French New Wave Tribute

Video description and technique

This is a low budget film where the film is only equipped with DSLR. There are limited props as well. The film is not shot in a studio due to budgetary restriction. The actors and actress are not professional. The characters in this film are definitely not the typical prefect protagonists who are wealthy, good looking and have influential status. Although they are not marginalized with immoral activities like most anti-protagonists in French New Wave films, yet their characteristics are not goal-oriented and they merely seemed to have positive attitudes toward their lives. This can be seen patently from the actress who tends to criticize and complaint everything and everyone around her, for instance her lecturer, assignment group, group mates, her friends over social networks and the actor Zhe. Also, she complains about deciding lunch spot and reaction of Zhe who ignores her. This film is solely about the interaction between two friends of the same university, sometimes they talk, sometimes only one is talking whereas another is playing with his or her smart phone, and sometimes both are not talking at all. It is a reflection of the reality as it portrays how our generation today interacts with one another, specifically the generation in Malaysia. However, the reality portrayed is imperfect, messy and unpredictable. The film begins with the actors and actress complaining their assignments, group mates and lecturer. It reveals the student identities of both of the actors. Additionally, their dialogues are all improvised as a result of no prior planning or preparation in terms of scriptwriting before shooting. Later, while they are walking toward the car, their voices are barely heard, in contrast, the natural sound of dog barking and car passing by is clearly heard. Instead of continuity editing, there are many jump cuts applied. The most obvious examples are the scene when Zhe is parking the car and both of the actors are walking up the escalator scene. Medium shot is taken at the restaurant to highlight the facial expressions and the interactions of the two characters. When the actress realized Zhe is not engaged in her conversation, she then asked questions to the camera. This is a frequent technique used by French New Wave film to pull the audience off their seats to make them realize that the film is just a film. The pace of the segment changes drastically with the long shot utilized to shoot the zero interaction between the two actors.  The camera seems unsteady as the visible shaking of the camera demonstrates the low budget shooting of many French New Wave films.