Dasies (1966):
The 1966 new wave film Dasies, directed by Vera Chytilova, is a very obscure and controversial text in its portrayal of women who seemingly have no purpose to their lives and export the manners and kindness/love and admiration so that they can eat or dine and continue to live their care free lives. This text is known to be a strong example of surrealist cinema and coming from a director who's won awards and respect for producing feminist works its a very strange and confusing text.
The narrative of the text has been encoded with various creative and almost hypnotic or confusing types of editing, including overlaying black and white clips of film with reds, blues and occasionally even a rainbow assortment of colour over top. These outcomes were often due to the experimentation that the films editor did on the reels of footage, occasionally the colours and effects weren't intended but they decided to keep them in the finished text as they ended up looking creative and interesting when spliced together during production.
Bibliography:
HAMES, P (2005) ) The Czechoslovak New Wave. Second Edition. London: Wallflower Press
https://screenproject1400.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/vera-chytilovas-daisies-czechoslovakia-1966/
Thursday, 20 October 2016
Monday, 17 October 2016
Labelling and organising:
I chose to label and organise each of my clips of footage so that it was easy for me to sort through them and pick out the best ones/the ones which demonstrated different and certain shot types. Choosing to name the footage like this meant that it was easy to find the shots/clips that I wanted when I was editing and putting together my short new wave film. In addition to the names, my decision to view the shots like a list meant that I could also look at the settings of each piece of footage and the duration - meaning that it was easier to work out where to cut each clip.
As well as renaming all of my footage, I decided to label each of them with a different colour/groups of colour depending on what shot type it was. This means that I can see which clips are the same type of shot rather than what the shot contains/the subject of it.
I chose to label and organise each of my clips of footage so that it was easy for me to sort through them and pick out the best ones/the ones which demonstrated different and certain shot types. Choosing to name the footage like this meant that it was easy to find the shots/clips that I wanted when I was editing and putting together my short new wave film. In addition to the names, my decision to view the shots like a list meant that I could also look at the settings of each piece of footage and the duration - meaning that it was easier to work out where to cut each clip. 
As well as renaming all of my footage, I decided to label each of them with a different colour/groups of colour depending on what shot type it was. This means that I can see which clips are the same type of shot rather than what the shot contains/the subject of it.
Friday, 14 October 2016
New Wave Design Brief:
Having researched range of new waves and beginning to analyse three Czech new wave texts, I have chosen that when creating my own short new wave film I will try to draw upon a variety of techniques from a range of new wave films and follow the new wave idea/concept of breaking the formulaic Hollywood rules for film making- mainly the most common conventions such as: jump cuts, colour overlays, lack of narrative and obscure camera movements. I am going to keep the length of my short film around 3-5 minutes long as I think that will give me ample time to exercise a range of new wave techniques without dragging on too long.
My plan is to compile a wide variety of shots from a large number of locations that I visit in the Birmingham city area. This should make it easy for me to edit in numerous new wave techniques such as jump cuts and colour overlays. I aim to use mainly, if not completely, non-diegetic in my short film so that I don’t have to worry about the diegetic sound picked up by the camera when filming around Birmingham. The use of putting the film to music means that I can add some structure to the jumps cuts that I put in as I can aline them with beats/changes in the song.
Having researched range of new waves and beginning to analyse three Czech new wave texts, I have chosen that when creating my own short new wave film I will try to draw upon a variety of techniques from a range of new wave films and follow the new wave idea/concept of breaking the formulaic Hollywood rules for film making- mainly the most common conventions such as: jump cuts, colour overlays, lack of narrative and obscure camera movements. I am going to keep the length of my short film around 3-5 minutes long as I think that will give me ample time to exercise a range of new wave techniques without dragging on too long.
My plan is to compile a wide variety of shots from a large number of locations that I visit in the Birmingham city area. This should make it easy for me to edit in numerous new wave techniques such as jump cuts and colour overlays. I aim to use mainly, if not completely, non-diegetic in my short film so that I don’t have to worry about the diegetic sound picked up by the camera when filming around Birmingham. The use of putting the film to music means that I can add some structure to the jumps cuts that I put in as I can aline them with beats/changes in the song.
For lighting and camera settings, I will be using natural (and unpredictable) lighting and keeping the footage hand held - fitting in with the new wave aim to break typical Hollywood film making conventions and rules. I am going to try to keep the exposure correct, however, I feel as though changing the shutter speed could mean that the overall effect of the footage and video could be more creative and obscure. In terms of shot types, I’m going to try and use a wide variety of different types of camera shots and angels, meaning that the final cut of the film will have numerous different shots and views rather than just one single camera shot/angle.
Monday, 10 October 2016
Czech new wave - historical/social context:
Czechoslovakia in the 1940s was suffering the impact and aftermath of the second world war, meaning that there was a sudden influx in films being produced - although the control of the Soviet Union over the Czech government meant that all media content had to through public censorship checks before they could be fully released. During this time the Czech approach to society and creativity was forced to disappear and was replaced by the soviet cultural policies of the SU, however, in the following years Czechoslovak started to gain recognition and the Czech film industry was given its first Academy Award (for A Shop on Main Street (1965) directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos). (HAMES, 2005)
Surrealism was a great influence to how the Czech film makers encoded, directed and produced their texts. (OWENS, 2011)
References:
Hames, P. (2005) The Czechoslovak New Wave. Second Edition. London: Wallflower Press
Owens, J. (2011) Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovakian cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties. New York: Berghahn Books
http://www.newwavefilm.com/international/czech-new-wave.shtml
Czechoslovakia in the 1940s was suffering the impact and aftermath of the second world war, meaning that there was a sudden influx in films being produced - although the control of the Soviet Union over the Czech government meant that all media content had to through public censorship checks before they could be fully released. During this time the Czech approach to society and creativity was forced to disappear and was replaced by the soviet cultural policies of the SU, however, in the following years Czechoslovak started to gain recognition and the Czech film industry was given its first Academy Award (for A Shop on Main Street (1965) directed by Jan Kadar and Elmar Klos). (HAMES, 2005)
Surrealism was a great influence to how the Czech film makers encoded, directed and produced their texts. (OWENS, 2011)
References:
Hames, P. (2005) The Czechoslovak New Wave. Second Edition. London: Wallflower Press
Owens, J. (2011) Avant-Garde to New Wave: Czechoslovakian cinema, Surrealism and the Sixties. New York: Berghahn Books
http://www.newwavefilm.com/international/czech-new-wave.shtml
Monday, 3 October 2016
Czech New Wave texts:
Into - For my contextual studies essay, I will be exploring Czechoslovakian new wave cinema and the obscure ways in which the texts are constructed while reflecting the society of the time. Through my research, I will also be looking at the impact that the society and political state had on the movement and Czechoslovakian cinema in general.
The three Czechoslovakian new wave texts that I have chosen to focus on particularly are: Dasies (1966), The Firemen's Ball (1967) and Valerie and her Week of Wonders (1970). I have chosen these texts because I think that they are some of the most interesting and obscure texts of the Czech new wave movement.
Into - For my contextual studies essay, I will be exploring Czechoslovakian new wave cinema and the obscure ways in which the texts are constructed while reflecting the society of the time. Through my research, I will also be looking at the impact that the society and political state had on the movement and Czechoslovakian cinema in general.
The three Czechoslovakian new wave texts that I have chosen to focus on particularly are: Dasies (1966), The Firemen's Ball (1967) and Valerie and her Week of Wonders (1970). I have chosen these texts because I think that they are some of the most interesting and obscure texts of the Czech new wave movement.
Czech new wave:
As previously mentioned, the main influence for the Czech new wave was the political and creative freedom that they were given towards the end of 1960s, liberating film makers and other artist and allowing them to create works which contained controversial imagery and spoke about/mentioned taboo topics - before this liberation, all texts (from newspapers and radio to television and cultural event organisation) had to be sent through the public domain before publishing.
Lasting from the 1960s till the early 1970s, a great deal of creative and obscure texts, including films, were produced and displayed for the public and creators enjoyment. Some of the major figures of the Czech new wave movement were: Milos Forman - who produced one of the first Czech new wave texts that helped launch the movement, Milan Kundera, Vera Chytilova and directing the director team of Jan Kadar and Elmar Clos - who ended up wining Czechoslovakia's first Oscar in 1965 for the film A Shop on the High Street.
As previously mentioned, the main influence for the Czech new wave was the political and creative freedom that they were given towards the end of 1960s, liberating film makers and other artist and allowing them to create works which contained controversial imagery and spoke about/mentioned taboo topics - before this liberation, all texts (from newspapers and radio to television and cultural event organisation) had to be sent through the public domain before publishing.
Lasting from the 1960s till the early 1970s, a great deal of creative and obscure texts, including films, were produced and displayed for the public and creators enjoyment. Some of the major figures of the Czech new wave movement were: Milos Forman - who produced one of the first Czech new wave texts that helped launch the movement, Milan Kundera, Vera Chytilova and directing the director team of Jan Kadar and Elmar Clos - who ended up wining Czechoslovakia's first Oscar in 1965 for the film A Shop on the High Street.
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