Montage in the USSR and Its Fifteen Fundamental Procedures According to Semyon Timoshenko - Text 4
6. Flash-backs (obratnoe vremja, literally “reversed time”)
Timoshenko advises that the space be shown to viewers “in the present” initially in order not to confuse them, or to introduce “the past” by means of an intertitle, a closing iris or a dreamy look on the part of a character which, according to him, is a “conventional sign,” a way of warning viewers that the events shown are from the past. He also underscores the possibility of linking extremely brief fragments from previously shown scenes, something he himself did in Napoleon-gaz.
7. Flash-forwards (buduščee vremja, literally “time to come” or “future”)
Indicating a future time is only possible if the scene is presented as following logically from what has just been shown.
8. Editing of parallel actions
Drawing on examples from Griffith, Timoshenko describes this procedure by advising that the point of view or shot scale be changed each time it is used.
9. Contrasting
It functions only if the shot scale, the visual material and the viewing angle can immediately be connected by the viewer.
10. Association
This is the procedure in which Eisenstein was the master, for example by showing statues of lions rising up at the moment when the eponymous battleship retaliates against the oppressor in Battleship Potemkin (Броненосец Потёмкин, 1925) or when a bull’s throat is cut as the people are being slaughtered in Strike (Стачка, 1925).