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Two people chat in a bar and when some random song starts to play -- Begin montage a) another bar - party etc b) beach - another party c) club etc - another party blah blah End montage.
Notice that all montage scenes include some kind of music, which I don't need to be heard. If I want to have the whole montage 'under' the specific song, where/how do I define that?
Is this formatting correct? BEGIN MONTAGE (x song plays during montage)
Features: KTT Part ONE - The Polar Cabal ALEXANDER - RISE OF THE PALADIN ARAGORN - A LORD OF THE RINGS STORY A Soul's Plea For Help Coincidence
The standard montage will occur under a single song if there is any music at all, so this is what readers would assume. You as the writer would only specify the song if it was important to the story, otherwise the producers will go with something reasonably appropriate and reasonably cheap/easy to license.
I would format a specific song like:
INT. STUDYING MONTAGE - NIGHT
Dana prepares for her exam as "Under Pressure" by Queen plays.
- She pulls thick book after thick book from her backpack onto her dorm room desk
- She pulls a thick book off of a library shelf, through the opening she sees other students goofing off and having fun
- Dana sits on her bed reading, while open books lay everywhere
- Dana struggles to carry several more books through a crowded student center
- She unloads additional books onto her desk, which collapses under the weight
Probably, I wasn't very clear... In order to skip the cost/license issues, let's make the song a piano tone or such.
Allow me to change your example a bit, into this:
INT. DANA'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Dana eyes the piano, sits on the piano bench. Pets its keys, starts to play a familiar tone/some music (This is the tone I want us to listen during the whole montage). Dana shuts her eyes, continues to play. Everything around her grows darker, so does the music. Into this fantasy flashback--
BEGIN MONTAGE - She pulls thick book after thick book from her backpack onto her dorm room desk - She pulls a thick book off of a library shelf, through the opening she sees other students goofing off and having fun - Dana sits on her bed reading, while open books lay everywhere - Dana struggles to carry several more books through a crowded student center - She unloads additional books onto her desk, which collapses under the weight END MONTAGE
INT. DANA'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - NIGHT Dana takes her hands off the piano. We're back to reality.
So in this case how do you make it crystal clear that the piano tone is heard throughout the montage?
Features: KTT Part ONE - The Polar Cabal ALEXANDER - RISE OF THE PALADIN ARAGORN - A LORD OF THE RINGS STORY A Soul's Plea For Help Coincidence
Bane dismisses several henchmen and sits at a grand pipe organ. He cracks his knuckles and begins to play the classical "Dies Irea."
- A guard opens a heavy door, reveals The Joker in a straightjacket. The guard walks away, and the Joker bolts for freedom.
- Two-Face, in a prison uniform, studies a book in the prison's law library. He opens the next book, and it is hollowed out with a key inside.
- Batman fist-fights The Joker and emerges the victor.
- A heavily-fortified prison transport is T-boned by a cement truck. Croc crawls from the wreckage and runs.
- Batman leans against a wall next to a tied-up Two-Face. Batman wipes his brow.
- The Penguin feeds pigeons from a bench in a prison yard. All of the tower guards take a break at the same time as a large drone swoops down and carries The Penguin from prison.
- Batman and Croc trade blows on the roof of a moving train. Batman knocks out Croc, but is left winded.
- Poison Ivy tends plants in a prison greenhouse. A window slides open by some unseen hand.
- The Penguin gasses Batman with a trick umbrella, but he is able to continue fighting... barely.
- The Riddler sits in the back of a prisoner transport van. Both officers leave at the same time, but not before leaving the keys to his chains and the van on the driver's seat.