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

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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.