Overtonal Montage

Overtonal montage

Overtonal montage is a combined mix of three of the five methods of montage defined by Eisenstein. Overtonal montage includes a mix of rhythmic and tonal montage as discussed previously but can also include metric montage into the mix, which is cutting based on time (Zettl, 2013). Overtonal montage may leave a take longer as a tonal cut to capture an emotion on a face, then cut rhythmically to display an action then cut metricly to display the surroundings of a particular scene. In The Bourne Identity (Crowly, Gladstine, Liman, 2002) overtonal montage is used frequently because the film has many scenes which have a mix of emotion and action happening at the same time. The scene of the car chase through Paris mixes rhythmic and tonal cutting, making the the car chase dramatic as well as using longer takes of the actors faces to show the emotions of the characters. Along with the rhythmic and tonal cuts, metric montage is also used in some overhead shots to show surroundings for a set length of time, then it will cut back rhythmically and tonally overall making up an overtonal montage. The use of overtonal montage used by Doug Liman is also demonstrates the direct influence of Soviet montage on modern film.