New Wave Film

Evaluation

For my new wave short film I filmed in and around Birmingham, and I encoded the conventions that I came across while researching the various New Waves (mainly American). My video does not follow a narrative, which stemmed from the lack of a strong narrative in my studied new wave films. I chose to have a relaxed hip hop beat in my video, which I think worked well because it is simple and doesn't detract from the visuals much. Also, it allowed me to cut on the beat but also off beat. I used this off beat cutting style at various points in the video, such as the very last shot of Lewis smoking. The convention was especially reminiscent of the French New Wave films such as Breathless, which cuts at random points and utilises jump cuts. 

The whole video was filmed in natural light or using artificial lights in stores because the films I studied didn't have the budgets for professional lighting. I think this worked well for my video because it gave it a natural feel and nothing felt staged like a high budget video would. Also another convention I picked up from these films was the use of extended long shots, which further stemmed from the lack of budget and the need to save as much film as possible. However, I don't think this worked effectively in my video because these shots relied on a planned narrative and for the shot to be staged in a way that forwarded the plot, and my long shots were redundant and were of random things like people walking in the street. 

In terms of health and safety, I had to make sure that I was operating the camera in the correct manner and also conduct myself in a way that wasn't causing concern for the public. I made sure that I wasn't blocking the pavements while filming and also I didn't directly film people in a way that made them uncomfortable. Even though it's legal in the UK to photograph people in public places without their consent, if I was filming somebody directly I still think it's a good idea to talk to them and make sure that they are okay with it.

I think my film could have been improved greatly if I had shot with a stronger narrative in mind. In my design brief, I stated that I wanted it to be structured in a free form style, which was a convention of new wave films, but it ended up being a bit too formless for me to really classify it as 'new wave'. 

Aperture Demonstration

Aperture is another element of photography and moving image that determines the outcome of your image. Aperture affects how wide the aperture ring in your lens opens and how much light is let on to the sensor. Aperture is measured in 'F Stops' and they can range from numbers like f1.4 and f3.5 all the way to f20 and f30. When you use a low aperture like the former, it is called a wide aperture because the ring opens up almost all the way, and when you use a high aperture the ring only opens up a small amount. This not only affects the exposure level but the depth of field you get in your photos. The lower the aperture number, the smaller the depth of field is which results in your subject being in focus but the background being blurred. However, if you use a higher aperture number, you get a larger depth of field and more things (if not all) areas of the photo will be in focus. This applies also to moving image, and the aperture affects the opening in the ring for every single frame in the video. This allows filmmakers to make creative choices for their film, such as isolating a person by blurring the background, or having the whole image clear and sharp for establishing shots that require everything to be seen. Below is a diagram of aperture rings and their F numbers along with how this affects the depth of field.

New Wave Film Design Brief

After researching the American New Wave and watching three of the defining films (Bonnie & Clyde, Midnight Cowboy and Taxi Driver), it became apparent that they all shared similar film making techniques and the freedom to express taboo subject matter. These factors stemmed from the reasons the new wave came to fruition. Some common techniques included extended long shots, often of seemingly pointless subjects, a heightened expression of violence as compared to previous films and the subject of prostitution and the sexuality of women.

I plan to film on a day out in Birmingham, using a variety of locations such as the roof at the library, Digbeth and the canal. I want to film at these locations because a common trait of the American New Wave was for the crew to film in natural locations such as the streets of New York City, which gave their films a sense of naturalism. This choice also mainly stemmed from the lack of a high budget, which meant that they could not pay for a custom-made studio lot. As a result, this meant that their films contained random pedestrians and usual activities going on in the background of their shots which is something I want to carry over to my short film. Often the people being filmed were not aware of the camera and so you got real interactions and the sense of realism was heightened.

A common convention in new wave films was the lack of a strong narrative but rather a loose narrative that wasn’t as strict. This is another element that will carry over to my piece, as I plan to just shoot whatever catches my attention and piece it together afterwards, trying to just order it in a way that conveys a sense of storytelling. I plan to film the journey there on the train, which will be jump cut and give an intro to the film.

I also plan to use a lot of cross dissolves between shots to either show the passage of time or to blend the clips into something that might even confuse the audience. I can see this being the case when there are a bunch of clips that are similar in subject matter, and it should create a feeling of disorganization or even be likened to the acid trip scene in Easy Rider. A trait in these films was a self-awareness of the movie being made, and I want to shoot reflections of myself in shop windows and also film the other students with their camera. This breaks the fourth wall and you no longer feel like you are watching a story that has been specially created, and that’s something I find interesting and want to try out.

Labelling and Organising Bins

In premiere you can access all of the metadata for your individual shots. This allows you (the editor) to easily organize your footage and make it easier to sort through what you want and what you want to cut out. With my footage, I started out by selecting which info I wanted to be displayed about the footage. For example, I know all of my footage was shot at 24fps, so this didn't need to be shown.

After that, I went through my footage library, and previewed each shot to see what it was. I then named the shot based on either what it showed, or the type of shot (establishing, tracking etc.). This has helped a lot as my footage is no longer a load of numbered files but rather something I can scan through and quickly find what is appropriate to my sequences.

This is what the module and preview window looks like, and you can see how easily it is to pick out a specific shot and add it to my sequence.

Shot Types

The premise of this task was to research different shot types and to then use them to create a demonstration video of each one, ranging from types of framing to movements in shot.