Sergei Eisenstein's "Synchronization of the Senses," 
in The Film Sense

Rough Outline of the Chapter:

• Montage ... as he has defined it in two ways:​

"Piece A, derived from the elements of the theme being developed, and piece B, derived from the same source, in juxtaposition give birth to the image in which the thematic matter is most clearly embodied. 
Or:
Representation A and representation B must be so selected from all the possible features within the theme that is being developed, must be so sought for, that their juxtaposition the juxtaposition , of those very elements and not of alternative ones-shall evoke in the perception and feelings of the spectator the most complete image of the theme itself"
                                                                  (Eisenstein, The Film Sense, 69).

• Leads to the necessity of developing the qualities & properties for the new montage, that of sound and film (and of color film).
• The base grounding the investigations and their content is in the human.
• Montage requires a fusion of all the senses (69-74).
• Comparative examination of Vertical to Polyphonic Montages (74-81).
  • n.b., the "persistence of vision"
• Must seek to establish the proportions between sound and picture (image) (74, 81)
  • via Inner Synchronization of the tangible picture and perceived sound (81).

​

• Delineates Five Types of Synchronization (82-85):

1.      Factual:  mere sound-film match of natural things
2.      Metric:  beyond mere recording to dictated connection between object and sound
3.      Rhythmic:  identity of rhythm per content of scene
4.      Melodic:  organized in higher unity (harmony at the rhythmic level and melodic level)
5.      Tonal:  organize separate tones, united via movement as vibrating movement​

• 
  
  • The Visual Equivalent to the Tonal's vibrating movement: COLOR (84)
    • n.b., pitch is to light, as tonality is to color
• From the five types to Overtonal Montage (86) as the definitive Inner Synchronization of image and meaning
  • an intricate polyphony with perception of music and picture pieces as a whole
  • the totality becomes the factor of perception that synchronizes the original image into the final revelation
  • i.e., the definitive inner synchronization of image and meaning of the pieces
  • the formula unites the meaning of the whole and meticulous selection of the pieces and from this emerges the image of the theme which compounds with the logic/form fusion to thereby yield/reveal the meaning of the film
• leads into discussion of color ...  Today's problem & the traditions criterion for the pictorial-aural synchronization and indication of human emotion.
• Chronophonic Montage (music + color) ... Numerous Examples ...:
  • Karl von Eckartshausen's Theory of Ocular Music
  • Arthur Rimbaud's Voyelles
  • René Ghil, Helmholtz, Max Deutschbern, Schlagel, Hearn ...
  • Yin and Yang
  • René Guilleré's Jazz Age
    • n.b., the disruption of elements & repetition

Selected Miscellany of Color & Color Theory:
"Dialectics of Filmic Color"            On Eisenstein on Color               More on Eisenstein on Color       
​     And More           And More            .pdf of The Film Sense
​on colors                color theory basics               more color theory basics                    and more color theory