Most traditional uses of montage in Hollywood-produced films are narrative in nature and express a passing of time or deliver exposition.
Narrative montage can utilize effects and transitions such as fades, wipes, dissolves and graphics, a practice used more liberally from the 1030s to 1980s.
Other imagery used in montages has included subsequent newspaper headlines chronicling the progress of a series of events; stock footage, often of signs denoting travel; and exterior shots to illustrate the passing of seasons.
Soviet montage theory uses this idea of sequential imagery as a way to convey emotional, intellectual or tonal ideas (or a combination thereof.) The abstract compilation of images is rooted in a concrete message, usually by employing contrasting images and the concept of juxtaposition to convey a point.
Believers compare the editing technique to the way a human mind processes thought, and because of this montage theory has been said to both create new thoughts within the viewer and be used for purposes similar to propaganda.