My New Wave Evaluation

My New Wave video was heavily inspired by the opening scene from Godard's 'Breathless' (A Bout De Souffle). I was fascinated by how the lengthy shots all took place in the protagonist's car, and therefore I have replicated this in my own video. Alongside the editing used in the film I was intrigued by the unique style that Godard used in his feature.

In my own video I have tried to capture the protagonist in the car in multiple angles, something of which was not only common within Godard's Breathless, but also it is a feature that became a regular convention within the French New Wave. Arguably the most common convention, the jump cut, also appears within my film. The jump cut was used to break up parts of the narrative that would be used in typical Hollywood films, however in the French New Wave, these shots were not thought of as necessary. As the shots I have captured were filmed in a tight space, I decided to use jump cuts to provide the viewer with a larger variety of shots in an attempt to keep them engaged, and therefore throughout my video, the scenes will jump from one shot to another.

The audio in the French New Wave was diegetic in the majority of shots, again a convention I have tried to emulate. The difficulty I faced with this is when it came to editing my shots with one another, the audio captured was unclear due to the fact I was relying on the microphone built in the camera; Therefore next time I shoot I will improve the audio captured within my shots by using a more powerful recording device. Due to this I have included several non-diegetic audio pieces to accompany my shots, however I feel this takes away the realism, which is why of course that diegetic audio was used within the French New Wave. 

I have tried to put my own touch on the New Wave video by blending multiple shots into one another. Although this isn't a convention of the French New Wave, the directors of the New Wave often came up with new conventions, which is why the wave was so effective. I decided to build shots onto one another, lower the opacity and it created a unique visual experience. 

Lighting in the New Wave was the majority of time, natural. In my New Wave video the only artificial lighting used was the car light which was on when the car was not moving, so I decided to not use any extra sources of lighting. However because of this, some of my shots are maybe too dark as the whole sequence was shot at night. Although I am pleased with the effectiveness of some shots, for example, the traffic lights shot was almost blurred because it was shot in complete darkness and once I blended into other shots it looked quite appealing.

Editing

I made sure whilst I was editing my footage together I kept my workspace tidy with the use of labels and bins. This enabled me to access the files I needed with ease and therefore I didn't waste time searching for my footage. I also colour labelled the files based on how useful they were or whether they were in use or not. For example the rose colour means they were in use in my sequence at the time of editing.