montage

Examples of montage are seen in many modern films, and it is not a device which is physically difficult to use. The difficulty lies in the proper conception of the complete montage, for the cameraman must so completely visualize the finished result that he can proceed to assemble the various units without, at any time, seeing them as a whole until the film is processed.

There was a period in our cinema when montage was proclaimed as being 'everything'. We are now coming to the end of a period where montage has been regarded as 'nothing'. Since we consider montage to be neither 'nothing' nor 'everything', we now think it necessary to recall that montage is as essential a component of film-making as all the other affective elements of cinematography. […] The fact is that the makers of a number of films in recent years have so thoroughly 'parted company' with montage that they even forgot the basic aim and function, inseparable from its cognitive role, which every work of art sets for itself: the function of providing a coherent, consistent exposition of the work's theme, plot, action and events, and their progression both within each sequence and within the film as a whole.