New Wave film +evaluation

How my New Wave film, I used both a DSLR camera and a phone camera to not only give the film a realistic feel but also make the audience aware that they are watching a film, which was the main idea   and concept for the directors of the New wave movement. At the start I was planning on using a simple narrative with no emphaisis on it and rather focus on the editing however as I started filming I didn't find the idea of placing the camera on a busy street challenging enough nor interesting. However I still liked the idea of filming old buildings, but rather than filming on one location, I decided while I was in Bulgaria, to go in the capital without a map, get lost on purpose and find old buildings and interesting places to film while turning my film into a short story- from catching the plane and going away to building a montage-like story of the travel. I also didn't stick to my idea to use  voiceover throughout, and chose to tell the story through the videos so the viewer would stay active and engaged in the story and wouldn't rely on the narrations.

My aim was to use as many of the editing techniques used in the French new wave cinema as possible, while adapting it to the surroundings I was in while in Bulgaria, mixing the two. I think I achieved that right from the start of my short film using a long shot in a car while there is a casual dialogue in Bulgarian taking place. Rather than using an establishing shot, the camera is seen as being the observer which is similar to the documentary style of Godard, and the dialogue in Bulgarian almost puts a distance between the viewer and the people in the shot. To distance them even further I choose not to show their faces but rather use their conversation as a background.

To further show the influence of the French new wave on my film I used the song Les Champs-Élysées by Joe Dassin, upbeat and popular French song, which people would of connected to France straight away, however I also used colours, to show elements of the style of editing of Goddard like in his film Contempt- for a short sequence the colours change from from red to blue and then back to normal, in tact with the beat of the song.

I wanted to use subtitles when speaking in Bulgarian, however I only used them in parts where I found important, and that the viewer would engage with what they see on the screen. I also included an example of breaking the forth wall, when on one of the clips, a girl turns around and points to a building as the camera pans from her to the building, breaking the conventions of mainstream cinema.

What I would of changed is, next time I'm filming, id make a clear plan ahead of time, research and map the places I need to go to to save time and find different locations, which would support my narrative.

Different Lighting setups

Rembrandt

Rembrandt lighting is a lighting technique that is used in studio portrait photography. It can be achieved using one light and a reflector, or two lights, and is popular because it is capable of producing images which appear both natural and compelling with a minimum of equipment. Rembrandt lighting is characterized by an illuminated triangle under the eye of the subject on the less illuminated side of the face. It is named for the Dutch painter Rembrandt, who often used this type of lighting. like the use of split lighting it can be used to create a softer chiaroscuro effect making the subject look mysterious.

Split 

Split lighting involves “splitting” the face into two proportional halves, with one side being in the shadow and the other side being in the light. It can be done with a single light source, which makes it easy and inexpensive to execute even for beginners.

Split lighting can be used for  a variety of purposes as: 

-Achieving a dramatic effect in portraits

-Fashion photography
-Commercial photography
-Adding variety to a set of themed portrait photos
-Making a broad face look slimmer

Butterfly

Butterfly lighting is a portrait lighting pattern where the key light is placed above and directly centered with a subject's face. This creates a shadow under the nose that resembles a butterfly. It's also known as 'Paramount lighting,' named for classic Hollywood glamour photography. It is most often used for glamour style shots and to create shadows under the cheeks and chin. It is also flattering for older subjects as it emphasizes wrinkles less than side lighting.

High Key Lighting

High key lighting is a method often used in beauty and makeup commercials and in comedies. A high key look gives you fewer shadows and makes your talent look flawless and elegant. It produces an even amount of light that spreads across an entire scene. It’s also useful for producing food or product imagery when you need the light to be even across the entire scene.

A high key lighting style often involves a soft key light directly above the camera — and not too close to the talent. Positioning the light directly in front of the talent creates less shadow, making the skin look softer and smoother. Usually, these lights will be large — at least a 6×6 butterfly. High key lighting also produces a beautiful catch light in the talent’s eyes.

Low Key Lighting

As opposed to high key lighting, low key lighting is much more dramatic. Low key lighting typically involves lots of contrast and creates an entirely different mood than high key lighting. Low key’s transition from highlight to shadow is much quicker and more dramatic — and harsh. Usually low key lighting is very close to a subject, and the light source is typically dimmer to accommodate this. In fact, in some cases, you can light someone on a white backdrop, but it will appear black because of how close the light is to a subject.

By placing the light closer to the subject, the transition from highlight to shadow occurs much faster, creating a much more dramatic scene.

Bibliography

https://expertphotography.com/rembrandt-lighting-photography/

https://www.adorama.com/alc/faq-what-is-split-lighting

https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/high-key-vs-low-key-lighting/

Health and safety on set

Responsibilities 

Under most health and safety legislation (check the specifics of your country though), the ultimate responsibility for health and safety rests with the production company and those in control of relevant premises (studios & locations) and facilities (equipment, vehicles etc.).

It is initially up to the production company to establish appropriate procedures to control risk and place H&S alongside editorial and/or dramatic considerations. There should also be good planning, communication, co-operation and co-ordination by and between all parties involved in a production. Especially communication.

Reasonably Practicable:
This means that you should:

• determine what kinds of risks are caused by your work,
• consider how likely those risks are,
• take appropriate action that is proportionate to the injury or illness that could occur,
• implement well-known and effective industry practices,
• involve your staff in identifying and controlling risks.

You don’t need to:

• do everything humanly possible to prevent accidents,
• buy the most expensive equipment on the market,
• spend the bulk of your week on H&S training, compliance and documentation.

Risk assessment
The way to stay safe is to look at each shooting set up or location individually and think of what exactly could go wrong. 

It's a three step process

• Identify all the hazards
• Evaluate the risks
• Identify measures to control the risks

Then put in place safeguards to eliminate or minimise risk. You should make a record of any risk assessment to ensure everyone are clear on how to stay safe. This can save time during your shoot.

'Hazard' refers to the potential for harm. while 'Risk' is the chance of that harm actually happening. Though some hazards might seem very obvious, people might still need to have them pointed out.

Weather
Extremes of weather are one commonly overlooked hazard. If you are filming outside all day, it is essential to make sure the crew are dressed appropriately. A lot of the time you may be standing around and people will get cold very quickly even in what seems quite mild weather. Layers of clothes are best, and get everyone to bring a waterproof and a woolly hat - they keep out wind as well as rain and are invaluable.

Sunburn and heatstroke are other outdoor hazards. Always have high protection sunscreen on hand. Try to wear some kind of sun hat or stay in the shade when possible and make sure lots of water is available to drink. The other reason for sunscreen is to stop the actors' appearance changing drastically and messing up the continuity of the film!


Time pressure
Rushing to finish in time is when hazards get missed, or people start taking risks. If this starts to happen, take a moment to calm everyone down and remind them: this is only a film. If you feel really pressured try to think of how to lighten the work-load: can you cut out some shots or set ups to give you the time to get the most essential stuff for the film without a panic? Or can you come back tomorrow to finish?

Tripping hazards
Move or gaffa tape down cables and objects that could be tripped over.

Lifting hazards
Go carefully when moving or lifting heavy or dangerous things, ask someone to help you.

Camera risks
When a camera operator or cast member is walking during a shot, make sure they are comfortable with their route and there is nothing that could cause problems (a camera operator who needs to walk backwards for a shot should have an assistant to guide them and/or check their route).

Bibliography

https://movingimageeducation.org/create-films/production/the-production-department/health-and-safety

https://www.filmsourcing.com/filmmaking-health-safety-keeping-your-cast-and-crew-safe/

New Wave french films research

Jules et jim 

‘Jules and Jim" is really Catherine's film. This is Jeanne Moreau's first great performance, all the greater because of the art with which she presents Catherine's discontent. A lesser actress might have made Catherine mad or hysterical, but although madness and hysteria are uncoiling beneath the surface, Catherine depends mostly on unpredictability -- on a fundamental unwillingness to behave as expected. She shocks her friends as a way of testing them.’  

Truffaut: "I begin a film believing it will be amusing -- and along the way I notice that only sadness can save it." 

directed by François Truffaut based on Henri-Pierre Roché's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel about his relationship with writer Franz Hessel and his wife, Helen Grund. One of the seminal products of the French New Wave, Jules and Jim is an inventive encyclopedia of the language of cinema that incorporates newsreel footage, photographic stills, freeze frames, panning shots, wipes, masking, dolly shots, and voiceover narration (by Michel Subor). Truffaut's cinematographer was Raoul Coutard, a frequent collaborator with Jean-Luc Godard, who employed the latest lightweight cameras to create an extremely fluid film style. For example, some of the postwar scenes were shot using cameras mounted on bicycles. 

A Bout de souffle 

A Bout de Souffle (1960) starring Jean Belmondo and Jean Seberg is Godard’s first feature film and considered to be the most influential/most defining film to come out of the Nouvelle Vague. Many of the French New Wave directors were inspired by Hollywood mainstream cinema directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles and this was something that Godard certainly adopted for A Bout de Souffle; his own take on the classic film noir. 

The opening of A Bout de Souffle is composed of an extreme close-up of a man reading a newspaper “wearing a baggy, crumpled suit with hat cocked and fag in mouth, Michel Poiccard seems almost American”. 

Le Mepris 

The movie is adapted from Alberto Moravia’s 1954 novel of the same name. Jack Palance plays Prokosch, an American producer who hires Paul (Michel Piccoli) to write a screen adaptation of The Odyssey. Paul is pressured to commercialise the project, taking away from the purely artistic values envisioned by the director (Fritz Lang, playing himself). This brings troubles to his relationship with his wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot). It’s a self-referential movie, a film whose deconstructive gaze is turned on itself, especially on the mechanics of sexual allure (Bardots speech).  Contempt was the film that Bardot used to return back to screen as she had previously taken a break from acting to escape the medias attention. As we can see in the film Goddard exploits her looks, finding multiple opportunities for her to bathe or lie ariund naked he also takes the advanatge and draws out a theme of sexual objectification in the process . The most obvious example being at the start of the film in Bardot’s first appearance. She lies, again, nude on the bed, while talking to her onscreen husband- she asks him about various parts of her of her body, verbalising the fetishistic, cataloguing of body parts that the camera performs as it glides, in an unbroken take, up then down her back.  The scene was added as Joseph e. levine insisted on a certain amount of Bardot nude scenes. Goddards response was a scene that resists easy eroticisation: instead of allowing the viewer unalloyed voyeuristic pleasure, Bardot’s commentary on her own attributes reminds us that she knows she’s being looked over, and that our inspecting gaze is not innocent, invisible or unnoticed. This sequence is a good example of Godard allowing form to speak over, or through the content: The colour filter on the shot begins red, changes to white, then turns blue. There is nothing in the scene to suggest that it needs a tricolour imposed upon it, and the lights are not changing in Paul and Camille’s bedroom; that’s the artistic stamp that Goddard lives.  

Bibliography  
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-jules-and-jim-1961 

http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/breathless.shtml 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/dec/31/le-mepris-contempt-review-jean-luc-godard 

French New wave essay

'Photography is truth, and cinema is truth 24 times a second' - The little Solder, 1963, Jean Luc Goddard. 

Nouvelle vague, or the French new wave first emerged in the 1950s and 60s and is said to be one of the moist influencial movements in the cinema history.  As that was also the time when France emerged from World War II, and was undergoing economic crisis, it was time of rebuilding the country not only physically but also its national identity. The new wave was born through the dissatisfaction of the filmmakers and critics at the time who felt as traditional cinema lacked something and it wasn’t truly representative nor reflective of the chanages happening in France at the time. In an interwiew Truffaut states “I liked cinema as it was, but felt it lacked sincerity. I just wanted to improve it”. They wanted to break the rules, of what was considered acceptable in fillmaking, critisising the work of their French forefathers and praising the work of american directors such as Alfred Hitchcok, Orson welles, etc. The New Wave filmmakers rejected the practise of studio production and can be defined for their use of jump cuts, handheld cameras, filming in real locations with an improvised script, characters speaking directly to the camera often wearing their own clothes and a small crew on a very small/tight budget. The focus, for the filmmakers, was on the way in which the story is told rather than the importance of the story itself; they wanted to redefine film form. Therefore, capturing a sense of realism in capturing off guard moments and throwing the audience out of the film with the adaption of these experimental features allows them to question what they are seeing rather then getting emerged in the film. 

The importing of American films was banned by the Nazi, and just after the liberation, in 1945 the culturaly starved France got a backlog of American cinema starting to hit the screens. That was the first exposure to hollywood films and the first influence on the still young critics. For them the American cinema was more varied and more exciting than the postwar productions of the French films. The american economic dominance created an ideological dominance in the minds of the dominated.  

A revolution had begun; after years and years of rationing, shortages, tension and political outrage, France was finally getting back up on its feet. Technological innovation brought around enormous change in societyy, making consumer goods such cars, televisions and the like more affordable for the general public. Black and White films were a thing of the past, and wide screen formatting was in use - it was a new Golden age for France and for French Cinema. 

Francois Truffaut was born in Paris in the 1930's, and developed an early interest in cinema from a young age. He used cinema as a means to escape from his normal life. Truffaut became one of the most famous French film critics from the new wave period. He was first published by Cahiers Du Cinema in 1954, with his article 'A Certain Tendency in French Cinema'. This article was a huge hit and became the basis of Truffaut's career. The article was aimed at the most famous directors and screenwriters of the present day, he condemned them as sarcastic, profanatory and deceiving. He was the director that opened the doors to the new wave style with his film The 400 blows. After being banned from the Cannes film festival in 1958 to start with, for his offencive remarks regarding french cinema in his film criticism for Cahiers, to then win the directors Prize at the next years festival with Les Quatre Centc Coups. The 400 blows is a semi-autobiographical movie about life, the life of a misunderstood boy. Inspired by Truffaut's own early life, it shows a resourceful boy growing up in Paris and apparently dashing headlong into a life of crime. Adults see him as a troublemaker. We are allowed to share some of his private moments, as when he lights a candle before a little shrine to Balzac in his bedroom. The film's famous final shot, a zoom in to a freeze frame, shows him looking directly into the camera. The film begins with a series of tracking shots interpreted as the point of view of a child starring out of the car window. That’s important as the only other significant scene where we do see a child's perspective of Paris seen through a car window is at the end where Antoine is in the police car. With the frequent use of fades, jump cuts, mash cuts and numerous long takes as Truffaut shows his vision as an auteur- the dominant creative force behind a project, and use the camera stylo (the camera as a pen). The film is also stylistically told in a series of small episodes, all linking together in a chain of cause and effect- Antoine runs away from home because he lied, he lied because he skipped school, he skipped school because he was unfairly punished in class, he was punished in class because of his classmate passing him a poster. 

Another film directed by Truffaut, which represents the era of the New Wave cinema is Jules et Jim based on Henri-Pierre Roché's 1953 semi-autobiographical novel about his relationship with writer Franz Hessel and his wife, Helen Grund. One of the seminal products of the French New Wave, Jules and Jim is an inventive encyclopedia of the language of cinema that incorporates newsreel footage, photographic stills, freeze frames, panning shots, wipes, masking, dolly shots, and voiceover narration (by Michel Subor). Truffaut's cinematographer was Raoul Coutard, a frequent collaborator with Jean-Luc Godard, who employed the latest lightweight cameras to create an extremely fluid film style. For example, some of the postwar scenes were shot using cameras mounted on bicycles. A good example of his vision as an auteur showing his cinematography and editing is during the Jules and Jim's bridge race, wherein Jules, Jim, and Catherine race across a bridge. Catherine, hiding her femininity by dressing as a man to see if she could get away with it, shows her character as a cheater during this race -she takes off before the men start running, and ends up crossing the finish first. Truffaut’s edit of the scene shows Catherine running while the other two remain still, then cuts to a portion of the way down the bridge. “You cheated,” they say. “Yes, but I won.” The scene also foreshadows how the film will evolve as the two friends will spend their lives chasing after her, despite her constant attempt to cheat.

Jean-Luc Godard, born in the 1930s and began his career in film-making when he co-founded Gazette du Cinema in 1950, which was a short-lived film journal. He later joined Cahiers Du Cinema, where he would find himself writing film critiques alongside the likes of Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol; all of which would become vital figures in the beginning of the French New Wave movement, , forming the nucleus of what we now call “French New Wave directors” or cahiers du cinéma. He dabbled in documentaries and short films before finally making his most successful and iconic feature film: Á bout de souffle./breathless . co-written by Truffaut, and released in 1960. It was praised for its uniqueness and innovation; never before has a director used the jump cut so prolifically. He uses back-to-basics filmmaking, abandoning sets in favour of real locations. He rarely uses anything but natural lighting and handheld cameras and intentionally breaks the 4th wall. An investigation into the french filming identity in the shadow of Hollywood dominance He has no problem with revealing cinematic artifice; at one point, our hero, Michel Poiccard is humming a tune while the shot cuts several times despite tune remaining intact. Poiccard also uses direct address. Here Godard uses abstract realism. His themes reflect the existential boredom suffered by the youth of the time, explored through his non-motivated dialogue and fragmented narrative. 

Godard’s documentary style of filming reinforces a sense of realism, he often fed actors lines from behind the camera or told them to improvise speech was often dubbed due to the camera being too loud or unwanted background noise. 

Le Mepris (Contempt) was made in 1963 and is a self-reflexive film, much like Une Femme Est Une Femme, highlights the difference between film and reality. The narrative follows the disintegration of the relationship between the disillusioned wife (Camille) of a screen writer (Paul) who gets roped into a project with an American film producer (Jeremiah). This storyline, like several of Godard's other films, echoes the breakdown of Godard's marriage with his wife, Karina. In fact, cinematographer Raoul Coutard referred to Le Mepris as 'a letter to Godard's wife' (Raoul Coutard, Carleton 2015).
 Contempt was the film that Bardot used to return back to screen as she had previously taken a break from acting to escape the medias attention. As we can see in the film Goddard exploits her looks, finding multiple opportunities for her to bathe or lie around naked, he also takes the advanatge and draws out a theme of sexual objectification in the process . The most obvious example being at the start of the film in Bardot’s first appearance. She lies, again, nude on the bed, while talking to her onscreen husband- she asks him about different parts of her of her body, verbalising the fetishistic, cataloguing of body parts that the camera performs as it glides, in an unbroken take, up then down her back. The scene was added as Joseph e. levine insisted on a certain amount of Bardot nude scenes. Goddards response was a scene that resists easy eroticisation: instead of allowing the viewer unalloyed voyeuristic pleasure, Bardot’s commentary on her own attributes reminds us that she knows she’s being looked over, and that our inspecting gaze is not innocent, invisible or unnoticed. This sequence is a good example of Godard allowing form to speak over, or through the content: The colour filter on the shot begins red, changes to white, then turns blue.
Throughout his film-making career, Godard was fascinated with exploring the ways in which women interact with relationships as femme fatales. In Breathless, he looks at how women betray, in Pierrot Le Fou he looks at how women run away and in Contempt, he looks at the way in which women become faithless. However, what makes Contempt different is how Godard emphasises the fact that a man may be at fault for the loss of a woman's love. (Philip Loptate 1997)

Overall looking back, their work clearly illustrates how they are not afraid to fail or be judged for not only breaking the conventions of the mainstream cinema but also establishing their own creative style of filmmaking  I think its easy to say -They transformed the world, one film at a time. 

Bibliography 

The little Solder, 1963, Jean Luc Goddard. 

The 400 blows, (1959) François Truffaut

Contempt (1963) Jean-Luc Godard

A Bout de Souffle, (1960) Jean-Luc Godard

Jules et Jim, (1962), François Truffaut

Chris wiegan (2001) French New Wave. Pocket essentials film. Herts 

Richard Brody (2008). Everythng is cinema. The Working life of Jean-Luc Godard. London

Nowell-Smith. (2013). Making waves. New cinemas of the 1960s. Rev. ed. London: Continuum Publishing Co.

Introduction to Film Studies, Nelmes, Jill., 2011. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV5Wf5VGVy8