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Breaking The Fourth Wall & The French New Wave

BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL

Breaking the fourth wall allows for more spoken dialogue rather than voiceovers and allows a new interaction with the audience. It is a convention of the French New Wave movement and is more quirky and eccentric than traditional filmmaking (IMR).

Breaking the 4th Wall Movie Supercut - Leigh Singer

Breaking the fourth wall involves:

  • Staring into the camera

  • Speaking into the camera

  • Editing techniques, getting actors to point at a certain thing or interact with something on the screen

  • Addressing the audience

  • Narrating situations

House of Cards (2013-) - "Kevin Spacey breaking the fourth wall"

  • Narrating situations, explaining what is happening in a scene

  • Addressing the audience directly

Fight Club (1999) - "Let me tell you about Tyler Durden"

  • Interacting with graphics/images on the screen (cigarette burns)

  • Directly talking to the camera/audience

 

THE FRENCH NEW WAVE

[VIDEO ESSAY] Breaking the Rules - The French New Wave - Channel Criswell

Breathless (1960) - Jean-Luc Godard

  • Use of jump cuts, breaking long takes

  • Stylised and breaking the fourth wall dialogue (talking to the camera)

  • Narrating situations, thought processes in the character's mind.

  • Unchronological/non-linear narrative through use of jump cuts.

Pierrot le fou (1965) - Jean-Luc Godard

  • Addressing the audience, ("who are you talking to?" "the audience.")

[TRAILER] Masculin, féminin (1966) - Jean-Luc Godard

  • Actual film is made from a series of vignettes (short clips that contribute to the whole)

  • Title sequence is interesting

  • Trailer is short and very briefly introduces the characters and storyline (there is a boy and a girl)

French New Wave Camera Techniques - a video showing a series of French new wave techniques/conventions.

  • freeze frames

  • long takes

  • no plot or non-linear narrative

  • no artificial lights

  • non-professional actors

  • actors break down the fourth wall and talk to the camera

  • jump cuts with no restraints on time and space.

CONCLUSION

I have decided to incorporate the French New Wave style in my film as it allows for less voiceovers and more engagement with the audience, while keeping the story moving forward.


PRACTICAL PORTFOLIO:
 
a short film of 6-7 minutes, made in groups of up to 4.

a trailer made individually by students

 
a 1750 word commentary written individually by students

 

 FINAL FILM SCHEDULE: 

 

25/01/16: Initial ideas and research

 

01/02/16: Create groups and pitch

 

15/02/16: Present pitch

 

22/02/16-14/03/16: Pre-production

 

21/03/16-18/04/16: Production

 

25/04 /16-23/05/16: Post-production

 

02/05/16: Rough Cut due

 

23/05/16: Final Cut due

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