New Wave Edited Piece

This is my Final New Wave edited piece. 

What I was Trying to Accomplish

When reviewing the footage i had collected over the weeks, i noticed two main characters, Sammi and Will, so i decided to focus on them. The new wave films that i had analysed before starting did not have very happy tales to have, to i wanted to follow suit.

i decided to make my narrative a love tragic love story, almost like romeo and juliet. when i decided to do this i needed to decide on a song to run throughout. (the reason  a i decide to use a song instead of the dialogue from the footage was because no particular script or narrative was followed when filming, as we were capturing techniques). i chose to use the song Angels on the Moon by Thriving Ivory, because this song mirrored the mood i wanted to portray throughout my film.

Analysis/reflection 

Editing

Text

I got the idea of adding text and dictionary definitions from the film if.... (1968) that I studied for my Contextual Study (Unit 1). At the beginning of if…. there is a saying shown first, setting up one of the many issues that are raised.  

When I decided to add text into my short film I put one at the beginning and the end. I did this because it helps set up the film, but also helps to show a definitive ending to the film, and the theme of life and death. I feel that it helps to add emphasis on the narrative that everything comes to the end, and by having them fade in and out I wanted to demonstrate that you become more defined as you grow, fading into life and standing out more and as you get older and eventually die you fade out of life.

The first time you are introduced to the characters they are seen in a dream like way, with the background spinning past. This shot was produced in an innovative way, using a round-a-bout to move the camera. This helps to fit my film into new wave as in new wave innovate camera movements are used, not only does it create interesting shots but also is a cheap way to move the camera and capture shots, using apparatus that are readily available. 

This movement helps with the narrative that I was trying to create by showing how in the characters minds the world revolves only around them.  I emphasized the dream like sense by slowing the clips down, this showing also how time revolves around them and when they are together time slow down for them. This will later contrast with how time speed ups nearer the end, -seen through jump cuts. This point that people think they have all the time in the world together, when really their time together can be cut short, as it is in my short film, catalyzes the narrative.

The second time the couple are seen they are in a darker environment and I tried to make the scene more nightmarish compared to the dream like encounter before. I have done this to move the narrative along trying to foreshadow the darkness that is to come. I have also done this with Kuleshov editing, showing the female looking at the male, who then becomes a skeleton, -this foreshadows the males death that is to come. Also I have edited the female and the doll together –using the same female shot used when she was looking at the male and skeleton- and done this to show how after he dies she will become inanimate and emotionless without him.

Also in the nightmare scene the male looks directly at the camera with the doll waving. Two things are done here; one, I have included this clip as it breaks the forth wall and directly addresses the camera, this adding to new wave, and two; the doll waving helps to once again show how the female is waving goodbye to everything she knows now and the happy life she has with the male.

Continuity

When we seen the female walking down the road my lack of continuity can be seen very clearly; once when she passes the same shop twice (the blue run down store) and how she is not passing a man with a dog in one shot then when it cuts to the next shot she is. These continuity errors are left in deliberately, as new wave does not concentrate that much on continuity but rather the issues and social context within the film that fuel the narrative.

The audiences viewing habits are challenged by them not really knowing how the female got from one place to the other, one minute she’s in the park with the male the next she is walking down the road, then they are eating dinner in a surreal environment (created by the low key lighting, the mise en scene, like the doll, and the editing), then the female is stood alone and then at a grave. I have also tried to challenge the audience by not giving then a time period that these events have happened across. I have showed time moving along by clocks being seen, long tracking shots, jump cuts and as said before slow motion shots. I also feel that the low angle shot of the leaves helps to move time along, from the way the camera is panning. The sudden scene changes help to show how life suddenly changes and the next step is unpredictable.

Tracking Shot

Long tracking shots are typical of the new wave genre. A good example of this in the french new wave film Les quatre cents coups. I included a long tracking shot into my short film, this is where trees and bushes are seen towards the end. i did this shot through an open car window.