New Wave Essay

For my new wave essay, I chose to analyse the American New Wave. I chose three films, Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Midnight Cowboy (1969) and Taxi Driver (1976). The process of making this essay was to gather research relating to the American New Wave and other influences such as the French New Wave, collect relevant clips from my studied films, write a script and record it in the college studio. I think one thing that I did well was to structure my video in a clear way with some clips corresponding to the topics that I was talking about in the commentary. I also think that I did well to talk about the influences behind the new wave and the reasoning behind it's inception.

Making this video essay further informed me about the history of film especially American cinema. It helped give me in insight into how to film in a creative way, as this was really the only way that they could film. The film makers had to compromise and come up with innovative films to get around their restraints bought on by the lack of backing from large studios.

There are a few things that I think I could have done better though, as I didn't plan my time that well and put a lot of strain on myself on the last few days. For example, I think I could have spoken in more detail about specific scenes in my movies and the conventions that they used, especially when relating to how they characterised the new wave style. Also, I think that my video and script could have been longer, adding more detail to my points. This came down to me wanting to finish the video for the deadline, and having a second cut of the video would help to make sure I explained everything in more detail. I see the video as more of a summary of the new wave, rather than a critical analysis.