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'.