Throughout the history of film, filmmakers have experimented with editing styles. While the continuity editing style was dominated by what came to be seen as the 'safe' Classical Hollywood style, innovations continued in the editing room. Some of the techniques emerged in Avante-Garde film-making and low budget experimental filmmaking, often in the service of non-narrative films. Where Classical Hollywood editing relied on the 'rules' of continuity in order to remain 'invisible', and Discontinuous editing techniques often strive to be noticed and 'visible'.
Soviet Montage Theory
In the 1920s, the new Soviet (Communist) government of the USSR saw the new medium of film as the perfect way to disperse a new ideology to its massive population. How else do you spread propaganda to millions of a mainly rural and illiterate population? The film relied on non-verbal communication, it was portable and many people at once could view and discuss the new social and political ideas presented. It was perfect.
As a result, the Soviet government encouraged the study of film. Not only was this medium treated as a creative art, but also investigated as a science. Film-makers like Pudovkin, Lev Kuleshov and most famously Sergei Eisenstein all experimented with this new art form, and especially with the principle of montage technique.
Montage Sequence
The term montage has also come to have a second meaning in film-making. When we talk about a montage today, we're likely to be talking about a montage sequence, as opposed to Eisenstein's scientific categorization of montage. Put simply, a montage sequence is a sequence in which shots are juxtaposed in a way that compresses time and conveys a lot of information in a relatively short period (a process known as ellipsis - more on this in a moment). The most famous example is the training montage from 'Rocky' (1976).
Since the 1990s, a new influence has impacted film and video editing: the internet, social media and even gaming. In the age of YouTube and Instagram, anyone can shoot, edit and distribute the digital film to a broad audience. These clips or mini-productions don't need to be finished work, but they are representative of a revolution in digital filmmaking and screen content creation that's given birth to new aesthetic values and screen 'languages'.
iMovie, Final Cut Pro, or Adobe Premiere can all be used to edit these clips into montages or short sequences with often noticeable transitions, graphics, music, and credits. This is a post-classical editing environment with an ‘anything goes’ attitude, but with the same purpose as traditional film-making: - to connect to an audience
Some characteristics of the 'anything goes' methodology:
Jump-cuts and discontinuity editing.
Solely about content – style serves content
Lo-fi or low-quality
Transitions, music, FX, and cuts that draw attention to themselves
Often very FX heavy
Presentation and documentary forms
Low production values
A single-camera position