My French New Wave Documentary

Editing Screenshot (iMovie)

Pre-shoot Script

Evaluation

Research

Initially I only had a vague notion about the french new wave, and that it had something to do with 'breaking rules'. I began my research for this unit by watching various video essays about the French New Wave which gave me an overview of the movements history and origins, this also gave me a structure that i could adopt when editing my own documentary/video essay. For example, playing film footage over narration and using interviews clips, interviews and archived footage are part of the documentary filming techniques that i mention in my contextual research. I planned to do some contextual research about documentary conventions and filming techniques, so that all of my research would be broad and link to the documentary part of this unit. For example, my documentary showed elements of being poetic because I planned on creating a montage of french new wave clips that would speak for themselves by displaying the film genre and what it looks like. There are expository parts to my documentary because i offer information from my perspective and use commentary to support what is being said onscreen. Knowing the specific conventions and genres of documentaries was fundamental for keeping me on track to create an effective documentary and not stray away from the brief, I could have ended up making an aesthetic video instead or something that was not part of the documentary genre, if i had not done any prior research. Therefore I stayed focused on my initial aim to use my contextual research as guidance to keep me within certain genre boundaries, because even though my final piece is partly a video essay, it still shows elements of being a documentary.

I then began watching Godard films, specifically 'Perriot Le Fou' and 'A woman is a woman', my first reaction was my surprise to the fact that, directors didn't actually follow rules. I loved the creative freedom that the french new wave brought to filmmaking and how it influenced contemporary cinema. My interest in the deeper meanings of new wave films leads me onto my research paper where i wanted to touch on the more ambiguous notions of the new wave and how artistic it was, using Godard as an example and inspiration. I wanted my research appear to focus on my own opinion and ideas about the new wave by having an objective overview and mentioning new wave conventions that my ideas and feelings could be linked to. I referenced various sources like films and books to bring forth a variety of information that showed why i had come to certain conclusions in my paper. For example the introduction to 'Screen language' by Cherry Potter perfectly encapsulated the attitude that an audience has towards film, and i linked that to how Godard wanted to overcome passive audience viewership, by becoming a pioneer of the New Wave movement. I intended to use parts of my paper as commentary in my documentary to link all of my research.

Editing

Video essays and short aesthetic commentary videos heavily inspired the structure of my short documentary. Most of them simply played archived footage over narration and commentary that supported what was onscreen, accompanied by music in the background that created an atmosphere within the video. A few french new wave video essays used a lot of archived director interview footage, and i like how some film clips were used to explain new wave conventions. when i speak of being inspired by structure that is what i mean. My first objective before editing was to gather enough clips from various french new wave films so i could create a long montage that would showcase all of the most cinematic segments from the films i chose. I screen recorded the clips from youtube and various film websites becasue it was quicker and i didnt need to download an entire video, instead i could screen record what i specifically wanted to use in post. I had recorded the audio using voice notes on my phone and also transferred the audio files to my laptop. Initially i began editing in adobe premire pro, i had almost finished my documeatry, before encountering some technical difficulties. My footage was struggling to render properly which caused a lot of lagging, I couldn't watch anything that i had edited which made it hard to continue. Specifically a few of the clips didn't playback properly even after rendering multiple times whereas other clips played fine and in time. i had mutiple attempts where i screen recorded the same footage that was in the broken film clip, the newly recorded footage would replace the old clip, however this didn't work and the broken clips even when swapped stayed the same. I decided to start over and this time dited in imovie on my laptop. I knew the layout of my documenatry which made assemblign the clips in order easy. From there I made sure that the audio was all level and that the clips and audio faded and transitioned smoothly. I overcame any small challenges in post production by utilising other editing softwares and by knowing when to start over, when too much time had already been wasted by me trying to fix and figure out something that i couldn't. I kept to my initial ideas and aims when it came to the structure of my short aesthetic video essay/documentary; by making sure that i used interview footage of directors like Godard and Truffaut because they essentially explain certain concepts about the new wave movement for me. Playing certain clips from films would also give the audience a break from my commentary and give the clips breathing room before i moved onto another topic or explaining a convention.

Conclusion

Overall I am confident that i stayed on track and focused on my initial ideas by gathering enough contextual and seconadary research and using a variety of sources for information ranging from books to films. I enjoyed this unit and it has given me new knowledge on film history and genre which will aid me in creating my final major project. I will definitely consider incorporating french new wave conventions and filming techniques in my final project because i like the freedom that the new wave brings to filmmaking, after this unit i don't feel as constricted to make my project perfect, i can do things differently when telling a story and stray away from conventional cinema if i feel like it.