Videos · Glossary
What is a montage?
A montage is a sequence of short shots edited together so that, taken as a whole, they compress time, show change or build an idea that no single shot carries. The word comes from the French for assembling, and in film it means both the editing technique and the sequence it produces.
The training sequence in a sports film is the montage most people picture, weeks of effort collapsed into a minute of music. The same technique runs through trailers, product videos and social clips, wherever a lot needs to happen in very little time.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
4 min read · Published
| Kind | What it shows | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Time compression | Weeks or years in seconds | A training or renovation sequence |
| Process | The steps of making or fixing something | A product built from parts to finished |
| Juxtaposition | Meaning from two images placed together | Soviet montage, intercut contrasting events |
| Parallel action | Separate events happening at once | Cutting between several people preparing for one event |
| Highlights | The best moments of an event or body of work | An event recap or sizzle reel |
Two meanings of montage
In English film language montage usually means a sequence of short shots that condenses time or information, often set to music. In European film theory, and especially in the work of Soviet directors such as Eisenstein, Pudovkin and Vertov in the 1920s, montage means editing in general, with the stress on how placing one shot after another creates a meaning that neither shot holds alone. Columbia's film language glossary covers both senses. Most promo and social editors use the first sense, but the second explains why a montage works at all.
How a montage compresses time
A montage cuts out everything between the important moments and trusts the viewer to fill the gaps. A renovation shown as six shots, the empty room, the stripped walls, the new floor, paint going on, furniture arriving, the finished space, covers weeks in fifteen seconds without anyone feeling cheated. The New York Film Academy describes montage as condensing space, time and information by sequencing brief shots. Music usually holds the sequence together, and the order of shots does the storytelling.
Where montages appear in marketing video
Product videos use a process montage to show how something is made. Event videos use a highlights montage to make an occasion look full of life. Before and after videos use a short montage of the transformation in between. Recruitment and culture videos use quick shots of people at work. Each one swaps explanation for a rhythm of images, which suits feeds where many people watch without sound.
Common mistakes
Holding each shot for the same length so the sequence feels mechanical. Choosing shots that look alike, so nothing seems to change. Using a montage where the viewer needed one clear explanation. Letting the music tempo and the cutting pace fight each other. And ending the montage without a payoff shot, so the compressed time leads nowhere.
Building a montage style sequence in the video builder
A generated promo is a sequence of 3 to 12 scenes depending on length, each 2.5 to 4 seconds, which is already the rhythm of a montage. Transitions between scenes come in 21 kinds and are chosen per scene by the template rather than by you; the Pace setting switches between Dynamic, with its own transition and camera move per scene, and Calm, with crossfades and one slow push in. Uploaded images are analysed and matched to scenes by shape, clip scenes take your own MP4, WebM or MOV with a trim start and end, and the music bed ducks under narration. Describe the order of moments in the brief, such as wreck, repair, ride, since the director plans the scene order from it, then adjust the scenes in the builder.
Questions people ask
What is the purpose of a montage?
To show a lot in a little time: progress over weeks, the steps of a process, the range of an event or a contrast between two things. It also sets mood through music and rhythm. A montage works best when the viewer already knows what is at stake, so the images can do the rest.
How long should a montage be?
In a feature film a montage commonly runs a minute or two. In a promo or social video it may be five to fifteen seconds within a longer piece, or the whole video. Keep it only as long as each new shot still adds something; once shots start repeating the idea, cut.
What is the difference between a montage and a sequence?
A sequence is any series of scenes or shots that forms a unit of a story, often continuous in time and place. A montage is a particular kind of sequence that breaks continuity on purpose, jumping across time or place to condense or contrast. Every montage is a sequence, but most sequences are not montages.
What is the Kuleshov effect?
It is the finding attributed to Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov that viewers read the same neutral face differently depending on the shot placed next to it, such as food, a coffin or a child. It is the core idea behind montage theory: meaning comes from the combination of shots, not only from each shot.
Do montages need music?
They usually have it, because music gives a series of disconnected shots a shared rhythm and emotion. A montage can also run on natural sound or a voiceover. For silent autoplay in feeds, short on screen text often carries what the music would, so plan for both.
Make one with videos
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match your own.
Create a video with OneCraftRelated questions
- What is a cold open?A cold open drops the viewer into a scene before any title, logo or intro. Where it comes from, how it differs from a hook, and using one in a promo.
- What is a sizzle reel?A sizzle reel is a short, fast promo video that sells a project, person or product with its best moments. Sizzle against demo reel and trailer, and length.
- What is a jump cut?What is a jump cut? An edit that removes time from one shot so the subject leaps forward. How it differs from a match cut and hard cut, and when to hide it.
- What is a video transition?What is a video transition? How a cut, dissolve, fade and wipe each hand one shot to the next, what each signals, and when a plain cut is the better choice.
Step by step in the builder: Add voiceover, captions and music.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .