Whenever I write or edit these articles ... hell, whenever I do anything, I daydream in montage form. That's right. I like to crank up some Imaginiation or Pointer Sisters, and put images of myself doing something into Final Cut, and see what I look like. I usually get Stallone to direct too.
For those of you that know me, you understand that when I walk, I don't see ahead. I see myself at a distance with a moving camera, walking with motivation, totally ready to kick ass or start the movie. Maybe I should pull my head outta my ass, but that's whatever.
I love when the same damn thing is shot at 20 angles and repeated as many times on screen.
I love when Vince DiCola jumps in and just, synthesizes your life.
I love when I can tell my whole story in but a few minutes, with tenuously related images.
Perhaps I'm revealing my mindset a little too much, but, when I listen to music I always recall specific moments and often filmic imagery. There's no way I can listen to "Making Time" by Creation and not think of Max Fischer and his 1,000 clubs at "Rushmore." There's no way I can listen to "Green Onions" without thinking "Sandlot" and a bunch of kids on the Sandlot. "Tequila?" "Tiny Dancer?" "Everybody's Talkin'?" You tell me what movies those make me think of? There's an Eiseinstein/Mamet discussion for another day about the power of placing images next to each other. But they forgot sound.
That's why, I guiltily love the montage. I even dabbled in it for a video project about creating pillow forts, I kid you not. 6 months more than the two weeks I had, and it would have looked like the end of "The Karate Kid." Maybe I'm saying it's hard. Maybe I'm saying I appreciate the craft despite its silliness or often dated feel. Damn you "Team America." It does save time to montage. And nobody saved time like the films of the 1980's. And before you blast me for being born in '86, know I spent a great deal of my youth watching John Hughes and anything my older sisters made me watch. Not that they made me watch what's below...
So here now, for no other reason than I couldn't stop laughing at "Staying Alive," are five of my favorite montages. And to quote Calvin Harris, it was totally "acceptable in the '80s."
1. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" - By channeling the artistic spontaneity and spirit of French new wave directors, Hughes creates a nice and accidental irony about commodifying and repackaging art. Plus Cameron loses it in the end.
2. "The Karate Kid" - See? He gets real good, real quick.
3. "Rocky IV" I actually used the music from the second half for my aforementioned "fort" project. Plus, I knew guys who took this really seriously. Pumped 'em up into a fine 'roid rage.
4. "Staying Alive" - Give 'em credit for such fine craftmanship and image matching and ... oh I can't contain it. You laugh, you lose.
Got a montage you can think of? Have a favorite you hate to admit to sharing too? Tell me I'm not alone or crazy in montage daydreaming?
No comments:
Post a Comment