Notes on Eisenstein's Methods of Montage - Part One - The Metric

Metric montage: Shots are of equal length or number of frames

To take essentially organic elements, a performance or a scene and apply this strict method of timing appears the simplest yet least forgiving and most stylised treatment.

In searching for examples, I found it difficult to identify a piece of film that complied with this strict timing method that had not been produced specifically for the purpose of demonstrating it.

This student film is an example of an entire short film adhering strictly to the metric method.

https://youtu.be/BfWzqKy1sFg

Each shot is shoe-horned into the same number of frames. It doesn’t appear to advance any story nor increase the visual appeal of the piece. It may be that metric montage is not intended to stand in isolation.

There are brief moments in Eisenstein’s own film October (1927), shots of a machine gunner and his weapon. The shots are rapidly and repeatedly edited to perhaps only a few frames each with a short fade transition. This almost gives us a Thaumatrope-like effect. Our persistence of vision not quite merging the two images.

https://intelligentheritage.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/thaumatrope1.jpg

Even without sound, these short, metric montages do convey the physical violence of the gun shots. The images are hammered at the audience as the gun is fired into the crowds. If the individual shots had been held any longer, the effect would be subdued, less violent. Any quicker and the images could have merged as in the Thaumatrope effect. 

Stills taken from: October, Sergei Eisenstein (1927)

https://youtu.be/SJBNkh5xJvY?t=15m21s