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38-463: Preceding the opening scene of Harlem Is Heaven is a contemporary montage of residents walking and parading on the streets of Harlem, moving images that are accompanied on the screen by a scrolling prologue . Part of that introductory text provides the viewer with a brief history of a special tree in Harlem, an elm that in 1932 still grew next to one of the neighborhood's busy sidewalks: Many years ago

76-448: A profit for the publication and sales for the advertisers while also providing sales engineering –type advice to the readers, that may inform purchasing and investment decisions. Trade magazines typically contain advertising content centered on the industry in question with little, if any, general-audience advertising. They may also contain industry-specific job notices. For printed publications, some trade magazines operate on

114-528: A Nazi Spy ; Knute Rockne, All American ; Blues in the Night ; Yankee Doodle Dandy ; Casablanca ; Action in the North Atlantic ; Gentleman Jim ; and They Drive by Night . Siegel told Peter Bogdanovich how his montages differed from the usual ones: Montages were done then as they're done now, oddly enough—very sloppily. The director casually shoots a few shots that he presumes will be used in

152-471: A character engaging in physical or sports training, the form has been extended to other activities or themes. The standard elements of a training montage include a build-up where the potential hero confronts his failure to train adequately. The solution is a serious, individual training regimen. The individual is shown engaging in training or learning through a series of short, cut sequences. An inspirational song (often fast-paced rock music ) typically provides

190-441: A dancer, though the hoofing, including the stair routine, is not at all missing in both evidence and appeal...Robinson with his very definite personality tops the other members of the cast by a mile...Though his voice is not always audible, Jimmy Baskette is a very impressive type as the Harlem producer-racketeer heavy. In a more recent assessment of the film, in 2011, The World Cinema Review pans its storyline and acting but extols

228-522: A film cliché . A notable parody of the training montage appears in the South Park episode, " Asspen ". When Stan Marsh must become an expert skier quickly, he begins training in a montage where the inspirational song explicitly spells out the techniques and requirements of a successful training montage sequence as they occur on screen. It was also spoofed in Team America: World Police in

266-591: A job at his Acme Theatre, gives her some cash as an advance on her salary, and tells her to report to his office the next day. At the appointed time, Jean meets Money, who introduces her to Bill ( Bill Robinson ), Acme's star performer and director of its dance and other stage productions. There Jean also meets another performer, a handsome young actor and dancer named "Chummy" Walker (Henri Wessell). Both Chummy and Bill are immediately smitten with Jean even though she initially refers to them as her protective "big brothers". Money, however, has his own plans to seduce her. After

304-399: A jobless actor stood by the big tree on 7th Avenue near 131st Street, Harlem, wishing for work. While leaning against this tree he heard that a downtown manager was seeking him for a leading part in a new show. Since then this tree has become a favorite stopping place for unemployed actors. Its legend has spread throughout the country, and it is now famous as "The Tree of Hope". One evening on

342-482: A large amount of information to an audience over a shorter span of time by juxtaposing different shots, compressing time through editing, or intertwining multiple storylines of a narrative. The term has varied meanings depending on the filmmaking tradition. In French, the word montage applied to cinema simply denotes editing. In Soviet montage theory , as originally introduced outside the USSR by Sergei Eisenstein , it

380-431: A sidewalk in Harlem, Jean Stratton ( Anise Boyer ]—a young unemployed actress and dancer from West Virginia —stands next to "The Tree of Hope", openly praying and imploring the legendary tree to help find her work. When she stops one passing man to ask how long she needs to stand under the tree to get a job, a nearby police officer thinks she is a soliciting prostitute , so he arrests her. A group of spectators gather around

418-540: A similar sequence. The music in these training montage scenes has garnered a cult following, with such artists as Robert Tepper , Stan Bush and Survivor appearing on several '80s soundtracks. Songs like Frank Stallone 's " Far from Over ", and John Farnham 's "Break the Ice" are examples of high-energy rock songs that typify the music that appeared during montages in '80s action films. Indie rock band The Mountain Goats released

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456-457: A single in 2021 entitled "Training Montage", an homage to the eponymous cinematic trope. Trade publication A trade magazine , also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag ), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for this area of publishing is the trade press . In 1928, Popular Aviation became

494-473: A stage rehearsal, Money warns Chummy that "Miss Stratton" is more than his protégée , declaring her his "personal and private property". He then orders Chummy to invite Jean to a party at the theater after that evening's show. The party in reality will be set up as an intimate dinner with just Money. Chummy warns Jean of Money's intentions, but she ignores him and goes to the office, where the theater boss forces himself on her. As she struggles to leave, Bill enters

532-595: A variety of challenging endeavors such as flying a jet ( Armageddon , 1998), fighting ( Bloodsport ,1988; The Mask of Zorro , 1998; Batman Begins , 2005; Edge of Tomorrow , 2014), espionage ( Spy Game , 2001), magic ( Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , 2007), and public speaking ( The King's Speech , 2010). The simplicity of the technique and its over-use in American film vocabulary has led to its status as

570-406: Is usually streamed on internet radio and video is posted on a separate site. Film critic Ezra Goodman discusses the contributions of Slavko Vorkapić , who worked at MGM and was the best-known montage specialist of the 1930s: He devised vivid montages for numerous pictures, mainly to get a point across economically or to bridge a time lapse. In a matter of moments, with images cascading across

608-544: The Soviets and that of Hollywood. The Soviet tradition, primarily distinguished by the writing and film work by S. M. Eisenstein is seen as intellectual, objectively analytical, and perhaps overly academic. Hollywood montage, romantic in the extreme, is written off as a series of wipes , dissolves , flip-flops and superimpositions ..." —Film historian Richard Koszarski in Hollywood Directors: 1914-1940 (1976) One of

646-460: The front man in marketing a bogus new hair-straightening product. Money is careful in arranging the scam so he is not openly involved, while assuring Chummy that the new product is genuine and will earn huge profits for everyone. Initially successful selling the product, Chummy is soon arrested and jailed for fraud after all the investors lose their money, including Bill's close friend John "Spider" Mason, who had committed most of his life savings to

684-525: The apartment to see another friend. In 1932, according to the widely read New York-based trade paper Variety , the film made over $ 4,000 during its opening week at just the Renaissance Theater in Harlem. That financial success led to its run being extended there. Variety in its June 7 edition also provides a lengthy assessment of the production. In its review the paper recommends the film's presentation to both white and black audiences, recognizes

722-400: The best of most famous dance, the "Step Dance", stands out as one of his most memorable dances of all time... Robinson displays little of the athleticism of the marvelous [Nicholas] brothers, but his grace and lithe moves cannot be matched. It's as if this energized movement [were] a simple warm-up for something else—a leap across drums as he performs in the "Drum Dance" or the slip and slides of

760-534: The bill...Strictly on merit, not holding a candle to Hollywood-made product, 'Harlem Is Heaven,' however, has the odds in its favor as a money-maker in many respects. It stars Bill Robinson, tap dancer, standard in vaude and colored shows. Where that name and artist's work is known, which takes in every key in the country, there is a certain general draw to be expected through the Robinson name...Bill Robinson's personality stands out boldly. He's more than an actor here than

798-403: The dance and musical performances, especially those by Robinson: Franklin's all Black 1932 movie Harlem is Heaven is a disaster of story and acting, with an absolutely remarkable cast, nonetheless, of musicians and dancers, including Bill ["Bojangles"] Robinson and Eubie Blake and his Orchestra. Robinson is the center of this piece and does numerous numbers throughout, all of them brilliant. But

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836-478: The drawing power of Bill Robinson at the box office , and finds Robinson and Baskett's performances to be the strongest elements of the quickly made, low-budget production: 'Harlem Is Heaven' has one strong point in its favor—it's different. One theory the public is clamoring for anything that varies the steadiness of their film diet, theatres are now generally welcoming anything off the beaten track. This inexpensively-made talker with an all-colored cast, might fill

874-415: The end of the press, a pressman looking at a paper) and headlines zooming on to the screen telling whatever needs to be told. In a typical railroad montage, the shots include engines racing toward the camera, giant engine wheels moving across the screen, and long trains racing past the camera as destination signs fill the screen. "Scroll montage" is a form of multiple-screen montage developed specifically for

912-481: The enterprise. While visiting the police station to see Chummy, Jean learns of Money's role in devising the fraud, so she visits Greta (Alma Smith), one of Money's girlfriends who knows details about the scheme. After a brutal fight with Greta, Jean forces her to provide the district attorney with information proving Money's guilt, which results in Chummy's release from jail. Spider then learns from newspaper reports that it

950-539: The largest aviation trade magazine with a circulation of 100,000. As digital journalism grew in importance, trade magazines started to build their presence on the internet. To retain readership and attract new subscribers, trade magazines usually impose paywall on their websites. Trade publications keep industry members abreast of new developments. In this role, it functions similarly to how academic journals or scientific journals serve their audiences. Trade publications include targeted advertising , which earns

988-415: The marvelous sand dance of Stormy Weather. But there is something so abstract and pure about his "Step Dance," that, in my estimation, it can’t be matched. Montage (filmmaking) Montage ( / m ɒ n ˈ t ɑː ʒ / mon- TAHZH ) is a film editing technique in which a series of short shots are sequenced to condense space, time, and information. Montages enable filmmakers to communicate

1026-429: The montage and the cutter grabs a few stock shots and walks down with them to the man who's operating the optical printer and tells him to make some sort of mishmash out of it. He does, and that's what's labeled montage. In contrast, Siegel would read the motion picture's script to find out the story and action, then take the script's one line description of the montage and write his own five page script. The directors and

1064-404: The moving image in an internet browser . It plays with Italian theatre director Eugenio Barba's "space river" montage in which the spectators' attention is said to "[sail] on a tide of actions which their gaze [can never] fully encompass". "Scroll montage" is usually used in online audio-visual works in which sound and the moving image are separated and can exist autonomously: audio in these works

1102-446: The office, a fight ensues, and Bill knocks out Money. The next day Bill and Jean learn they have been fired. Bill quickly gets a new job performing at a nearby nightclub owned by Knobs Moran (Bob Sawyer), Money's bitter rival in both entertainment and crime. Money now seeks revenge, especially against Chummy for divulging his plan to take advantage of Jean. Money then hatches another plan, one to get Chummy imprisoned. Money enlists him as

1140-457: The officer and Jean, including "Money" Johnson ( James Baskett ), who gets the officer to release her. Money is a local theater owner widely known in Harlem. He is also a racketeer who specializes in "policy games" or gambling, as well as circulating phony investment schemes around New York as well as in Philadelphia and other cities. After the officer and the onlookers leave, Money offers Jean

1178-606: The only sound. At the end of the montage several weeks have elapsed in the course of just a few minutes and the hero is now prepared for the big competition or task. One of the best-known examples is the training sequence in the 1976 movie Rocky , which culminates in Rocky's run up the Rocky Steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art . Although originating in sports films, the training montage has been used to demonstrate training in

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1216-430: The original films to innovate montage filmmaking was Abel Gance 's 1927 film Napoléon . The film uses montage throughout and its triptych finale includes a row of three reels of film playing either a continuous image or a montage of separate shots. Sergei Eisentein credited Gance with inspiring his fascination with montage, a technique he would become well-known for: The word "montage" came to identify...specifically

1254-609: The rapid, shock cutting that Eisenstein employed in his films. Its use survives to this day in the specially created "montage sequences" inserted into Hollywood films to suggest, in a blur of double exposures, the rise to fame of an opera singer or, in brief model shots, the destruction of an airplane, a city or a planet. Two common montage devices used are newsreels and railroads. In the first, as in Citizen Kane , there are multiple shots of newspapers being printed (multiple layered shots of papers moving between rollers, papers coming off

1292-674: The screen, he was able to show Jeanette MacDonald 's rise to fame as an opera star in Maytime (1937), the outbreak of the revolution in Viva Villa (1934), the famine and exodus in The Good Earth (1937), and the plague in Romeo and Juliet (1936). From 1933 to 1942, Don Siegel , later a noted feature film director, was the head of the montage department at Warner Brothers . He did montage sequences for hundreds of features, including Confessions of

1330-439: The studio bosses left him alone because no one could figure out what he was doing. Left alone with his own crew, he constantly experimented to find out what he could do. He also tried to make the montage match the director's style, dull for a dull director, exciting for an exciting director. Of course, it was a most marvelous way to learn about films, because I made endless mistakes just experimenting with no supervision. The result

1368-551: Was Money, not Chummy, who had concocted the phony investment. Now seeking his own revenge for the loss of his money, Spider confronts Money in his office. After Money tries to shoot him, Spider uses a razor to kill the crime boss as he pleads for mercy. The story then ends in Bill's apartment, where Bill, his mother visiting from Richmond , Jean, and Chummy have gathered. Earlier, Bill had realized that Jean and Chummy had fallen in love, so he urges them to get married before he cheerfully leaves

1406-605: Was that a great many of the montages were enormously effective. Siegel selected the montages he did for Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944), and Confessions of a Nazi Spy , as especially good ones. "I thought the montages were absolutely extraordinary in 'The Adventures of Mark Twain'—not a particularly good picture, by the way." The training montage is a standard explanatory montage. It originated in American cinema but has since spread to modern martial arts films from East Asia . Originally depicting

1444-456: Was used to create symbolism . Later, the term "montage sequence", used primarily by British and American studios , became the common technique to suggest the passage of time. From the 1930s to the 1950s, montage sequences often combined numerous short shots with special optical effects ( fades/dissolves , split screens , double and triple exposures ), dance, and music. "Film historians differentiate two parallel schools of montage, that of

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