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In motion picture terminology, a montage (literally "putting together") is a form of movie collage consisting of a series of short shots which are edited into a coherent sequence. Viewers infer meaning based on context; Lev Kuleshov, in his Kuleshov Experiment established that montage is one way of leading the viewer to reach certain conclusions about the action in a film. David Griffith was one of the early proponents of montage, introducing cross-cutting to show parallel action in different locations, and codifying film grammar in other ways as well.In his earlier works Sergei Eisenstein regarded montage as a dialectical means of creating notions. By contrasting unrelated shots he tried to provoke associations in the viewer, which were induced by shocks. In effect the film was aimed at transcending the level of mere presentation of realities and at explaining the conflict character of reality and the reasons underlying this conflict. This form of editing is known as intellectual montage.
Montage can be seen in the Naked Gun films, frequently to lead the viewer to draw incorrect conclusions. For instance, in one of the films, Frank Drebin is in a shootout with another character. The viewer sees a series of closeups showing the two peeking out from behind objects to fire at each other, followed by a wider shot showing the two to be about six feet apart.
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