French New Wave video + evaluation

How does the film conform to the conventions of the film movement?

In my film, I tried to use micro elements of film form like cinematography to link to the film movement. For example, I used tracking shots and mid to wide shots which are often used in French new wave films as close-ups and especially extreme close ups are quite unusual. I think that the tracking shots worked well in terms of the execution of them as I used a handheld camera which added more of a realism element however I think that they would have worked better if I had integrated them more into the narrative of the film as they didn’t necessarily work to add meaning. I also think that I should have tried to use a slightly wider variety of shots to develop more of a narrative as well as linking more to the genre and because my film didn’t reach the intended time of 5 minutes and instead is 2 minutes shorter.

I used editing like long takes and some jump cuts to display the genre as they are very common aspects of French new wave films. Examples are ‘Breathless’ where a scene with two characters in a car contains numerous jump cuts which alters the continuity and the final scene of ‘The 400 Blows’ which has lots of quite long takes, culminating in the last shot which continues for about a minute. I based my last shot on the final one from ‘the 400 Blows’ however I added some jump cuts to slightly shorten the length of the take and to show that aspect of the film movement. I made the footage black and white to give the effect of it being a French new wave film as well.

In terms of mise en scene, for costume due to the difference in time period the clothing I chose isn’t particularly similar to what would be found in a French new wave film however I was just trying to portray and represent an ordinary young person and I think that I achieved that with the clothing worn as well as the hair, but no makeup.  For setting, I went to outdoor places, on location, which is very common for French new wave films with the recent development of smaller cameras which could be used in towns and different locations, not just in studios. I think that I could have filmed more in urban locations though rather than just outside in the countryside as that may have helped the film to link more to the movement. For lighting as I filmed mostly outside there wasn’t a lot I could control however for the shot looking out of the window I did try to ensure that there was enough light to create a silhouette but not so much that they would be completely illuminated.

My sound choices were to have French spoken over the footage with subtitles to try and further bring across that it’s a film in the style of the French new wave. I also chose French classical music to be played which I think matches with the tone of the film and helped bring it together along with the speech. However, I think that it could have been better to use the speech to give more of a narrative to what’s happening. As well, natural sound is a convention of the genre so I think that it would have been nice to include that.

The film is targeted more in terms of audience for younger people due to the representation of a teenager in the film however it could be watched by people of all ages. Different spectators may have different individual responses to the film depending on their interpretation of what the different mise en scene aspects mean, for example the significance of the settings, however the general meaning I was trying to convey to an audience was a sense of isolation and loneliness through the wide camera shots and lack of any other characters in the film, as well as the speech made over the top. 

The narrative is driven by the narration over the top which gives more of a 'mood' to the film than showing a proper linear narrative as the way I've edited the film doesn't link some parts together with match on action for example or shots which continue directly from one another which means it's difficult for the audience to construct and idea about the linear narrative. Therefore although there is a sense of the shots following on from each other it's more non-linear than linear. This is something which I think I could have done better as I ran out of time to film as much as I would have liked to and therefore I had to discard my plot idea which linked more to discovery and would have made the film easier to understand. Instead I decided to use the footage I had to try and create a sad/moody atmosphere which I think worked to show the micro elements of the genre however in terms of macro elements and negotiating a response as well as showing representation, I don't think it works as well because of the non-linear narrative. It's not as easily identifiable in terms of genre due to this as many French new wave films, particularly 'the 400 blows' which was the set film studied, have social realism aspects and I don't think that I've represented that in my film.