Movement In Cinema

Cinematography, movement, narrative, editing and montage have one thing in common they are all the building blocks of cinema. Without these elements all we would of have is a moving picture; no plot, no editing, no montage, no cinematic movement and no cinematography will equal boring. The reason movies are beloved as they are is and will always be because of these elements.

When we talk about movement in cinema what are we talking about ; camera movement, movement of actors. We are talking about both. Both are essential. Both add energy to the screen. If cinema was Frankenstein then Dr Frankenstein would be movement. Imagine if you saw a scene where a actor just stood there for awhile, you will get bored. Movement can also tell a story. Movement of nature and actors can tell a story. Akira kurosawa does this the best as evidenced in any of his films. Compare modern movies to any

A montage is a series of shots edited together to drive the story forward. The best use of montage is showing the passage of time. Montages shorten weeks, months or even years worth of story into a few seconds or minutes. Montages can influence the audience to feel emotions. The godfather of montage is Sergei Eisenstein . Sergei directed a film called Battleship Potemkin, a Russian propaganda film. Battleship Potemkin opened filmmakers’ eyes to montage. The sequence known as the Odessa Step was ground breaking because it employed very elaborate blocking which was unheard of in the 1920’s . Most of the time in movies, in the 20s, the camera was static. The purpose of that camera technique was to make the audience feel like they were watching a play. Thus the Odessa step sequence is the most important use of the montage technique in cinema history due to the fact that it introduced the technique not only to audiences but also to other filmmakers thereby changing cinema for the