Tonal Montage

Tonal Montage

Tonal Montage is another technique within the five methods described by Eisenstein. The method determines the cuts according to the dominant emotion that is displayed on screen. For example if a particular scene shows people grieving at a funeral, the film will be cut so that the full emotion of the actors faces and surroundings will be displayed and reflect the tone of the piece. If the editor chose fast cuts to make up the montage it would not reflect the tone and not capture the emotion that the scene is displaying. However if there were slow cuts piecing together scene it would reflect the tone of the piece and the audience can be shown the full range of emotions displayed by the actors. In the film The Bourne Identity tonal montage is displayed frequently in amongst other montage techniques. One particular scene is where Jason Bourne and Marie Kreutz are traveling from Switzerland to France in a car, the montage is tonal because it leaves the take long enough to capture the actors emotions before cutting to the the next shot. This is effective to help the audience understand the emotional tone of the piece and is a clear indication that the director Doug Liman has been influenced by Soviet montage techniques.