French new wave documentary notes

Charles De Gaulle is president
Jazz plays all night long
Young intellectual men met at the cinematheque to argue and debate about film, these were:
Jean Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Francois Truffaut and Jacques Rivette.
They did not have the money to make films so they wrote about them instead. 

Source: 
Cinema Cinema Part 1-Documentary on New Wave -La Nouvelle Vague

The French New wave research

Source: 

http://www.newwavefilm.com/new-wave-cinema-guide/nouvelle-vague-where-to-start.shtml 

This article is going to very useful for my presentation on the French New Wave because it contains a lot of information about the background of the young French filmmakers who went on to make French new wave films. It also mentions the dislike these filmmakers had for generic films of the time which had no feelings put into them when they were made and that directors should be considered authors. 

Testing Aperture

Aperture test from georgie wing on Vimeo
 Aperture- The opening in the camera lens has the capability to block or admit light. The narrower the aperture, the less light enters the camera, thus creating dark images. The higher the aperture number the less light will be allowed onto the image.
I have experimented with different apertures to see how raising and lowering the number effects the overall quality of the footage captured. I also used different lenses as they have different levels of aperture and i wanted to see a good range. The depth of field depends on the aperture settings, the larger the aperture the less depth of field there will be.
The depth of field is the part of an image that the eye is usually drawn to, so that part is in focus but the parts that the eye isn't drawn to are out of focus.

Camera and Lighting basics

The director of photography is responsible for keeping the shooting of the film on time and within budget. They are also responsible for how the image looks and the story that is told in a single shot.

Exposure-The amount of light that gets into the image. Four factors regulate exposure.

1. Amount of light- The sun produces more light than any light bulb. If the camera produces an image that looks normal under bright sunlight it will - with the same settings- produce underexposed in a scene lit by a dim tungsten bulb.

2. Aperture- The opening in the camera lens has the capability to block or admit light. The narrower the aperture, the less light enters the camera, thus creating dark images.

3. Shutter Speed- The plate located between the lens and the camera recording

The French New Wave research

Closely watched films: an introduction to the art of narrative film technique:
The 400 blows is considered a historical importance due to its instant critical and comercial success. Truffaut was 27 when he made the 400 Blows in 1959,The film is autobiographical and is considered a "psychologically acute portrait of the artist as a young man". The 400 blows helped launch the French wave movement. The French new wave was relatively short and lasted from 1959 to 1963. Young French filmmakers were influenced

New Waves in Cinema book research:

The Politique Des Auteurs
"1946 proved to be a momentous one for French cinema" The war was over so American films could play in Parisian cinemas again. Prominent directors at the time were: Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Nicholas Ray, John Ford and Orson Welles. "Truffaut later claimed to have seen Citizen Kane over 30 times."  French films that were previously banned were now available with two important previously banned films being 'Zero de conduite' ( Zero for Conduct, 1933 Jean Vigo) and 'La Regle du jeu'( The rules of the Game, 1939, Jean Renoir) Both if these films had an anti-authority feel which was a huge influence. These films showed the French people that they could make films just as well as the Americans could.


Bibliography:

New Waves in Cinema - Sean Martin
Closely watched films: an introduction to the art of narrative film technique - Marilyn Fabe

Pulling Focus

Pull Focus from georgie wing on Vimeo.

I wanted to practice the technique of pulling focus. The pull focus technique is where the main focus point of the frame is changed by pulling focus onto another part of the image. I created a short film to show this technique. I focused on making sure that my shots were neither under exposed or over exposed. I did this by looking at the light meter on the screen and trying to keep it as close to the centre of the meter as possible. I had the camera set on 24 frames per second as this is the usual frames per second that is used in moving image. My shutter speed was 1/50. I wanted my ISO to be as close to 100 as possible so that my footage was not grainy and was therefore higher quality. However due to it being an overcast day I raised my ISO to 400 however when I focused on a different part of the room it was underexposed so I raised my aperture. However it was still underexposed so I had to raise my ISO again but this time I set it at 800 and this resulted in the footage being perfectly exposed.

My footage that pulls focus between a coffee cup and a water bottle worked well and was perfectly exposed due to my focus on the light meter. If I were to do this task again I would use a tripod because two of my clips were shaky and therefore the pull focus effect wasnt as effective as it should have been due to the unsteadyness of the footage. The tripod would ensure that the camera wouldn't shake and therefore my pull focus would have been more effective. I included my last clip in the video because it yet again highlights that without a tripod the footage can be ruined. The pull focus also didn't work in the last clip because I was trying to focus on two things that were not far enough away from each other and therefore they were both in and out of focus at the same time.

Editing

The cut/cutting technique was used to splice the film together into scenes and sequences. The actual cutting of the film meant that any remaining film would have to be thrown away and none of the lost footage can be stored or seen again.
The Moviola was the first machine to edit motion pictures. Iwan Serrurier's  original concept, in 1917, for his machine was to sell home movie projectors. However this project failed due to the cost of the machine being too expensive for the public to buy, the machine was priced at $600, which is the equivalent of over $20,000 in today's money. This led to very few sales of the machine and ultimately its failure. However an editor from Douglas Fairbanks Studios advised Iwan Serrurier to develop his original idea and adapt the machine for film editors to use to help them edit films easier. Iwan Serrurier invented the Moviola in 1924. The Moviola enables the editors to be able to view the film as they edit it which makes the editing process a lot easier for the editors as they can view individual shots and therefore could be a lot more precise with the editing. Some of the most well known film studios then started using the Moviola to edit their films including: Universal Studios, Warner Brothers and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Moviola was the standard way to edit films up until the 70's when Flatbed editing became available. However some films are still edited using the Moviola, In 2005 Steven Spielberg's  'Munich'  was nominated for the 'Best Film Editing' Academy Award after the editor Micheal Kahn's use of the Moviola to edit the film.

 The Flatbed editor is a machine used to edit film. The machine loads picture and sound on separate plates which move forward and backwards. The picture is reflected onto a viewing screen through a prism and at the same time a magnetic playback head reads the audio track. The image is shot on film and the sound is recorded separately and then loaded onto a magnetic track.The editor then has to synchronise the sound and picture by loading one picture roll onto a plate and a corresponding magnetic roll onto a sound plate. The editor then finds the frame where the clapperboard come together and repeats this with the magnetic roll. the editor then marks the frame on both rolls and that is the synchronisation point. Interlock mode then ensures that the picture and sound maintain synchronisation. To actually edit the film the editor has to mark it on both the picture and sound rolls and cuts the film and then splice in the next shot. The flatbed became popular in the 1970's due to its high speed which the Moviola lacked. However flatbed editors were increasingly being replaced by non-linear editing software. One of the most famous brands of flatbed editors is the Steenbeck.

Contextual Studies

The scene begins with a wide shot of two men and women sat around smoking and drinking. One of the men is wearing brown suede trousers with a matching jacket. The mise en scene of his clothing is important because it looks like the clothing the native Americans used to wear. This is important because Wyatt and Billy, the two protagonists, are seeking peace but are rejected by bigoted small town Americans which is also what happened to the native Americans. The native Americans were hunted down and driven away from their homes because of their different culture and beliefs. The mise en scene of the girl dressed in a black veil could represent the death of American society. Black veils are commonly worn by widows or women in mourning so the fact that she is wearing the black veil shows she is has lost something or someone. The mise en scene of the graveyard that the protagonists are sat in The iconography of alcohol and cigarettes are commonly used as a symbol of escapism from the everyday world and society itself. These characters have no sense of belonging in the world they live in. Through the mise en scene of the protagonists taking drugs it shows how they are yet again just looking to escape and be happy for a while. This is also shown when the non diegetic sound in the scene grows louder after the protagonists take the drugs and gradually drowns out the diegetic dialogue which shows how the drugs block out the noise of the rest of the world. A non diegetic voice over is used as the scene cuts between the Protagonists drinking and a derelict building. The shot reverse shot of the derelict building and the male protagonist is suggesting that the two are very similar and that the male is also broken and doesnt fit in with his surroundings. The voice over dialogue is telling the story of Jesus's crucifixion and mentions "descending into hell" as there is a wide shot of three of the protagonists which suggests that they will go to hell due to their way of living and involvement with drugs. However when the building is shown again soft high key lighting is used to show the suns beams on the building as the voice over talks about Jesus's ascension to heaven the camera then pans to a clear blue sky before a jump cut to one of the young women, who is revealed to be the one reading the passage from the voice over. She says that she "believes in God" as it then cuts to the sun in the sky. A zoom in is then used until the sun becomes a blur. A close up of one of the males shows him sat on a statue with his eyes closed as he says "shut up". A vignette is then used as a montage of moving images are shown. The vignette represents the point of view of the male protagonist dreaming.One of the last things we see in the montage is the statue of Jesus on the cross. This scene contains a lot of religious symbolism and messages as the protagonists are shown as sinners through the acts of drinking, smoking and taking drugs. A zoom out is then used to reveal the sun yet again. A handheld camera is used to show us the point of view of one of the protagonists as it spins around in circles. The use of the handheld camera gives a sense of verisimilitude and puts the audience in the protagonists shoes as he feels lost and is going in circles. 

Lighting

Lighting is one of the most important features of film as it helps evoke the emotion and meaning of a scene. For example horror films are famous for their use of low key lighting which adds to the suspense and mystery of the film. Low key lighting is the use of the darkness and night to portray evil and the fear of the unknown. High key lighting on the other hand evokes happiness and a positive atmosphere. A change from high key lighting to low key lighting shows a shift in the mood of a scene and easily tells the audience how the story is changing.

Hard Lighting:

Soft Lighting: 

Bibliography:

Brown, B. (2011b) Cinematography: Theory and practice, Second edition: Image making for Cinematographers and directors. 2nd edn. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Focal Press.

maintained (2010) Definition: Hard light. Available at: http://www.photokonnexion.com/4019-2/ (Accessed: 25 November 2016).

maintained (2010b) Soft light - definition: Photokonnexion.Com. Available at: http://www.photokonnexion.com/3977-2/ (Accessed: 25 November 2016).