How to Make a Movie Crystal Clear

The early Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein developed the whole theory of film montage to create movies. Eisenstein began to formulate methods that would allow film to be used as a precise visual language. Like the other avant-garde filmmakers, Eisenstein wanted to create a new clear art of film to draw viewers emotionally to the story. American filmmaker Charlie Chaplin made comedies that showed people being trapped in industrialized society. Almost all of his methods of film production are applicable today. Eisenstein and Chaplin used the recording power of the camera to transform the objects and people in their films into symbols for their ideas.

Instructions

How to Make a Movie Crystal Clear

1. Use combined shots in conceptual cinematic collage called a "montage" to draw viewers emotionally into a story. It is a filmmaking technique which uses rapid editing, special effects and music to present compressed narrative information.For example, in a cinematic montage an image of a gun might be followed by a picture of a crowd of people and a falling statue to create an emotional image of an uprising.

2. Edit together shots from different cameras and different moments in the scene to create a desired effect. The most masterful and famous example of this technique is Eisenstein's the "Odessa Steps Sequence" from "Battleship Potemkyn". The sequence shows the mass killing of citizens by soldiers descending along flights of steps. The scenes that make up the steps sequence were filmed with several cameras simultaneously, one running along track placed the length of the steps and another strapped to the waist of a cameraman.

3. Find your metaphors. In one of the great comic sequences in Chaplin's film "Modern Times", the Little Tramp and a co-worker are trapped on a moving belt and swallowed by a large machine. They reappear from time to time among its gears and drive belts, giving a clear image to the audience of their peril among the machines. Chaplin's satirical picture of modern industry in a midst of Depression made his generation laugh and was a perfect expression of his own feelings.

References

• The Montage Principle: Eisenstein in New Cultural and Critical Contexts (Critical Studies 21) (Critical Studies 21) by Jean Antoine-Dunne and Paula Quigley (Hardcover - Dec 1, 2003)
• The Essential Chaplin: Perspectives on the Life and Art of the Great Comedian by Richard Schickel (Paperback - Jul 25, 2006)