In
motion picture terminology, a
montage (literally "putting together") is a form of movie
collage consisting of a series of short
shots which are edited into a coherent sequence. Viewers infer meaning based on context;
Lev Kuleshov, in his
Kuleshov Experiment established that montage is one way of leading the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film.
D. W. Griffith was one of the early proponents of montage, introducing
cross-cutting[?] to show parallel action in different locations, and codifying film grammar in other ways as well.
Montage is in apparent use in the Naked Gun films, frequently to lead the viewer into incorrect conclusions. For instance, in one of the films, Frank Drebin is in a shootout with another character. The viewer sees a series of closeups showing the two peeking out from behind objects to fire at each other, followed by a wider shot showing the two to be about six feet apart.
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