Movies have become mature and stable in terms of editing techniques and special effects. Many viewers have begun to watch "movies" through movies in addition to the visual impact brought by movies. The former is the literal meaning of movies, and the latter is the reason why "movies" can become movies. Putting aside complex concepts , film is actually the art of editing. Various editing techniques realize the connection of shots and complete storytelling and artistic expression. Through narrative montage, the story of the movie can be told, through performance montage, the psychological changes of characters can be explored, and the film can be given deeper meaning through rational montage.
Using different montages in a movie can bring different effects. For example, using narrative montage, you can choose parallel montage, cross montage, repeat montage or continuous montage according to the needs of the movie plot. Among them, parallel montage is one of the most common film techniques, and many movies are left in history because of the use of "parallel montage". The movie "Letterhead Stories" to be told today also uses parallel montage.
Here, let's first understand a little about the history of parallel montage . In 1909, director David Griffith tried to use parallel montage for the first time in the movie "Lonely Villa" . In this movie, Griffith connected the death of a husband and the help of his wife through parallel montage. Together. On one side, the husband was about to be punished by a fluke, and on the other side, the wife came to rescue. When the husband was put on the noose, the wife felt the execution ground with the pardon order and saved her husband. This is the famous " Griffith's last-minute rescue technique ."
In 2018, director Jennifer Fox also used parallel montage in the film "Letterhead Stories" written and directed by herself. In "Letterhead Story", Jennifer Fox asked the adult Jennifer and the young Jennifer to meet at a special point in time. Through the exploration of the past, Jennifer connected the past with letters to form a complete teenage time. The current self and the former self switch back and forth, and the fragments are gradually pieced together into complete fragments. Jennifer made a new interpretation of the past, and at the same time, he also untied the knots and achieved true growth.
Speaking of parallel montage, we need to understand Pudovkin, the famous film master of the former Soviet Union. As one of the pioneers of Soviet film, Pudovkin studied under Kurišov and is the successor of Kurišov’s many film theories. Practitioner. In the early Soviet film industry, Pudovkin and Eisenstein were the leading figures. Eisenstein paid attention to the narrative and rhythm of the film, and liked to set up different conflicts in the film. Pudovkin pays attention to the poetry and fluency of the film, and pays attention to the connection between the lens and the lens.
In 1920, Pudovkin determined five editing techniques through research and practice of editing techniques: contrast montage, parallel montage, symbolic montage, cross montage, and theme montage. In "Letterhead Story", director Jennifer Fox broke the time and space limitations of the story through parallel montages, allowing Jennifer to talk to her past self.
What is parallel montage?
Here, we don’t need to interpret the definition of “parallel montage”, we only need to find two keywords related to it—time and space, to appreciate the magic of this editing technique.
First: unlimited extension in time. The limitation of time is the biggest limitation of the film. In the process of shooting the film, the director must consider the way of telling the story on the one hand, and the length of time on the other. The time is too short to make the story full and full, and the time is too long and the audience is worried about getting bored. Parallel montage can break the time limit of the movie, it can extend the time inside the movie indefinitely, so as to offset the limitation of the external limited time on the movie.
Second: unlimited expansion of space . How to give a deeper meaning to the space is also a problem that the director needs to consider. In addition to telling the story, the film itself also has a certain artistic value. The artistic value is often reflected in the details of the film, such as the space, color, composition, and composition of the film. Music and so on. Parallel montage can be infinitely widened in space, allowing the movie to present as much meaningful space as possible.
Time: The meeting of Jennifer as an adult and Jennifer as a teenager
As a video art, film has advantages that other art types cannot match, and naturally it also has shortcomings that other art types do not have. For example, movies have time limits, 90 minutes, 100 minutes, 120 minutes or even longer. The length of time is based on the needs of narrative, and the length of time has nothing to do with the quality of the film itself. But what needs to be understood is that all good movies try their best to create unlimited experiences in a limited time.
In "Letterhead Story", Jennifer's mother learned about her daughter's experience from novels, letters and related reports that she wrote when she was a child. She was ashamed of her daughter and regretted her negligence. In Jennifer's memory, this past event has not been fully recorded. After re-editing, recording and telling, it has become an ambiguous story.
At this time, Jennifer was a college teacher and was already engaged. When her mother talked about this past event, the camera was pulled back to when Jennifer was young. When she was a child, Jennifer liked to ride horses, and her parents sent her to participate in equestrian training. In the training ground, Jennifer met the equestrian coach Mrs. Gray and the track coach Bill. Bill is funny and humorous, looks kind and honest, Jennifer is in a rebellious period. Under Bill's temptation, Jennifer offered her virginity.
All kinds of past events have created Jennifer's current character, and she does not want to admit the dark side of this past. In her novels, she called it love. In fact, this is an immoral relationship, because Jennifer was a minor at the time. As a teenager, Jennifer thought this was the secret of her and Bill. However, when she re-entered this memory, she realized that it was an inducement and a conspiracy. The participants were not only her and Bill, but also Mrs. Gray and other girls.
The parallel montage used in the film builds a bridge between Jennifer's present and past, making the connection within the film more natural. From the perspective of the character's behavior and emotional changes, parallel montage allows the audience to see the reasons for the character's behavior and emotional changes, making the character's personality more full and true.
Space: Jennifer’s current living environment and the childhood living environment in her memories
Parallel montage not only breaks the time limit, but also has a good performance in space. Two spaces in "Letterhead Stories" are very important. One is Jennifer's equestrian training ground, and the other is the classroom where Jennifer takes classes. The former means her openness in adolescence, and the latter means her closedness as an adult.
In the equestrian training ground, Jennifer found a sense of presence and accomplishment. She met Bill and Mrs. Gray here, and received the views on marriage and love that Bill transmitted to her. This is the basis for the formation of Jennifer's character and an explanation for her later behavior.
In the classroom, Jennifer is confident and elegant, which has nothing to do with her equestrian experience. Unfortunately, Jennifer is always "cocooning herself" as an adult. She never admits the humiliation of her teenage years and is convinced that it is love. Equestrian training grounds and lecture classrooms appear repeatedly in the movie, in addition to explaining Jennifer's environment, but also explaining Jennifer's psychological changes.
Nature means unlimited acceptance, and so does Jennifer in this environment. Her maturity is a performance that all young girls will have in the rebellious period. It is not wisdom, but a certain stage of boredom and arrogance, which gives Bill the opportunity to take advantage. After adulthood, Jennifer entered the social environment from the natural environment-the classroom, the classroom is a closed environment, this is Jennifer's work, but also represents her psychological changes.
The more typical one is the relationship between Jennifer and her fiance. The two have not been married for six years. Jennifer once told her fiancé after chopping off this past event. Until the appearance of those letters, the fiancé understood the ins and outs of the matter in these letters. Jennifer was unwilling to be honest with her fiance, nor to seek any help from him, just like the breakup with Bill back then.
Parallel montage here realizes the transformation of two different spaces, allowing the audience to follow the lens to enter different spaces, understand Jennifer’s growth curve, and understand the changes in Jennifer’s heart in two different spaces.
In terms of time, parallel montage has a kind of magic. It can make the time inside the movie go back to before AD, and it can also make time go to the far future, and even make the past and the present appear at the same time. The same is true in space. Parallel montage can take us back to the old house of blue bricks and black tiles, and it can also take us to the exquisite and comfortable skyscrapers of the future.
At the end of the movie, two Jennifers sat side by side, and the director fictionalized such an encounter and achieved true growth. Only by facing the past can we grow. In the past years, Jennifer has been evading reality. She beautifies reality just to maintain her pride and uniqueness. The fact is that she hated this past, hated the man named Bill, she knew it was an insult and bullying.
Fortunately, the director let us follow Jennifer back to her childhood, know the truth of the matter, and the reason for her escape, and let us appreciate the charm of parallel montage.
Now let's take a look at what kind of editing technique parallel montage is.
Parallel montage needs to involve at least two times or spaces, the purpose is to realize the transformation of time and space through editing. The feature of this kind of montage is that it doesn't care about time, whether it is the past, present, present, future, or even the past, present, and future can be presented in the movie. For example, the current Jennifer and the past Jennifer in "Letterhead Stories" may have urban scenery on one side and rural scenery on the other, or the misery of the bottom society on the one hand and the luxury of the upper class on the other. In short, parallel montage is like a group of twin brothers, they always appear together in different forms, and finally realize the integrity and artistry of the film's narrative.
In addition to "Letterhead Stories", the use of "parallel montage" can also be seen in many movies, such as "The Notebook of Love", "Time and Space Traveler", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and so on. Although the film genres and stories are different, these films have realized the complete narrative through "parallel montage", linking the past and the present, and bringing an unforgettable view to the audience.
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