Tag Archive - Montages

Montages for Imagery and Altered States of Mind

May 22, 2013 in Shoot Your Novel with 3 Comments

We’ve been looking at Montage Shots as a way to create specific effects in a novel’s scenes. Last week I discussed how a montage sequence can give the sense of time speeding by, as well as consolidate memories. There are some other great uses for the Montage Shot which we’ll look at now: creating evocative imagery and altering the sense of time. Continue Reading…

Your Life Flashing before Your Eyes

May 15, 2013 in Shoot Your Novel with 2 Comments

Has it ever happened to you—had your life flash before your eyes? What about one of your characters in your novel—has it happened to her? Think about a character in a story—let’s say a mother sitting in church waiting for her daughter to come down the aisle in her beautiful white wedding gown. This is a key moment in this mother’s life. All the years she spent raising her daughter have brought them both to this moment. Perhaps she’s regretted the way she raised her, feeling she’s been a failure as a mother. Maybe she’s suffering from empty nest syndrome. Whatever this character is feeling at this key moment in her life in the story can be heightened by the use of a montage scene, which is what we began looking at in last week’s post. Continue Reading…

Using Montages to Create Powerful Imagery

May 8, 2013 in Shoot Your Novel with 6 Comments

Now that we’ve literally covered the “distance” with a look at the stationary camera shots that are set at certain distances from the action, we’re going to explore some other stationary shots. You may recall I noted that there are two kinds of camera shots: stationary and moving. All stationary shots imply the camera is “locked” in a fixed position for that segment of shooting, whereas moving shots are just what’s implied—moving while the scene is being filmed.

Although there are numerous stationary shots we could look at, I’ve chosen a handful of ones I feel transfer over well in novels, and which are also highly useful for achieving certain desired effects. The purpose of this year-long course is to see how writers can borrow from great screenwriting technique—not in how to structure story or plot but how to visually convey their scenes in a way to supercharge their novels. Using a Montage Shot is one great way to do this. Continue Reading…