Montage, Decoupage and Misenscene

The Montage is basically rigorous editing and within it different forms of content (text,audio,pictures,video) and idea to create an over-all meaning.

‘Decoupage’ in French means ‘to cut’. There is no real English equivalent to the word. But it is better known as ‘construction’.

Mis en Scene is a French synonym for ‘setting’ (of the scene). Based on context it sounds a lot more fancier. It could mean mood and expression, presence and absence, light and dark or cold and warm. When Studying media was new and this particular word would always best fit any description of a scene. Its used so vaguely and so often I have found and lost meaning in it so man times I can only define the strictest definition.

In respect to others work, I believe each artist has attributed, presented, or merely touch on each technique in their work, but some more than others.

For montage, I believe Chris marker and Stanley Kubrick dominate this category. I enjoy the magnificence of creating with scraps. Bits and pieces that don’t mean anything that will soon form into something bigger than it can show alone.
Chris Marker does just that with Sans Soleil. with a letter being narrated in the backdrop and visuals to queue us in. Its the ultimate mind F**k. Had I just scene a minute of the film I would not have understood a thing. Not that I understand the film anyway.

Sans_Soleil

But pop culture films wouldn’t be complete without the installations of Stanley Kubrick;
2001:a space odyssey clockwork orange, full metal jacket among others.

The first time I saw a space odyssey, it was an online source. So in order to avoid any legal issues they cut out the sound and replaced it with what I could only assume various sounds of planet earth (elephants stomping, monkey screaming and water falling and so on) but left the visual part of the movie intact. 1 hour into the movie I realised that it was too confusing, but thus far i had tried to create as much meaning as I could but I would clearly understand more if those murmuring lips actually said dialogue as opposed to sonic noise from an archive. On YouTube there is a Pink Floyd full album backdrop playing over the film.

I suppose it had become a sort of norm to turn off the sound in a movie and to replace it with something else. The juxtaposition creates a whole new meaning, that’s without considering a viewers preference to music taste and ‘mis en scene’ of the film.

Speaking of juxtaposition, one of the most memorable scenes in space odyssey that has been redone countless times by other pop culture influenced artists; classical music over a floating object in the middle of space.

space odyssey pic

The reason I think it was beautiful was because when I picture classical music, I imagine a waltz back in the 18th century (or whenever that was a cool thing), maybe an old man with streaks of white with a black suit sitting on a stool, his fingers dancing with the keys of a piano in front of an audience filled with people who rode a carriage to see the performance. Something old and generalized, but yet very familiar, a peaceful image in my head. The past.
And when I see a space object made of metal, I think of the future, something beyond my knowledge. Industrialization, when man made and conquered machine only to go further for our kind, venturing out to explore the breaches of life. To find meaning and evolve as a species.

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