looked like an obstacle unable to be hurdled within the industry, turned out to be one of French New Wave’s defining attributes. With little to no funding, directors had to find alternate ways to film while working on a very tight budget, which meant non-professional actors, little to no script, and innovative methods of filming (Hitchman). These alternatives to the traditional way of film production are responsible for the The French New Wave’s reputation as an audacious movement based on breaking the rules, not only behind the camera, but within the editing room as well. Professional film editor Walter Murch once said “Every film is a puzzle really, from an editorial point of view” (“Walter Murch Quotes”). The editors of the French New
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A long take, or “The Oner”, is an uninterrupted shot that lasts for an unusual amount of time. The first time that the long shot was most distinctly used was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope in 1948, which was filmed in eight to ten minute-long segments (Bacchus). Although the directors of New Wave were not the first to utilize this technique, they certainly played a part in solidifying the long take within modern cinema. Some famous examples of its use in Hollywood cinema are in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman (2014) and Marin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990). Oftentimes, the long take was only the result of a New Wave director’s unique sense of camera movement. Just as painters use their brush to stroke along a canvas, these directors would use their cameras to pan across a setting, following either a dialogue or a character's movement around the surroundings (“Camera Movement”). What resulted was a beautiful form of storytelling, which followed the plot with more fluidity than basic establishing shots. With the various alterations of the system of editing within film, the different filming styles of the New Wave directors became more apparent, as some favored jump cuts and long shots more than others. This distinction between the filming process of the most successful movies of the French New Wave supported the argument that “the most cinematically successful films will …show more content…
This belief still exists today amongst the explosions and computer generated imagery (CGI), which acts as a catalyst to the poisonous idea that movies are made to impress the audience. Although the experience of an epic fight scene or dramatic apocalyptic explosion may be bedazzling at first, it is the deeper meaning behind a film that resonates with a person, making the experience last longer than the cheap thrills of CGI. The directors of the New Wave aspired for this reaction, and they knew that in order to achieve a reality within their pictures, they would have to choose from a genre of themes that have occurred within their own personal experience. They found that within the era of youth and blissfulness there was an unwavering truth that could be captured within film. As for the methods, of how their predecessors conveyed the “truth” within their films, “they simply felt that this was not necessarily reflective of their lives and did not speak to them with the same relevance that they thought they could achieve with their own films” (Price). A perfect example of this is François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), which follows a misunderstood adolescent and his rebellious behavior toward conformism. The film’s theme not only parallels the French New Wave itself, but also, the personal experiences of Truffaut’s childhood from which the movie is based (Melville). The sheer
A long take, or “The Oner”, is an uninterrupted shot that lasts for an unusual amount of time. The first time that the long shot was most distinctly used was in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope in 1948, which was filmed in eight to ten minute-long segments (Bacchus). Although the directors of New Wave were not the first to utilize this technique, they certainly played a part in solidifying the long take within modern cinema. Some famous examples of its use in Hollywood cinema are in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman (2014) and Marin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990). Oftentimes, the long take was only the result of a New Wave director’s unique sense of camera movement. Just as painters use their brush to stroke along a canvas, these directors would use their cameras to pan across a setting, following either a dialogue or a character's movement around the surroundings (“Camera Movement”). What resulted was a beautiful form of storytelling, which followed the plot with more fluidity than basic establishing shots. With the various alterations of the system of editing within film, the different filming styles of the New Wave directors became more apparent, as some favored jump cuts and long shots more than others. This distinction between the filming process of the most successful movies of the French New Wave supported the argument that “the most cinematically successful films will …show more content…
This belief still exists today amongst the explosions and computer generated imagery (CGI), which acts as a catalyst to the poisonous idea that movies are made to impress the audience. Although the experience of an epic fight scene or dramatic apocalyptic explosion may be bedazzling at first, it is the deeper meaning behind a film that resonates with a person, making the experience last longer than the cheap thrills of CGI. The directors of the New Wave aspired for this reaction, and they knew that in order to achieve a reality within their pictures, they would have to choose from a genre of themes that have occurred within their own personal experience. They found that within the era of youth and blissfulness there was an unwavering truth that could be captured within film. As for the methods, of how their predecessors conveyed the “truth” within their films, “they simply felt that this was not necessarily reflective of their lives and did not speak to them with the same relevance that they thought they could achieve with their own films” (Price). A perfect example of this is François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), which follows a misunderstood adolescent and his rebellious behavior toward conformism. The film’s theme not only parallels the French New Wave itself, but also, the personal experiences of Truffaut’s childhood from which the movie is based (Melville). The sheer