Fair enough guys. I guess the montage at the end of the Six Feet Under series was a beauty. As a rule I would avoid montages, mainly because they’ve been done to death, but there are exceptions to every rule.

Edit: Here's that SFU montage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1eFsJ1u4aY

"Most amateurs write them with no point - just to advance the plot"

This made me laugh, ABSteel.  Isn't that the point?  I mean, I write scenes to advance the plot.  I write dialogue to advance the plot.  It would be pointless if the montage didn't advance the plot.  Correct?

I've thought about this, but there is no logical way to leave the montage out.  Think about the Rocky movies.  If there was no training montage, then the story wouldn't make sense.  My story is kind of like this.

Yeah, but it should show something else.

Like in The Devil Wears Prada. The opening montage shows the girls getting dressed. Some girls are all frilly, with bows and lace and whatever, but then you have Andy. She's dull. She wears her thrift store skirt and her grandma's jacket. She's nothing like those other girls.

As a matter of fact, I don't think it advances the plot. The movie could start without that montage, and be okay. I looked up the script to see how they did it, but the montage isn't there. I'm not sure when it was added, but whatever.

The montage in your script, and in Rocky, doesn't just advance the plot. It shows character. Rocky's this hard working guy. He trains his ass off. He's persistent. He's strong. He's a fuckin' bad ass.

That's my take.

I actually need help with something similar to this, also.

I'm writing a script (which I'm directing), and a vital opening scene consists of the character turning on the faucet, then cutting to steam emanating from the shower, then him brushing his teeth, then him shaving.

I used this formula:

"INT. BATHROOM

Man turns on the shower faucet.

LATER

Steam emanates from the shower.

LATER

Man brushes his teeth.

LATER

Man shaves."

I guess it works, but it seems a tad bit tedious. I was reading the Little Miss Sunshine script, which had a similar sequence, and the way the writer did it was:

"JUMP CUTS:

Dwayne does push ups.

Dwayne does sit ups.

Dwayne bench presses."

It seems like that would work perfectly, but I always hear that using something like "Jump cuts:" is really frowned upon. Any advice?

If you're directing, it doesn't matter what the script looks like.

You take up too much space in your example. Try something like this:

BEGIN MONTAGE - MAN GETS READY FOR WORK

- Man turns on the shower.

- Steam engulfs the room. Man sings Queen.

- Man wipes down the mirror. A foamy toothbrush is in his mouth.

- Man shaves.

END MONTAGE

Six lines compared to eight. Hope that helps.

With "Jump cuts", it's frowned upon in spec scripts because it's a director's choice. You shouldn't try to direct the film, since, in most cases, you won't be the director.

Quoted from ABennettWriter If you're directing, it doesn't matter what the script looks like. You take up too much space in your example. Try something like this: BEGIN MONTAGE - MAN GETS READY FOR WORK - Man turns on the shower. - Steam engulfs the room. Man sings Queen. - Man wipes down the mirror. A foamy toothbrush is in his mouth. - Man shaves. END MONTAGE Six lines compared to eight. Hope that helps. With "Jump cuts", it's frowned upon in spec scripts because it's a director's choice. You shouldn't try to direct the film, since, in most cases, you won't be the director.

Yeah, it's just a script for a small short that I'm making, so I doubt it really matters. But thanks, I'll take your advice.

Glad I could help.

I tried having a look through the last few pages of questions but couldn't see anything that quite covered my query.

In a script I'm currently revising I use a montage which has a voiceover going on throughout it, plus there's also a separate 'series of shots' sequence with its own voice over.

I understand the formatting for both these elements, but do I type out the dialogue for the voiceover before or after the montage description (which is just one paragraph) and the series of shots (a list of about five short, sharp action shots)?

I can't seem to find a clean clear way of doing it.  The voiceovers don't correspond to specific individual images or reference points in the either sequence, so it would seem too messy to scatter the dialogue throughout the shot descriptions.

Any suggestions? Are there set rules or do I just try and find the clearest method?

By the way, I've just recently found this site and I'm glad I did.  It's a great place for advice and I've managed to put myself straight on some other burning questions I've had for quite a while!

I would go with the image you're showing, then the voice over.  The voice is actually reacting to the images here.



Phil

Thank you, that does seem to make sense and was what I was sort of leaning towards.  

Does anyone also have or know of any scripted examples of this kind of thing that already exist that I could read? Just so I can get a feel for it... I'm having a look around at the scripts at the moment but I'd be really grateful if someone could point me in the right direction!

I have a film noir script that's done completely in voice over.  Look up 'Price Check on Film Noir' in the shorts section.


Phil

casino, goodfellas, etc casino in particular

I just popped open the "A" section on the movie scripts page, and found a couple that I think may fit your needs.

Annie Hall

Army of Darkness

Both of these scripts have a lot going on throughout VOs in the beginning, not montages,  but very similar.

IMO, the way these are broken out with actual sluglines is better than the MONTAGE with the VO.

I'm not sure if this was answered by Phil's response to scarydonut but how about if you want a character's dialgoue to happen within the montage?

Gabe

I'm in the same boat. I have a montage of flashbacks at the end of my script, all the images in the montage are from scenes earlier in the film, only this time they reveal the killers face. A voice over is playing over the montage.

The problem is, I want some of the flashbacks to have a line of dialogue the character said in the earlier scene. Two different lines of dialogue, from two different scenes, in the one montage.

They do this in "SAW", with the recording playing while the flashbacks reveal who Jigsaw really is, but the script for that movie is really hard to follow as I think the guy directed it himself.

Can anybody give me any pointers?

Brian