American New Wave Video Essay Evaluation

Once I gathered all of my contextual research on the American new wave, I decided to create a video essay about three of the most famous new wave films "Bonnie and Clyde", "Taxi Driver" and "Easy Rider" and how the new wave changed over time being less afraid to show taboo subjects on screen such as, death, mental illness, drugs, alcohol, and sex.

Originally I wanted to do a voice over myself talking about all my contextual research, how the new wave started and why these films were so important. However, I couldn't build up enough courage to do so as I knew I would stutter or ramble on. So instead I used a text to speech bot and recorded the audio from that and used it for my voice over. As is it was to use, some of the pronunciation of words were incorrect, some pauses were too long or not long enough between words and the overall voice was a bit too robotic/monotone.

During editing, someone of the sound was too quiet in certain areas and too loud in others, I feel as I could have spent more time carefully using automation or compression to get the levels just right. However, the overall on-screen editing I feel went well. It wasn't jolty and what was on screen helps the viewer to understand what the text to speech bot is saying, as well as giving visual evidence to back up my contextual studies.

I feel like the structure of my video essay pieced together smoothly as it talked about what a new wave is, why it started and then went on to speak about my three chosen texts. To improve my overall video essay I feel as I could have added a conclusion as the end to help summerise the entirety of my video essay to help keep any watching it up to date and on track.

New Wave Film, Brief And Evaluation

Brief:

From the research of my contextual studies of American New Wave, I've noticed that the main focus of their techniques is to break the rules of what then was traditional Hollywood cinema. The way they break the rules includes, handheld cameras; lack of/improvised narrative (or one that makes little sense); lots of jumpcuts; long cuts that continue even after the main focus has gone off screen; unusual camera angles; natural lighting; and non-actors.

For my own new wave film, I want to take the unusual camera angles and bring it into the spotlight with the entire film being recorded from a POV (point of view) shot. By doing this I could create a behind the scenes film where it shows a day in the life of a new wave filmmaker as he gets up, does his morning routine, meets his friends and they make a new wave film. I also want to add in shots of the person looking into a mirror holding the camera to remind you that you're watching a film (breaking the 4th wall). During editing, I want to create the morning routine into a montage with lots of continuous jump cuts almost enough to disorientate the viewer. For the audio and lighting, I want it to be all diegetic and natural to give a sense of realism.

Evaluation:

Due to the weather and confusion of meeting points, I managed to get my morning routine shoot sorted but the recording of the fake new wave film, unfortunately, didn't happen but recorded most of the day all from a POV shot and ended up with 40 minutes worth of footage that needed to be taken down to about 2 minutes. I took this into consideration and made my entire film into a montage of the day with a lot of fast-paced editing unless there was dialogue in there I wanted the viewer to hear. Even though my contextual studies were based on the American new wave, my film had more influence from the French new wave, with the black and white and French writing. I added those French title cards in as partially a little in-joke but as well to openly reference the fact the film isn't perfect and has mistakes. The title cards translate to "missing images" and "SD card full" this was due to the fact some clips I felt were unusable or took up too much time so they were "missing images" and my SD became full at the end of the day which is why I stopped recording otherwise I would have gotten a home routine recorded too. After I edited my video I got some feedback and everyone felt like I could add something else to make it more disorientating. So I rendered my footage and revered it, lowered the opacity, panned the revered audio left and the original audio right. this created a more disorientating effect especially when the audio starts to sink up in the middle of the film making it more chaotic and with headphones on, gives the viewer a tingling sensation throughout.      

           

   

American New Wave Video Essay And Script

The American New Wave or also known as New Hollywood was a movement in American film history from the late 1960s to the early 1980s when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence in the United States bringing influence from The French New Wave. It all started in 1919 when four leading figures of American Silent Cinema M. Pickford, C. Chaplin, D. Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith formed the first indie studio "United Artists". Their aim was to better control their own work as well as their futures.
Then shortly after the second world war, major studio companies lost the majority of their power due to The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers which was formed by many of those who were members of United Artists combined with portable cameras lowering in price allowed indie filmmakers to compete with major studios and create more films.

The movement started with 'The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde" both released in 1967. They both influenced the future of movie-making as these films saw less influence from their production studios and more influence from their directors. This lead onto more films created in the same style with a brand new set of conventions which mostly included breaking the rules of traditional Hollywood movies. these conventions included: Non-linear narratives or ones that just don't make much sense. Handheld cameras. Hiring random people off the street to act and work on the film with you. Unusual editing techniques such as the jump cut which traditional now was never used in American Filmmaking before, and overdubbing. As well as natural lighting and a natural setting. Most of this was due to a low budget but it was also a new way for young filmmakers to express themselves like no filmmakers have before. New Hollywood resulted in commercially viable pictures that explored previously taboo subjects in innovative new ways. However, New Hollywood isn't so much a style of filmmaking as it is a movement and a period of time. Within this video essay, I'll be talking about "Bonnie and Clyde" "Taxi Driver" and "Easy Rider".

Taxi Driver:

This is one of the most famous scenes from "Taxi Driver" where Travis practices confronting someone in front of his mirror. He points his gun at his reflection and utters the words, “You talkin’ to me?”

Taxi Driver was definitely a massive departure from the traditional style of Hollywood and exemplified what The American New Wave wanted to achieve in a number of ways from its non-traditional narrative combined with the unique aesthetics

Its style of editing was one of the key conventions in American New Wave. In opposition to the traditional continuity editing of Hollywood, disjunctive editing further distanced American New Wave films from their predecessors and served a number of purposes – from forcing the audience to actively be engaged in the film to disorienting them for artistic, ideological, or psychological purposes

The editing used in this scene, as well as the non-diegetic sound of Travis’s voice-over,  was done to make the audience disturbed and disoriented, as well as portraying the paranoia and delusions occurring in his head. While it brings the viewer closer into Travis’s state of mind, it also makes his thoughts seem more violent and disturbing.

In her book, Hollywood Renaissance, Diane Jacobs discusses the innovative editing and camerawork present in Taxi Driver, saying: “While the camera’s pacing accelerates as the film progresses, it is as restless as its character’s mind from the very start” ( page 146).

Bonnie And Clyde:

With Bonnie And Clyde being one of the first American New Wave productions, it took a lot of its influence from The French New Wave. The film was based on the real-life events of Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow who were American criminals who traveled the central United States with their gang, during the Great Depression, robbing people and killing when cornered or confronted

It originally took a while for "Bonnie and Clyde" to catch on. The film barely made it out with Warner Bros rebooting its opening. However "Bonnie and Clyde" dunked the cinema in style, blood, and glamour. It was the start of the creation of new American films which was proven by the fact that the two homicidal lovers on the run were to be recreated many times in films such as "Thieves like us" "Natural Born Killers" and "Badlands" But none of those films matched the brutal ending scene of "Bonnie and Clyde" where they were ambushed by the police, their bodies riddled with bullets in powerful slow motion. That exact sequence is what changed movies as we know it, opening the floodgates to more fearless movie makers to explore more taboo subjects and to not be afraid to show anything.

Easy Rider:

This scene from "Easy Rider" is one of the most iconic for American New Wave. It starts with a long cut of a mid 4 shot of the group actually drinking and smoking in a real cemetery. There wasn't a script written for this film so all dialogue was improvised from what the director told them to talk about or they were genuine reactions from what was happening like in this acid trip scene.

The dialogue in this long shot is heavily accompanied by what sounds like machinery making the dialogue almost inaudible. From what I can hear we have one of them asking "What's that?" and the others telling her to take what we can only assume is acid. When the acid is beginning to settle in, the scene starts to cut to and from a slowly tilting camera shot of an old run down building, with a huge lens flare and a female preacher talking in the background. This has been done to slowly show the effects on the acid in which they have taken. It's also done to remind you that you're watching a film instead of immersing you into it. American New wave was well known for doing this with techniques such the lens flare, breaking the 4th wall and bizarre jump cuts.

This is when the crew breaks one of the most important filming rules in Hollywood by pointing the camera directly into the sun. By doing this, the lens can act as a magnifying glass and focus the sun rays onto a very small area on the shutter and could burn a hole into the shutter or aperture mechanism of the lens itself

The rest of the scene is a montage/sequence of events that show a handful of American New Wave conventions. We see one of the actors having a real mental break down about the death of his mother as he sobs over a statue that reminds him of her. When he says "shut up" he's actually telling the crew to shut up and stop filming him. We also see more jump cuts and the use of hand-held cameras. Everything that happens here is unscripted and the crew secretly filming them. The director himself said that they used random people off of the street to hold the cameras for them and act as it was cheaper than getting professionals to do it for them.

American New Wave Contextual Research (Easy Rider, Taxi Driver, Bonnie & Clyde)

American New Wave is a term used to refer at least three generations of American filmmakers.
First emerged in the 50s in New York.
Concerned with realism and a truthful depiction of American society at the time.
The second generation is the Hollywood Generation (60s).
Influenced by French New Wave.
The late 80s and 90s last generation work outside the studio system and openly in debt to Nouvelle Vague and New Hollywood.
All three generations wanted to work independently of a studio control and have a belief in cinema as an art rather than mere entertainment.
In 1919 four leading figures in American Silent Cinema (Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith) formed United Artists - the first indie studio. Their aim was to better control their own work as well as their futures. 
After WWII major studio companies had limited power due to The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers combined with portable cameras lowering in price allowed indie filmmakers to compete with the major companies.

Hitchman, S. (2013 http://www.newwavefilm.com/international/american-new-wave-1.shtml)
A History of American New Wave Cinema [1]

New Hollywood was a movement in filmmaking from the late 1960s through the 1970s
The movement started with 'The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde" both released in 1967
They both influenced the future of movie-making
These films saw less influence from their production studios and more influence from their directors.
New Hollywood resulted in commercially viable pictures that explored previously taboo subjects in innovative new ways. 
New Hollywood isn't so much a style of filmmaking as it is a movement and a period of time. 

Saporito, J. (2016 http://screenprism.com/insights/article/the-filmmakers-handbook-what-is-the-new-hollywood-movement) What was the New Hollywood movement? [2]

The American New Wave featured films that shocked the sensibilities of studios and audiences alike.
The movement ended abruptly and draws skepticism among views today.
By 1969, when Easy Rider proved an unlikely hit, the American New Wave could be said to be the dominant force in American filmmaking. the moniker "New Hollywood" suggests how mainstream these eclectic, challenging, and youth-centric films became for the next decade.
Incidentally, Roger Ebert's review at the time for the seminal Easy Rider captures much of the movement. Ebert points to three items which characterized films of the American New Wave. Sudden generational disjunction captured in the difference between Henry Fonda's career and Peter Fonda's new film. The reworking of popular genres such as westerns and motorcycle films. Rejection of straightforward storytelling. 
American New Wave films tend to fixate on character action and scenes with intense thematic resonance. Dialogue frequently feels unnecessary and gives way to scenes of violence and high-speed pursuits as in the case of Easy Rider. 
Ironically, many of the American New Wave directors became the system they had successfully bucked. 

Jordan, S. (2018 http://facets.org/blog/exclusive/lists/essentials/the-new-perspectives-in-the-american-new-wave/) The New Perspectives In The American New Wave [3]

The 1970s was a cultural revolution in many parts of society. Music, literature, politics, sex, and race were all heavily impacted by during the decade. One area which missed out on the party was film. This was mostly attributed to the structure of the studio system at the time. It is slow to recognize change and even slower in implementing it.

Esterkamp, J. (2014 https://medium.com/@jtesterkamp/new-hollywood-why-the-70s-were-the-greatest-decade-in-america-cinema-c42676e2170f) Why The 70's Were The Greatest Decade In American Cinema [4]

Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda did not write a full script for the movie and made most of it up as they went along. They didn't hire a crew, but instead picked up hippies at communes across the country, and used friends and passers-by to hold the cameras, and were drunk and stone most of the time.
Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson were actually smoking marijuana on camera. LSD, however, was not actually used during the acid scene, as Fonda has stated.
It was one of the first films to make extensive use of previously released musical tracks, rather than a specially written film score. This is common with films now but was quite unusual at the time.
Peter Fonda got the idea for Easy Rider after seeing a picture of himself and Bruce Dern on their motorcycles. He got Dennis Hopper (who was planning on quitting the acting business and becoming a teacher at the time) involved when he promised he could direct the film.
The cocaine scene was only fake due to the fact they couldn't afford real cocaine.
Some of the weird lighting effects in the LSD scene came about because a can of the film was accidentally exposed when it was opened before being developed.
Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson were huge fans of Italian Director Michelangelo Antonioni, invited their idol to the first screening of their film. Antonioni was sufficiently impressed to cast Nicholson in his next feature film, "The Passenger" (1975)

IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2) Easy Rider (1969) Trivia [5]

"the biggest reason to be careful when pointing a camera toward the sun is that the lens of the camera can actually act as a magnifying glass and focus the rays of the sun into a very small area on the shutter of the camera. If left in place long enough, this can burn a hole in the shutter or aperture mechanism of the lens itself"

Highton, S. (https://www.vrphotography.com/data/pages/askexperts/basics/pointatsun.html) Ask The VR Photography Experts [6]

Taxi Driver was a huge departure from typical Hollywood and exemplified what New Hollywood wanted to achieve in a number of ways. The non-traditional narrative combined with the unique aesthetics of the film truly set it apart from its conventional Hollywood predecessors

Disjunctive editing was one of the cinematic practices favored by New Hollywood. In opposition to the traditional continuity editing of Hollywood, disjunctive editing further distanced New Hollywood films from their predecessors and served a number of purposes – from forcing the audience to actively be engaged in the film to disorienting them for artistic, ideological, or psychological purposes

 The editing used in this scene, as well as the non-diegetic sound of Travis’s voice-over, all disturb and disorient the audience, in addition to mirroring the paranoia and delusions occurring in Travis’s head.

Zoons, A. (https://amylaurenzoons.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/how-taxi-driver-defied-traditional-hollywood-and-exemplified-the-new-hollywood/) How Taxi Driver Defied Traditional Hollywood and Exemplified the New Hollywood [7]

In her book, Hollywood Renaissance, Diane Jacobs discusses the innovative editing and camerawork present in Taxi Driver, saying: “While the camera’s pacing accelerates as the film progresses, it is as restless as its character’s mind from the very start” (146). [8]

Bibliography Unit 1

1. Hitchman, S. (2013 http://www.newwavefilm.com/international/american-new-wave-1.shtml)
A History of American New Wave Cinema

2. Saporito, J. (2016 http://screenprism.com/insights/article/the-filmmakers-handbook-what-is-the-new-hollywood-movement) What was the New Hollywood movement? 

3. Jordan, S. (2018 http://facets.org/blog/exclusive/lists/essentials/the-new-perspectives-in-the-american-new-wave/) The New Perspectives In The American New Wave

4. Esterkamp, J. (2014 https://medium.com/@jtesterkamp/new-hollywood-why-the-70s-were-the-greatest-decade-in-america-cinema-c42676e2170f) Why The 70's Were The Greatest Decade In American Cinema

5. IMDB (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064276/trivia?ref_=tt_ql_2) Easy Rider (1969) Trivia

6. Highton, S. (https://www.vrphotography.com/data/pages/askexperts/basics/pointatsun.html) Ask The VR Photography Experts

7. Zoons, A. (https://amylaurenzoons.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/how-taxi-driver-defied-traditional-hollywood-and-exemplified-the-new-hollywood/) How Taxi Driver Defied Traditional Hollywood and Exemplified the New Hollywood

8. Jacobs, D. (1977 Hollywood Renaissance) Page 146

Referencing - French New Wave

The style of French new wave film/cinema

Wiegand, C. (2001 p. 7)  French New Wave. Pocket Essentials: Harpenden

"The look of the New Wave films also owed much to two other factors: the new equipment used by the directors and the low budgets they were forced to work with. Because mobile cameras were used and much of the film-making equipment was improvised, the pictures have a spontaneous and unpredictable nature." (Wiegand 2001)

Parnell, L (2016 https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-french-new-wave-revolutionising-cinema/) The French New Wave: Revolutionising Cinema

"The French New Wave was a group of trailblazing directors who exploded onto the film scene in the late 1950s; revolutionising cinematic conventions by marrying the rapid cuts of Hollywood with philosophical trends." (Parnell 2016) 

Easy Rider Analysis

The scene starts with a medium four shot of the group - 2 men and 2 women all late 20s early 30s. This scene was shot with a 16mm camera giving it a grainy dirty look. This depicts the grubby lifestyle and situation they are currently in, drinking, smoking and taking acid in a cemetery. This scene is heavily accompanied by the sound of machinery making their dialogue almost inaudible. This scene is shot in a linear style with the same camera angle until the group take the acid tabs. Once their acid tabs settle into their systems we cut to a low angle shot of an old rundown build with the hand half camera slowly panning from left to right soaking the scene in lens flairs as a religious speaker talks about heaven. Heaven is usually depicted as a blinding white light when you die which matched the lens flairs and dialogue on in this scene. During this highly experimental stage, the director and camera crew begin to break standard filming rules that were set during the time of their filming like zooming directly into the sun. This is all done to remind the audience their watching a film rather than immersing them into it. The use of relatively fast pace editing, the non linear scenes going forward and backwards in time repeatedly within a small amount of time is supposed to represent the acid trip the group is on and give the audience the confusion and the disturbance of this acid trip that the group themselves would feel. As the cast of this production actually took acid for this scene everything that happens in unscripted making this acid trip and the actions of the cast that more authentic.