Prezi Presentation

http://prezi.com/86bxdufbzj9w/french-new-wave-cinema/

I used this presentation to show to 20 of my peers.

Before showing this I found that their understanding and knowledge of French New Wave was very limited. I also found that they were quite apathetic towards the whole genre and found that they were not prepared to open their minds towards it.

After constructing this presentation, I showed them more about the genre in order to try and open their narrow minds.

After doing so I asked them the following questions:

Do you feel more interested in the genre?

The feedback I found from the individuals were unanimous in the fact that the genre definitely intrigued them, however the French language and subtitles definitely put them off. One answer I was particularly interested by was how one girl felt that you would have to be part of a very specific group to be able to enjoy and appreciate it and that it wasn't something that would interest everyone.

Is it as complicated and intimidating as you first thought?

The group said that they did not find the idea of French New Wave complicated, however they did still find it intimidating. One way a boy described in was as if the film was an onion; on the outside it looks simple however, there are so many layers to it which put him off it. Although, he said, he would still want to watch French New Wave film just to get a feel of the genre.

What do you think about the films being in black and white?

The whole of the group didn't really mind the film being in black and white because they felt that if it was any other way it wouldn't really fit the genre. One person did say that it did bother him, he said that French New Wave didn't interest him at all and the fact that it was in black and white annoyed him slightly because he felt it was slightly 'pretentious'.

Although you are not used to the codes and conventions of French New Wave, how do you think you reacted towards them when they were used?

Once again they agreed that the codes and conventions didn't really faze them because they believed that they had been picked up in the bog-standard Hollywood blockbusters. They agreed that it seem like something they had never seen before and because of monologue by Karina in Alphaville it interested them deeply as it was a complete different world to them.

Conclusion:

Overall I found that French New Wave is a VERY niche market and overall I must not aim my target audience at a whole wide range of people in the style of the Hollywood blockbusters. I must pin-point who I want to target and keep it just at that.

Questions I asked on yahoo answers.

What do you know about French New Wave?

The only answer I got: 'Nothing'.

In your opinion what was the best French New Wave film?

1st Answer:

Masculin Feminin by Jen-Luc Godard. "The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola" This piece in my opinion, is a film that really examines the social climate of the time. Theslow decay of value, the nihilist overtones really shine in this film. I like this film due to its linear aspect, which is not apparent in most of Godard's work in the 1960's. I mean its interesting to see how the work of italian surrealists prior, influenced the state of French New Cinema, this is best seen in my opinion in Godard's Masculin Feminin

2 answer:

A bout de souffle (Godard)
Les Quatre cent coups (Truffaut)
La Boulangère de Monceau (Rohmer)
Bob le flambeur (Melville) (technically before the official New Wave, but his best film)
Le bonheur (Agnes Varda)

What's your favourite character from French New Wave cinema?

1st answer:

The Jean Luc Godard film "the Mother and the Whore" is one of the better french films I've seen because of it's simplicity. I didn't care for either of Alexander's lovers but it was realistic. A lot of women end up the other woman to some loser of a boyfriend. I never quite understood the title though. It seemed liked both his women were mothering him.

2nd answer:

Bardot in "Une Vie Privee." She was courageous enough to actually play herself, with all the self-contradictions in plain sight: trained as a dancer but destined to be a movie star, famous but lonely, adored but despised, rich but miserable. All in all, BB gave the performance of a lifetime-totally convincing and equally moving.

Target audience.

After the questionnaire results I received I have successfully discovered my target audience.

Typical male interested in French New Wave:
The age of my male target audience will be 21-35; I believe that it would be this age because this is when they become less fickle and will have found their true interests. They will be middle class, and has achieved a degree in media or psychology. Although he was bought up into a relatively wealthy background he will see himself as liberal however prides himself in his left-wing political views; he will be a religious reader of 'The Guardian' and will occasionally voice his views by writing letters to the paper and is known to get quite fiery when it comes to politics.
He doesn't care about fashion and tends to be scruffy wearing baggy clothes with a 5 0'clock shadow because he's so nonchalant. He's the sort of person that sits in Starbucks writing poetry on his laptop while shaking from the previous 3 expresso shots because he was up all night reading William Wordsworth.

Typical woman interested in French New Wave:

I believe that the woman would be slightly younger than the male and would not be as interested. I see the typical female who is interested in French New Wave is more intrigued by the whole concept. She would have seen posts on Tumblr featuring pictures and quotes from French New Wave films and she thinks it looks interesting and is merely fascinated by the genre simply because it's seen as 'cool'. She's the sort of girl that sits outside Costa drinking lattes in a cloud of cigarette smoke with her friends. She cares what everyone thinks of here style and thrives to be 'individual' and 'cool'; she wants people to look at her and think 'wow, doesn't she stand out, I want to be like that girl'. This girl pretends not to care what people think of her but deep down she cares deeply what they think because she is secretly a people pleaser and craves to be a trend-setter.

Questionnaire results

When asking 20 people whether they knew of French new wave cinema, only 2 people said yes, that they did. This may not seem promising however when making my trailer, I feel I do not need someone to know of 'French new wave' to understand the concept but to appreciate it. Although it would be preferable, I am not aiming my trailer at a broad audience but people who know of/appreciate the niche. This therefore gave me the idea of creating a presentation in order to introduce a group of people into the French New Wave genre. By doing this I could pin-point the type of people who would be intrigued and interested by it and the people who were not so. Overall I could therefore get one step closer to creating a satisfactory film trailer to hail in my appropriate target audience.

When asking 20 people what was their view on Independent films 4 people associated them with a 'low-budget'. 7 people believed that it was better that the 'big-budget- films and linking in with this 2 people thought they had deep meanings; controversially 7 other people thought that independent films just don't interest them. These findings did sway me and I believe that I am now realising how hard it is to engage an audience into a low budget independent film.

These findings have showed me how there is only so much media coverage of small independent films and that there is a huge metaphorical 'Hollywood' umbrella stopping them from getting the attention they deserve. In society today it is only the big blockbusters that interest people and it is very hard for any small independent films to get a foot in edgeways.