places, which filmmakers avoid unless they want the viewer to feel disoriented.
How is montage different from continuity editing?
Continuity editing tries to make cuts unnoticeable so that space and time feel seamless. Montage draws attention to the cut and uses the collision of shots to produce ideas or emotions that neither shot contains alone, as Eisenstein does in Battleship Potemkin.
What is the Kuleshov effect?
It is the finding, associated with early Soviet editing experiments, that viewers read the same neutral face as hungry, grieving or tender depending on the image cut next to it. It shows that meaning arises between shots, and it underpins both point-of-view editing and the reaction shot.
What happens in the Odessa Steps sequence?
Soldiers advance down a long flight of steps as civilians flee. Eisenstein intercuts the regular rhythm of marching boots with individual victims, including a mother and child and a runaway pram, and stretches the descent far beyond real time, so the editing itself becomes an argument about state violence.
How should I discuss editing in a written analysis?
Name the transition, describe the two shots it joins, state the relation, whether graphic, rhythmic, spatial or temporal, and explain what the join adds. In the shot-by-shot task the order of shots is given, so your job is to explain why one shot follows another.
Assessment move
Pick a two-minute conversation scene from any set film and count its cuts, then mark which are shot/reverse shots, eyeline matches and matches on action. Repeat with the Odessa Steps and compare the two rhythms. Learn the four relations between shots as a checklist, and practise writing one sentence of meaning for each cut you describe.
Working through Editing and Montage in DPHU1005? Sia is AskSia’s AI Arts and Humanities tutor — ask any DPHU1005 Editing and Montage question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how DPHU1005 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
DPHU1001 Journalistic Voices and Values · DPHU1003 News Fundamentals · DPHU1007 Media, Society and Politics
