This weeks epiphany was sparked by a combination of Robin’s ‘ellipsis’ pitch and my research question on decoupage/montage. It occurred to me when watching the ‘Carlos’ clip, the elliptical sequence of the car bomb, when compared to the clip from Breathless that this was a kind of visual distinction between the decoupage and montage. As Robin identified the action within shots from Breathless seemed to perhaps be pre-determined whilst the action in Carlos has clearly been cut and dictated after filming the sequence. As I touched on earlier in my research post, I think that this is possibly another way to define the approach of decoupage from montage as we can see the at which point the meaning was inflicted upon the scene.

It would seem that this definition is more complex than I initially thought, these sequences share both elements of montage and decoupage. Looking at the clips as two separate montages, or perhaps, with different approaches of decoupage. Let us assume that in the clip from Carlos all other elements of decoupage other than the length of the shots was predetermined as we were still destined to see Carlos checking the car for the bomb with that particular setting/acting etc. the only change was that the rhythm was decided most likely, in post by the editor. In the clip from Breathless the rhythm of the shots was decided before they shot, but the temporal continuity is still ruptured by the cuts, which perhaps defines it as a montage.

The rhythm of each sequence is then their defining features, the clip from Carlos manipulates it after filming, whilst the clip from breathless manipulates it before filming. Both clips use elements of decoupage and montage yet the point in which the approach with which the rhythmic characteristics are decided is what defines them.

Talking about this really just made me realize that there might be some kind of visual evidence ito separate decoupage and montage in their approach to filmmaking. I’m sure there would be more and I shall have to think further on this to discover them.