Montage: a reader gets 4 scripts in a week that abuse the montage. A bottle of ASPRIN is grabbed. Whiskey poured. A blog post begins...
A montage should only show things we need to see, either logically or emotionally. A team weak in one scene can not be olympic-caliber in the next. Someone getting over a traumatic break up will not stroll into the next scene without wear and tear. We get that. It's needed.
Here's when it's not:
It's not needed to show us things we already know happen. If a man is rescued from a deserted island we know he will pack up his things. We know he may say goodbye to a pet. He'll look around one last time. He'll board the plane. He'll look out the window, perhaps with a memento on his lap. We know he'll be greeted at the end by someone. We know they'll shake hands.
Other than the looking out the window as the island recedes into his past, we don't need to see any of that.
A montage isn't every moment not important enough to be a scene. It's what must be shown for the next scene to make sense.
The emotional side is when we've taken a journey with the character and want to see the fruition. Being handed a trophy or diploma, smiling/waving afterward... All good.
Dressing up beforehand, walking to the stadium, looking nervous, waving to friends, adjusting stuffy clothes, wiping off sweat, posing for pics, walking to the car after... Any of those can be included if you build a scene around them. If you don't but montage them you're implying we don't know they happen. We do.
As a fellow reader put it when I asked if she'd seen this glitch recently: "It's called the off screen film. Learn it. Live it."
EXCEPTION: If a montage sets up your world at the start of the script or after arriving in a new environment. Even simple moments can tell us a lot in those circumstances. But use sparingly. Better to montage too few shots than too many.
