Overall, I found this course suitably challenging and thought provoking. I have enjoyed it very much and think it will place me in good stead for my future semester and subsequent years at university. It has opened my eyes and introduced me to such new topics as semiotics, with which I had never encountered before beginning the course. I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing the essay and I also looked forward to going to the tutorial every week.
Thanks
Friday
Microsoft Excel
I found this tutorial far more challenging then the word one. Having used excel during school in accounting I thought that I had a reasonable grasp of it. Unfortunately, no. I had some trouble mastering the Gain/Loss formula, and then, after twenty minutes trying, it still wouldn't work. The advanced exercises in macros were just as difficult. However, I use excel when i do up my budget for the month, as well as at the end of every month when I work out my spendings in comparison with earnings and subsequently savings. So, i think that i will use formula's more now and it will make my life a bit easier, and doing my general journal a bit quicker. Furthermore, I think that now I will jump onto some of the tutorials in the help section of excel.
Microsoft Word
I found this exercise really great. I had always seen the track changes being used on documents but had no idea how to do it myself. As well as this I had never before used mail merge so it was a good function to learn as well. This software has many obvious uses that would be of help to me. I can see myself using track changes quite a bit when proofreading my assignments and as well, the next time I write an email for a job application, I think that I will use mail merge. It would no doubt help people in many industries to learn these functions, most particularly, secretaries, hotel clerks, receptionists and accountants clerks off of the top of my head. I already knew how to use all of the other basic functions that the tutorial showed us.
3D chat rooms in comparison to Instant Messenger (msn)
This week required me to compare and contrast 3D chat environments and instant messenger programs. Having used windows messenger for some years now, I feel as though i have a fairly good grasp of it, however in regards to the 3D chat rooms, I have never experienced them. That was, not until the tutorial in which we were given a lesson to explore them. I tried three; Active Worlds, IM and Habbo Hotel. The first one, Active Worlds was much like a game interface where you could navigate a character around a 'world' and talk to anyone you liked. You could fly, swim underwater a run really fast. I didn't stay in it for long, but just the interface itself got me wondering. I thought that perhaps it could become an alternate universe for some people. A place where they could be cool if they wanted, change what they looked like, run super fast or do pretty much whatever they wanted. Obviously, it is a lot harder to do this in an instant messenger program like windows live because the people that you are talking to are generally your friends, not just 'some randoms' that you might have 'met' in a virtual reality. The second one that I used was IM, and it was much the same, from what i could gather, as windows live messenger, except that you could create a virtual avatar and do some other little things. The third, Habbo Hotel was i little different. I remember playing Pokemon once and the interface reminded me of that. The graphics weren't very good but it still had the essentials of having an avatar, which you could mold to who you wanted to be and you could talk to people by walking around a room and clicking on them.
Tuesday
Week Four Blog, (1) and 2 (b)
The first part of the week four tutorial task required me to look up online journals or articles. I chose to use the avenue of newspaper websites for the simple fact of, they give a reasonably educated point of view on a large array of subjects, and, I am studying journalism. The topic that I began researching was the internet and how it can cause people to become introverted and lonely. I found one journal article on this topic from the Australian Journal of Emerging Technologies and Society. However, this was too limited a topic so I decided to research about two aspects of the internet. The avenues that I researched these through were what I said before, newspapers. I found some articles related to the internet being used as a tool for sex offenders and also, how the internet is killing off the dvd sales of pornographic material.
The article about the internet being used as a tool for sex offenders focused on myspace, and how convicted offenders were able to set up accounts. The article was titled, Myspace outs sex predators. At first, myspace claimed that it could not reveal the sex offending accounts owners names due to privacy disclosure laws. However, under pressure from the U.S government, it yielded and subsequently set up a software program called, 'Sentinel Safe'. Since this software was installed on March 2nd of this year it has deleted 7000 sex offending profiles. The program doesn't simply delete the profiles though, it takes down the names and contact information of sex offenders for government officials.
I retrieved the second article from the Sydney Morning Herald. It focused on how he internet was supposed to be a 'boon' for the pornographic market. However while internet sales are still steadily increasing, dvd sales have been rapidly decreasing. This is due mostly to the easily accessibility of pornographic material from the pc via the internet. As well as this, the article focused on how, because of sites such as google video and youtube, anyone with a camera and 'two people that want to have sex' can make a pornographic video. The article was titled, Internet takes the lash to porn.
Question 2b required me to answer some questions about search engines.
- What is a search engine? A search engine is a system of retrieving information on a computer, whether it is through the internet and world wide web or just on the computers hard drive. However, in this instance, through the internet and world wide web.
- How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
The way that search engines rank what they find varies immensely from one search engine to another. This usually determines the success of a search engine; whether it ranks stuff effectively and returns what the searcher is looking for.
- Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?
From what I can gather, it depends on the keywords that are entered, in collaboration with boolean operators that determines what turns up and how relevant it is. Also, some search engines use the spacing between key words as a method of searching as well.
- What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like one more than others?
My favourite search engines are google and wiki. The reason why I like them is because of how they rank the information and the vastness of the information that they can locate.
- Can you find some current news stories about search engines? )for example, Google has been in the technology news a bit lately).
Google takes online software applications offline, Mylivesearch aims for beta to better.
The article about the internet being used as a tool for sex offenders focused on myspace, and how convicted offenders were able to set up accounts. The article was titled, Myspace outs sex predators. At first, myspace claimed that it could not reveal the sex offending accounts owners names due to privacy disclosure laws. However, under pressure from the U.S government, it yielded and subsequently set up a software program called, 'Sentinel Safe'. Since this software was installed on March 2nd of this year it has deleted 7000 sex offending profiles. The program doesn't simply delete the profiles though, it takes down the names and contact information of sex offenders for government officials.
I retrieved the second article from the Sydney Morning Herald. It focused on how he internet was supposed to be a 'boon' for the pornographic market. However while internet sales are still steadily increasing, dvd sales have been rapidly decreasing. This is due mostly to the easily accessibility of pornographic material from the pc via the internet. As well as this, the article focused on how, because of sites such as google video and youtube, anyone with a camera and 'two people that want to have sex' can make a pornographic video. The article was titled, Internet takes the lash to porn.
Question 2b required me to answer some questions about search engines.
- What is a search engine? A search engine is a system of retrieving information on a computer, whether it is through the internet and world wide web or just on the computers hard drive. However, in this instance, through the internet and world wide web.
- How do search engines rank the stuff they find on the internet?
The way that search engines rank what they find varies immensely from one search engine to another. This usually determines the success of a search engine; whether it ranks stuff effectively and returns what the searcher is looking for.
- Who, or what, makes one page (that you might get in your search results) more useful than another one, so that it is put at the top of your search results?
From what I can gather, it depends on the keywords that are entered, in collaboration with boolean operators that determines what turns up and how relevant it is. Also, some search engines use the spacing between key words as a method of searching as well.
- What are some of your favourite search engines? Why do you like one more than others?
My favourite search engines are google and wiki. The reason why I like them is because of how they rank the information and the vastness of the information that they can locate.
- Can you find some current news stories about search engines? )for example, Google has been in the technology news a bit lately).
Google takes online software applications offline, Mylivesearch aims for beta to better.
Friday
French New Wave Cinema: An Overview
In the early 1950’s a new style of film, new wave (nouvelle vague), had begun to develop. This style shifted away from the conventional pattern of cinema and branched into a politically aware, technologically advanced form. French new wave was effectively an innovative form of cinema that has revolutionised world cinema. This essay will detail the director’s role and how it differed from previous styles, political influences on the narrative of the era, how French new wave has influenced later film styles in general and what the producer’s role was in the ultimate demise of new wave.
Some of the main differences attributed to French new wave were its innovative narration, which was “entirely freed from conventional Hollywood-style storytelling” (Lanzoni, 2004:196), its revolutionary camera techniques, and the directing style. The directors played a major part in the progression of this new era. One of the first filmmakers “to delineate from the new approach was Jean-Pierre Melville” (Lanzoni, 2004:201). Although his first film was released in 1947, eleven years before the official new wave era, he was the forerunner of independent cinema. The characteristics of his film, The silence of the Sea (1947) (Lanzoni, 2004:201), were un-known actors, small budget, limited crew and innovative narration. The official launch of the new wave movement was in June, 1958. The first ‘new wave’ film, of the official period was Claude Chabrol’s Feature, Le Beau Serge (1958) (Le Beau Serge). The film was “not a popular success” (Austin, 1996:14), however in 1959 three more new wave films came out that gave nouvelle vague a “commercial as well as an aesthetic impact”(Austin, 1996:14). They were released by three of the director’s who were to become some of the most prominent and influential directors of the era. Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol released Les 400 Coups (1959) (Les 400 Coups), A Bout Soufflé (1960) (A Bout Souffle) and Les Cousins (1959) (Les Cousins) respectively.
One of the interesting and defining points of new wave was the director’s role. For a starters, the majority of the French new wave directors were in their twenty’s and thirty’s. This was a shift from the post-war style of the film that preceded new wave where most of the director’s were middle aged and older. This was one of the reason’s that new wave was so revolutionary and innovative; new ideas, narratives, filming techniques, acting styles, and the shift from high budget, action packed films to low budget, aesthetic meaningful films all attributed to the shift. The director’s of the new wave also were the inaugural users of ‘auteur theory’ directing where, “the director is considered the primary creative force in a motion picture” (Auteur Theory). So effectively, rather than having a huge crew, producer, scriptwriter, etc. as had previously happened, the new wave director’s used their friends as actors, wrote the script, were the camera crew, sometimes acted in their films and used any means necessary to create an aesthetically meaningful film.
Contrary to a mainstream belief, French new wave was not the only form of cinema during the period of 1958-1962 and onwards. Rather, there were ‘three types of cinema that coexisted within the period of 1958-1968’ (Hayward, 1993:232). The “tripartisan consisted of an avant-garde, a new wave and mainstream commercial cinemas” (Hayward, 1993:232). However, during the four year period of 1958-1962, new wave dominated the cinemas because of large producer investment, and subsequently, explicit cinema coverage. The demise of the new wave era can be attributed largely to producers and the greediness of their investment. They believed that the “financial risk was far less” (Hayward, 1993:235) and thus they backed almost any new wave film that was released during the period. This attributed to a massive figure of 170 directors making their first feature films between 1959 and 1963 (Hayward, 1993:135). So because of this overkill, what had once been seen as a novel and intriguing form of cinema to the public, became something that was “rebarbative by 1962” (Hayward, 1993:135). This was due to a few contributing elements, however the major ones were overkill, repetitive narratives and an unpolished cinematic incompetence. As well as this, because the producers thought that new wave was such a hit, their investment subsequently made it seem bigger and more important than what it was.
When influence on later cinema styles are considered, new wave had a fairly major impact, especially on the immediate styles. According to the critics, this cinema had two deleterious effects on the immediate future of cinema in that first, it discouraged television film-makers from coming into films, and second, it prevented a ‘real’ underground cinema (Jeancolas, 1979:127-9). So, according to Hayward, on “the one hand they were saying that this cinema did too little, and on the other, that it did too much – all of which endows the new wave with too much importance (Hayward, 1993:236).
A main influence on the French new wave films were the French political changes that were occurring in the latter 1950’s and 1960’s. There was just as much upheaval and change occurring in the outside world as in film, most notably with the institution of a new presidential constitution and the French occupation of 143 years in Algeria coming to a horrific end with the death of close to a million French-Algerians. Subsequently, all of these political events were perfect for the auteurs of French new wave film to base aesthetic and meaningful narrations on. There were many parts of the Algerian war the auteurs created films about but some of the most significant were, the use of torture by the French army, the draft that involved more than two million young Frenchmen in Algeria, the condemning of death that occurred in French prisons and the actions of the OAS, or Secret Army Organisation (translated). Jean Luc Godard shot The Little Soldier (1960) in 1960 and expected it to be released in the autumn of 1960, “but French censors prohibited its release because of its numerous indirect allusions to the events in Algeria, especially the reference’s to torture” (Lanzoni, 199). It wasn’t screened until 1963. Another film that was shot during the French new wave era directly related to the Algerian war was The Battle of Algiers (1965), it was “prohibited for obvious political reasons” (Lanzoni, 2004:199) and wasn’t released until 1972, seven years after it was meant to be released and “ten years after the independence of Algeria” (Lanzoni, 2004:199).
This essay has analysed, researched and deconstructed the directors role in new wave, the political influences on the narratives of new wave and the control of it, the producers influence and role in the demise of new wave, the influences that new wave had on later cinematic styles, and the general characteristics of new wave as a cinematic movement.
Bibliography
Books
Austin, Guy (1996) Contemporary French Cinema; Manchester University Press, Manchester
Hayward, Susan (1993) French National Cinema; Routledge, London
Jeancolas, J (1979) Le Cinema des Français: La Ve République; Stock, Paris
Lanzoni, Remi Fournier (2004) French Cinema: from its Beginnings to the Present; Continuum International Publishing Group, New York
Internet Resources
Wikipedia, Le Beau Serge; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Beau_Serge
Wikipedia, Auteur Theory; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory
The Internet Movie Database :
Les 400 Coups ; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053198/
A Bout Souffle ; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053472/
Les Cousins ; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052708/
Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, Auteur Theory Definition; http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
Some of the main differences attributed to French new wave were its innovative narration, which was “entirely freed from conventional Hollywood-style storytelling” (Lanzoni, 2004:196), its revolutionary camera techniques, and the directing style. The directors played a major part in the progression of this new era. One of the first filmmakers “to delineate from the new approach was Jean-Pierre Melville” (Lanzoni, 2004:201). Although his first film was released in 1947, eleven years before the official new wave era, he was the forerunner of independent cinema. The characteristics of his film, The silence of the Sea (1947) (Lanzoni, 2004:201), were un-known actors, small budget, limited crew and innovative narration. The official launch of the new wave movement was in June, 1958. The first ‘new wave’ film, of the official period was Claude Chabrol’s Feature, Le Beau Serge (1958) (Le Beau Serge). The film was “not a popular success” (Austin, 1996:14), however in 1959 three more new wave films came out that gave nouvelle vague a “commercial as well as an aesthetic impact”(Austin, 1996:14). They were released by three of the director’s who were to become some of the most prominent and influential directors of the era. Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol released Les 400 Coups (1959) (Les 400 Coups), A Bout Soufflé (1960) (A Bout Souffle) and Les Cousins (1959) (Les Cousins) respectively.
One of the interesting and defining points of new wave was the director’s role. For a starters, the majority of the French new wave directors were in their twenty’s and thirty’s. This was a shift from the post-war style of the film that preceded new wave where most of the director’s were middle aged and older. This was one of the reason’s that new wave was so revolutionary and innovative; new ideas, narratives, filming techniques, acting styles, and the shift from high budget, action packed films to low budget, aesthetic meaningful films all attributed to the shift. The director’s of the new wave also were the inaugural users of ‘auteur theory’ directing where, “the director is considered the primary creative force in a motion picture” (Auteur Theory). So effectively, rather than having a huge crew, producer, scriptwriter, etc. as had previously happened, the new wave director’s used their friends as actors, wrote the script, were the camera crew, sometimes acted in their films and used any means necessary to create an aesthetically meaningful film.
Contrary to a mainstream belief, French new wave was not the only form of cinema during the period of 1958-1962 and onwards. Rather, there were ‘three types of cinema that coexisted within the period of 1958-1968’ (Hayward, 1993:232). The “tripartisan consisted of an avant-garde, a new wave and mainstream commercial cinemas” (Hayward, 1993:232). However, during the four year period of 1958-1962, new wave dominated the cinemas because of large producer investment, and subsequently, explicit cinema coverage. The demise of the new wave era can be attributed largely to producers and the greediness of their investment. They believed that the “financial risk was far less” (Hayward, 1993:235) and thus they backed almost any new wave film that was released during the period. This attributed to a massive figure of 170 directors making their first feature films between 1959 and 1963 (Hayward, 1993:135). So because of this overkill, what had once been seen as a novel and intriguing form of cinema to the public, became something that was “rebarbative by 1962” (Hayward, 1993:135). This was due to a few contributing elements, however the major ones were overkill, repetitive narratives and an unpolished cinematic incompetence. As well as this, because the producers thought that new wave was such a hit, their investment subsequently made it seem bigger and more important than what it was.
When influence on later cinema styles are considered, new wave had a fairly major impact, especially on the immediate styles. According to the critics, this cinema had two deleterious effects on the immediate future of cinema in that first, it discouraged television film-makers from coming into films, and second, it prevented a ‘real’ underground cinema (Jeancolas, 1979:127-9). So, according to Hayward, on “the one hand they were saying that this cinema did too little, and on the other, that it did too much – all of which endows the new wave with too much importance (Hayward, 1993:236).
A main influence on the French new wave films were the French political changes that were occurring in the latter 1950’s and 1960’s. There was just as much upheaval and change occurring in the outside world as in film, most notably with the institution of a new presidential constitution and the French occupation of 143 years in Algeria coming to a horrific end with the death of close to a million French-Algerians. Subsequently, all of these political events were perfect for the auteurs of French new wave film to base aesthetic and meaningful narrations on. There were many parts of the Algerian war the auteurs created films about but some of the most significant were, the use of torture by the French army, the draft that involved more than two million young Frenchmen in Algeria, the condemning of death that occurred in French prisons and the actions of the OAS, or Secret Army Organisation (translated). Jean Luc Godard shot The Little Soldier (1960) in 1960 and expected it to be released in the autumn of 1960, “but French censors prohibited its release because of its numerous indirect allusions to the events in Algeria, especially the reference’s to torture” (Lanzoni, 199). It wasn’t screened until 1963. Another film that was shot during the French new wave era directly related to the Algerian war was The Battle of Algiers (1965), it was “prohibited for obvious political reasons” (Lanzoni, 2004:199) and wasn’t released until 1972, seven years after it was meant to be released and “ten years after the independence of Algeria” (Lanzoni, 2004:199).
This essay has analysed, researched and deconstructed the directors role in new wave, the political influences on the narratives of new wave and the control of it, the producers influence and role in the demise of new wave, the influences that new wave had on later cinematic styles, and the general characteristics of new wave as a cinematic movement.
Bibliography
Books
Austin, Guy (1996) Contemporary French Cinema; Manchester University Press, Manchester
Hayward, Susan (1993) French National Cinema; Routledge, London
Jeancolas, J (1979) Le Cinema des Français: La Ve République; Stock, Paris
Lanzoni, Remi Fournier (2004) French Cinema: from its Beginnings to the Present; Continuum International Publishing Group, New York
Internet Resources
Wikipedia, Le Beau Serge; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Beau_Serge
Wikipedia, Auteur Theory; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory
The Internet Movie Database :
Les 400 Coups ; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053198/
A Bout Souffle ; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053472/
Les Cousins ; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052708/
Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, Auteur Theory Definition; http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
Thursday
Adobe
Friends: This photo represents friendship because a group of friends are socializing at a bar. I customized it in photo shop by removing red eye in two of the people and i also blurred the background people so as to make the friends be in the foreground.
Week Four, 2a
Scavenger Hunt
1. The worlds heaviest pumpkin weighed in at 1502 pounds (681.29573974 kg) and was grown by Ron Wallace. Worlds Heaviest Pumpkin
2. The quickest and most reliable way to contact Grant Hackett is to send an email to his assistant at gali@granthackettonline.com. Contacting Grant Hackett
3. The length of a giraffe's tongue is 46 centimetres (18 inches). Length of a Giraffe's Tongue
4. I believe that ontology is simply a word for describing the natural human thought of why. Humans and humanity in general constantly wonders why they are here, how the universe was created, what happens when they die, etc... A definition of ontology is that it is the study of being, or existence. Ontology
5. The first feature film that David Cronenberg directed, (aside from Transfer and From the Drain, which were only 7 and 14 minutes respectively), was Stereo, a movie filmed in 1969 that ran for 65 minutes. Somewhere in the future, the Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry is investigating the theories of para-psychologist Luther Stringfellow. Seven young adults volunteer to submit to a form of brain surgery that removes their power of speech but increases their power for telepathic communications. An unseen group of students observes the results. As the experiment progresses, Stringfellow's theories are borne out. Later, aphrodisiacs and various drugs are introduced to the subjects to expose an inherent 'polymorphous perversity'. In the end, they are isolated from each other, provoking antagonism and violence between them, resulting in two suicides. David Cronenberg - Stereo
6. The 'Hacker's Manifesto' was written on the eighth of January 1986. 'Hacker's Manifesto'
7. The reason why the prefix '555' is used in hollywood films is because the 1970's real phone numbers were getting used in films and movies goer's were ringing these numbers and harassing callers. The '555' prefix was first used in movies in the 1970's occasionally until it became commonplace in the 80's, 90's and today. The reason why this prefix worked was because phone companies were not allowed to release it to the general public. The '555' Prefix
8. The cheapest flight from Crete to Rhodes is $188 on Olympic Airlines. However you could always swim... Crete to Rhodes
9. The Seekers - 'I'll Never Find Another You'. Pop Archives
10. 'The Black Assassins' Stephen Stockwell
1. The worlds heaviest pumpkin weighed in at 1502 pounds (681.29573974 kg) and was grown by Ron Wallace. Worlds Heaviest Pumpkin
2. The quickest and most reliable way to contact Grant Hackett is to send an email to his assistant at gali@granthackettonline.com. Contacting Grant Hackett
3. The length of a giraffe's tongue is 46 centimetres (18 inches). Length of a Giraffe's Tongue
4. I believe that ontology is simply a word for describing the natural human thought of why. Humans and humanity in general constantly wonders why they are here, how the universe was created, what happens when they die, etc... A definition of ontology is that it is the study of being, or existence. Ontology
5. The first feature film that David Cronenberg directed, (aside from Transfer and From the Drain, which were only 7 and 14 minutes respectively), was Stereo, a movie filmed in 1969 that ran for 65 minutes. Somewhere in the future, the Canadian Academy for Erotic Inquiry is investigating the theories of para-psychologist Luther Stringfellow. Seven young adults volunteer to submit to a form of brain surgery that removes their power of speech but increases their power for telepathic communications. An unseen group of students observes the results. As the experiment progresses, Stringfellow's theories are borne out. Later, aphrodisiacs and various drugs are introduced to the subjects to expose an inherent 'polymorphous perversity'. In the end, they are isolated from each other, provoking antagonism and violence between them, resulting in two suicides. David Cronenberg - Stereo
6. The 'Hacker's Manifesto' was written on the eighth of January 1986. 'Hacker's Manifesto'
7. The reason why the prefix '555' is used in hollywood films is because the 1970's real phone numbers were getting used in films and movies goer's were ringing these numbers and harassing callers. The '555' prefix was first used in movies in the 1970's occasionally until it became commonplace in the 80's, 90's and today. The reason why this prefix worked was because phone companies were not allowed to release it to the general public. The '555' Prefix
8. The cheapest flight from Crete to Rhodes is $188 on Olympic Airlines. However you could always swim... Crete to Rhodes
9. The Seekers - 'I'll Never Find Another You'. Pop Archives
10. 'The Black Assassins' Stephen Stockwell
Monday
French New Wave Cinema
In the 1950's and 60's there were many new forms of cinema emerging. In an era where 'Hollywoodised' action blockbusters were the rage, many directors wanted to express themselves and their views more effectively through the art of film. The way that one country decided to do this was through the style of 'new wave' cinema. This country was France.
The French new wave, (or nouvelle vague), cinematic movement, (which was never officially classified as a cinematographic movement)(French Cinema: From its Beginnings to Present, Lanzoni, Continuum International Publishing Group), had five principal directors; Claude Chabrol, Francoise Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette (Contemporary French Cinema, Austin, Manchester University Press). These men, along with a number of other minor directors, pioneered this drastical change in French and world cinema with many eye opening films such as; Les Mistons, Le Beau Serge, Les 400 Coups, A Bout Soufflé, and many others. These films looked at issues that Hollywood films didn't cover. Issues such as the holocaust, time travel, the end of the world, a paralell world and the ever constant threat of a third world war.
Most of these films had very low budgets so director's had to devise new ways of filming. Most actors were the director’s friends and the equipment used was revolutionary. The camera's were much more lightweight and thus enabled directors to film outside rather than being confined to a studio. Some directors even used shopping trolleys for tracking shots. All of the new techniques combined together to create a far more realistic and innovative movie. One of these was Alphaville which, despite the fact of being set sometime in the future was quite realistic and showed the viewer the possibility of what life could be like in a paralell life.
In the next blog I will deconstruct Alphaville and continue elaborating on how the French new wave techniques were employed.
The French new wave, (or nouvelle vague), cinematic movement, (which was never officially classified as a cinematographic movement)(French Cinema: From its Beginnings to Present, Lanzoni, Continuum International Publishing Group), had five principal directors; Claude Chabrol, Francoise Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette (Contemporary French Cinema, Austin, Manchester University Press). These men, along with a number of other minor directors, pioneered this drastical change in French and world cinema with many eye opening films such as; Les Mistons, Le Beau Serge, Les 400 Coups, A Bout Soufflé, and many others. These films looked at issues that Hollywood films didn't cover. Issues such as the holocaust, time travel, the end of the world, a paralell world and the ever constant threat of a third world war.
Most of these films had very low budgets so director's had to devise new ways of filming. Most actors were the director’s friends and the equipment used was revolutionary. The camera's were much more lightweight and thus enabled directors to film outside rather than being confined to a studio. Some directors even used shopping trolleys for tracking shots. All of the new techniques combined together to create a far more realistic and innovative movie. One of these was Alphaville which, despite the fact of being set sometime in the future was quite realistic and showed the viewer the possibility of what life could be like in a paralell life.
In the next blog I will deconstruct Alphaville and continue elaborating on how the French new wave techniques were employed.
Thursday
The Technological Era
Becoming a Journalist in an era of an ever changing, technologically based society is a formidable prospect. However, it is a prospect that I, as a first year Journalism student have decided to tackle head on. If technology, in particular the internet and mobile phones, continues at the booming rate it is travelling now, then in as little as twenty years, it could overtake television and newspaper's as the leading source of mass communication.
In fact, it may even wipe them out completely. I have no doubts that this is a displeasing idea for many journalists of the past generation. However, change cannot be stopped and rather, should be accepted so as we humans of one generation can help the betterment of all generations to come. For example; ten years ago, mobile phones were very rare even for adults to have. Now in 2007, in the United States and even Australia to some extent, children have mobile phones, with cameras, internet access, and gps tracking devices as young as seven and eight. This would have been unheard of and perhaps even considered a 'bad parenting' convention ten years ago.
I believe that this is a fantastic example of how humans have evolved in such a small space of time, and this along with many other interesting advances is what has led me to believe that the internet and television will be all but wiped out. Perhaps even social contact could become more limited in the future, maybe people won't talk to each other, rather they will just communicate via video phones and texting. Perhaps even the convention of learning at University or a School in a lecture theatre or classroom won't happen anymore. Could technology advance so much that information can simply be uploaded into you brain much like information can be uploaded into a computer? The possibilities are endless.
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