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.