Why Every Artist Needs A Movie Montage Phase

I believe deeply that every artist needs at least one period in their practice where they have a movie montage phase. 

Let me paint a picture for you (lol). Imagine you’re watching a campy 80s or 90s movie with a protagonist who has a clear goal in mind and the only thing keeping them from their goal is time and work. Insert the movie montage.

Usually accompanied by a high energy pop/rock ballad that alludes to the amount of work required to accomplish the stated goal, the movie montage is a wonderful storytelling device that covers a lot of ground in a limited period of time. During this phase you see the protagonist training hard (think Rocky running up the steps in Philadelphia) or creating/building something late at night surrounded by a mess that gradually becomes coherent and organized as the music builds up to a triumphant crescendo. (I can’t think of any specific examples for this, but I know I’ve seen this in countless films.)

It’s usually some mixture of these action-based, nose-to-the-grindstone sequences all strung together into what can only be described as a perfect inspirational tool.

The movie montage certainly glosses over all of the actual work hours it takes to accomplish something huge, but suspending our disbelief is a prerequisite to enjoy the experience of the montage. The implication is that a lengthy period of time has elapsed that has been stripped of its mundane elements. For an artist like myself living in real time, I like to think of prolonged periods of productivity where I’m almost singularly focused on learning, finding my style and simply showing up as a movie montage phase.

My movie montage phase happened between the beginning of 2017 and the start of 2020. It was a three year span during the one-painting-a-day period of my career where my focus was improving and continuing to show up for my practice. My goal was simple: I knew in my heart if I worked towards my mission, I would have not only an improvement in skill but also concrete answers as to where I wanted my career to go. Boy, was I right :)

During these years I remember that when people would ask me what my art was about, I would say, cheekily, that I didn’t really know yet but that I was in my 80s movie montage phase. I knew I would figure it out later. The key to my movie montage phase, and I believe any other artist in a similar position, is non-judgement.

The thing that makes this phase separate from any other effort is the judgment-free element. If we recall that the montage is presented in film without the internal skepticism usually present in any self-improvement effort, this can be practically adopted by artists in the real world only if they resist the urge to question the process. 

We aren’t given access to the protagonist’s thoughts while viewing a movie montage, because we know that the goal remains the same and that action is prioritized over introspection. A mistake made within the movie montage is simply a lesson that contributes to the desired growth.

This is helpful for artists because so much of what we do involves critical thought and introspection. But if we allow that part of our mind to become too strong, it can often cripple the creative engine, the force that is going to move you through time and space and give you the body of work that best expresses what you’re trying to say.

I never regret any of the art I made during my movie montage phase. This period got me to a point where in 2020, when I decided to slow down and figure out what I wanted to do with my career, I had so many different bodies of work and connections that clueing together where I wanted to go was substantially easier. Ultimately, not every piece I made in this timeframe spoke to the deeper meaning behind my work, but by sparing myself the judgment I was able to keep my eye on the prize of departing the montage phase as a more self-aware artist.

If you take away nothing else from this analogy, I want to remind you of the value of a good soundtrack to jump start your art practice. A power ballad can motivate you to do incredible things, as the movie montage proves.