Katerina Angelides HNC Creative Media

 For my contextual study I will be conducting research into the effect the culture of the 1960s-1970s had on cinema at the time. In my research I will be focusing on social, economic and environmental change which all had an impact on cinema. I will also look into what caused the demise of the New Hollywood new wave. I will be looking at work produced by some of the most influential directors of the time in order to show what truly started and developed the film movement. I will be looking at work produced by Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese and Arthur Penn, I will be looking at some of their most know and contextual work including Bonnie and Clyde, Taxi Driver and of course The Graduate. The audience in the US had changed, "it was an audience politicised by war, who's consciousness was changed by the use of drugs and it was an open audience" (A Decade Under The Influence, 2003), studios were collapsing as they couldn't understand what films people wanted to watch after ...

What is My Contextual Film Production Idea? In my film I want to reflect how Covid19 has affected the younger generation of the UK. I will use the Prime Ministers speech audio throughout the video, I will cut the audio and only use the most important influential parts in order to create a tense atmosphere. The use of a non-diegetic soundtrack will be used on the video, this will make the film seem more like a montage showing the events of the lockdown. The soundtrack will be slow paced and quite sad in order to show the respect for the severity of the situation. Mainly my footage will be shot inside to reflect lockdown and the idea of isolation from everyone. Later I will introduce footage shot in my friends house to reflect the mixing of households which was allowed in the summer season. I have shot a lot of footage in rural locations to show that in the lockdown many people were exercising and going outside more as it was one of the only things you was allowed to do at the start. I w...

Taxi Driver focuses on a racist, sociopathic, and violent protagonist and features a twelve year old prostitute (Spark Notes), although it was very risky and had some strong messages in it, it was critically acclaimed in the United States and received four Oscar nominations. The film exaggerates the filth of New York city in order to represent Bickle's skewed perspective (Spark Notes). The word "filth" is used a lot in the movie to describe both the city and the people within it, this is both literal and figurative, in the summer of 1975 rubbish collectors went of strike therefore the streets of New York filled with trash with no solution to the problem. Taxi Driver portrays exactly what New York was at the time, it reflects all the bad messages that weren't reflected in films in the 60s and 70s (Nelson). At the time the film was made, the war in Vietnam had just failed, a new presidential debate was in process and the nation was filled with uncertainty. The movie ref...

 The film Bonnie and Clyde was unmistakably a product and mirror of the 60s, it reflected the themes of anti establishment and resonated with youths. The film was commercially successful and it was very influential at the time as it was the final film to help abolish the Hayes code by showing violence and creating connotations linked to sex and romance (Kael). When the audience saw the death scene of Bonnie and Clyde it surprised and excited them, you would never see such violence in a film before it, it was interesting and new. The film is set in the 30s however, the outlaw romance is a great representation of 60s youths that didn't want to conform with the culture that their parents set for them. The narrative of the movie is very counter cultural, instead of having a happy ending we have a gruesome killing instead which ends the lives of the protagonists, this is very important as it reflects the chaotic nature of the time, it isn't a happy fairy tale it is a symbolistic ref...

How was "The Graduate" Constructed to Reflect Messages from New Hollywood Wave? The graduate is a film that has a message which is engrained into the American culture. The film is a comedy about a college graduate, he has just moved back into his rich parents house and he is faced with the sad reality that he must make something of himself. He begins to have an affair with the much older Mrs Robinson who is a bored housewife that is trapped in an empty relationship. Ben begins to fall for Mrs Robinsons daughter, they form a real bond, and this is perhaps the only loving, caring relationship we see throughout the movie, however, it is frowned upon. Eventually, the forbidden lovers run away together, this leads to an astonishing realisation at the end of the movie where the lovers look lost on the bus as they run away towards their happy ever after. This realisation is that young love doesn't always last however, now they are in too deep therefore, if they start to resent e...

The rule of six is a theory discussed by Walter Murch in his book 'In the blink of an eye: A perspective on film editing'. There are six factors which he believes help to tell a story using editing. The theorist suggest "a list of priorities. If you have to give up something, don't ever give up emotion before story. Don't give up story before rhythm, don't give up rhythm before eye-trace, don't give up eye-trace before planarity, and don't give up planarity before spacial continuity." (Murch). The editor believes there is a hierarchy in which you should use the rule of six in order to create an edit which will have the best effect on the audience. Emotion (51%) Emotion is a very important part of editing, it is important that you are able to reflect the tone of the scene or movie onto the audience. They must feel a connection with the actors in order to understand what they are going through in the movie (Renee). A good example of use of emotion is...

 What is the American New Wave? The "New Hollywood" wave of cinema began in the 1960s and ended around the mid 1970s, it wasn't exactly a turning point in film it was a slow process of change influenced by the culture around us. Films such as "Bonnie and Clyde", "Easy Rider" and "Taxi Driver" reflect themes and messages which troubled the public in the 60s. Themes of drug abuse, depression and poverty can be seen throughout this new wave due to the economic and political climate of the time. The American-Vietnamese war had caused turmoil throughout the country which divided the country massively, the Hippy movement was on the rise as people found the war to be pointless and causing more pain than good in the world (Nowell-Smith).  During the 60s technological advancement meant that high definition colour films, wide formats and fidelity magnetic sound had become the new standard for film quality. As poverty had struck the nation due to econom...

 Easy Rider is a 1969 American Independent road drama written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Terry Southern. The premise of the film is that Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel across the Southwest of America carrying the proceeds from a cocaine deal. The film is very appropriate for the time is was filmed due to the inclusion of topics which were prominent at the time such as drugs. In the 1960s the hippie movement was very prominent, this was a movement which rejected mainstream American life and culture, you can see how the history of the time era has been reflected within the film to create an amazing and meaningful end result. In the scene you see four people sat in a cemetery smoking, drinking and taking acid (Priutt). These are all maladaptive coping mechanisms which suggest they was trying to cope with something bad, during this time, the hippie movement had became popular as there were many people against the USAs contribution to the Vietnamese war, many stood i...