History of Cinema: French New Wave

• Paris in the late 50s
• The Young Turks 
• Young Film Makers {cheaply made}
• Film Makers: Godard, Truffaut, Cassavetes, Hopper, Reisz, De Sica
• They break down the illusion that it is a film, often refer to the film itself {self reflective}
• Create an alternative, to create original techniques to substitute the original techniques
• A breaking of the rules, the burnt the books of the way its how to be done
• Camera-Stylo {director should use their camera, the way a writer uses their pen}
• By breaking the rules you can make new ones of your own

Editing: 

• Jump Cut: used to show the space and time between two different shots, to match two shots or to mismatch two shots {the audience become more conscious that they are watching a film}
• The audience doesn’t have to see everything, show don't tell {transition shots, just cut to it}
• Pan towards the setting {don’t need to do a full scene, showing off the setting}
• Unconventional camera movements {staple of the new wave, fly on the wall feel}
• Tension can be displayed through editing or movement of the camera {it is testing alternative methods, to create new ones to convey the same message}
• Instead of a close-up altering the frame to enhance your own style, without cutting or even moving the camera {breaking the rules}
• Freeze frames {taking a snap shot, making the scene appear more dramatic, making the audience wonder what was so important about that moment}
• Fourth Wall {achieved when the performance convention of avoiding direct contact with the camera, generally used by actors in a television drama or film, is temporarily suspended}

WHAT is French New Wave and WHY does it matter?

• An artistic movement whose influence on film has even as profound and enduring as that of surrealism or cubism on painting.
• The birth of the ‘auteur’ and the rise of the ‘camera stylo’
• An explosion of young vibrant film makers.
• A capturing of the zeitgeist of the times - a cultural revolution 

Cashier du cinema had two guiding principles:

• A rejection of classical montage-style filmmaking.
• Best films are a personal artistic expression and should bear a stamp of personal authorship.

A technical practice - an Aesthetic

• The auteur director is also the scenarist/script writer for film
• The director does not follow a strict pre-established shooting script
• The director privileges shooting in natural locations
• The director uses a small crew
• The director opts for ‘direct sound’
• The director does not depend on additional lighting
• The director employs non-professional actors
• The direct will direct famous actors in a free manor

What does this approach allow for?

• A greater sense of flexibility
• Erasing the boundaries between professional and amateur cinema/fiction and documentary
• Creativity in film making - version of narrative is unrestricted
• LOW budgets
• An exploration of the contemporary 
• Digression and Subervision

Techniques of Filming:

• Alternative framing
• Making mistakes - Chabrol famously looked into a bolt when asked to look through the eyepiece on his first film 
• Collaboration with cinematographers
• Natural Lighting - sharp contrast between Black and White
• Liberation of the camera from the TRIPOD
• Reportage - the HIDDEN camera
• Self reference - the appropriation of certain cinematic techniques and director styles