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Right Now Montage

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Part Contrast Montage, part Meanwhile Scene, this trope is a Slice of Life montage that shows a series of brief scenes of different people in various situations. Can come with or without narration, the narrative version having a high likelihood of dropping statistics related to the scene at hand. Often used as an establishing scene.

Super-Trope of Sex Montage, as it focuses on different people having intercourse. Sister Trope of Era Establishing Scene, which is when iconic staples of a period are used as establishing scenes. Might overlap with "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, which is used post-climax and can include everyday moments.


Examples:

Advertisement

  • The original ad campaign for Crystal Pepsi used the Trope Namer, Van Halen's "Right Now", for more or less all of 1993. Its commercials were straight examples of this, styled after the song's music video.
  • Sprint's "Now Network" series.

Anime & Manga

  • Bleach: One of the most memorable is when Don Kanonji tries to form a civilian spirit-fighting team and recruits Ichigo's sisters. Hilarity Ensues.
  • A Certain Scientific Railgun: In "Eternal Party", Janie opens her eyes to see Febri watching her. Febri wishes her a good morning, then calls Nunotaba over. She presents a huge rice ball, saying she made this for both Janie and Shinobu. Thanking her tearfully, Shinobu says she, too, has a lot of things she wants the twin girls to see.
  • One Piece: Each chapter has a title page that shows exactly one scene in the life of a character the Straw Hats have met before. Often, these title pages make a story when put together and even reveal some important facts.

Fan Works

Films — Live-Action

  • The Boat That Rocked: The various side characters listening to Radio rock.
  • The Darjeeling Limited: It shows what is happening to the cast while playing The Rolling Stones song "Play with Fire".
  • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): There's a montage showing what Yondu, Nova Prime Rael, Officer Dey, and the Guardians themselves are doing after the Final Battle while "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" plays.
  • Lucy: The film opens with sped-up scenes of the day beginning in Taipei.
  • Marley & Me: Used with the John Grogan character, showing him doing different things and writing about them and at the same getting to know Marley.
  • Three Colors Trilogy: The film's ending is a montage of most of the major characters at one moment, all of them affected in some way by Patrice's death or Julie's actions.
  • Titanic (1997): As the ship is sinking, different people in all parts of the ship are shown reacting to the imminent ends of their lives.

Literature

  • Angelmaker: When members of the old Night Market get the news that Joe Spork's putting a job together.

Live-Action TV

  • Community: "Anthropology 101" opens the second season scrolling right through a long constructed set of the group's individual bedrooms as the characters go about their morning routine.note 
  • Flashpoint: When it's not doing a How We Got Here cut, tends to use this, showing the police officers and the eventual suspects on a crash course, usually unknowingly.
  • Heroes: It enjoys doing this in openings. Probably a good idea, considering its large cast.
  • Hi-de-Hi!: In "Desire in the Mickey Mouse Grotto", the opening scenes of the episode involve the cast being woken up and going through their morning routine.
  • M*A*S*H: In "The Party", we see each of the characters reacting to the letter they receive from home from their parents (Charles, Hawkeye, Klinger, Margaret, Radar) or relatives (Col. Potter to his wife, Father Mulcahy to his sister). They read the letters while in the jeep going back to camp, then the driver of the jeep has to swerve to avoid something in the road, and then we go to the next jeep of characters.
  • Saturday Night Live: Spoofed the Crystal Pepsi campaign with mock commercials for "Crystal Gravy".

Music

Web Animation

  • Homestar Runner: The cartoon "No Hands on Deck!" has a montage of Homestar going around announcing his plans to build a deck for all and sundry.

Web Comics

  • Archipelago: Every now and then, when a day is spent on the sub and nothing plotty happens, there is an assortment of panels with sub's crew each doing their own thing: having tea, reading, talking, napping and so on. One nice (if somewhat spoilery) example would be book 8, page 10, en route to Penumbra Island.
  • Ever Blue: Luna and Ten enjoying Summer Festival in Flore, with browsing in the market, games, and watching the parade.

Web Videos

Western Animation

  • Metalocalypse: In "Renovationklok", Skwisgaar wonders what happened to the Klokateers who were let go after their checks bounced. They're shown holding signs for work ("Will roadie for food."), getting in soup lines, waiting for jobs at hardware stores, mugging people, robbing stores, washing windshields, and donating sperm.
  • The Powerpuff Girls: There's one showing Mr. Smith going about his daily life.
  • Sponge Bob Squarepants: Often seen as the citizens of Bikini Bottom react to Spongebob's latest antics (like broadcasting Patrick's Giftedly Bad song over the airwaves).


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