Description

Not to be confused with the generic format Montage . A Fast Montage is a technique to provide some Backstory . It works as follows: when a character makes a statement about her past, which is not already evident from the story so far, a series of Flashbacks are played to illustrate the dynamics of the information about that past. When done, the narrative continues from where it was before the Fast Montage.

As an example: suppose a beggar makes the statement "I used to be a rock star", a Fast Montage may show how the character become a rock star, and what happened to the rock star so that she is now a beggar. This might start with a flashback to the character's puberty, and continue from there on:

• a quick scene where she hears someone play the guitar and decides she'll learn to play too
• a quick scene where her boyfriend tells her she should try and publish the song she just performed
• a quick scene where she celebrates her first record deal
• a quick scene where she gives her thankyou speach for winning her first grammy
• a quick scene where she is snorting coke and partying hard
• a quick scene where she gets arrested at an airport for drug possession
• and so on, further scenes that document her decline

In the succession of the flashbacks time runs forward linearly - he montage progresses logically forward through time. It is also important that the scenes are very short; the only purpose is to establish the next step in the character's story. Edit s between scenes should be fluent and organic and are typically not initiated by the main character (like a Revolving Door Edit ). The scenes should definitely *not* introduce other key characters - this is a montage about one character's past. And as soon as the montages have established the necessary Backstory to explain the character's current situation or state of mind, the main story continues.