Video Essay evaluation

Evaluation

This is my French New Wave video essay, i made this video for the contextual studies module after studying Jean Luc Godard and the social/political climate of the French New Wave. i attempted to talk about how the cultural mindset of Godard and his peers moulded his films, i showed this by explaining the technical aspects of his films and the re occurring themes throughout three of his feature films, namely breathless, my life to live and the little soldier. i started by writing the scripts in sections, starting with the introduction of Godard and the New Wave, then moving on to the political and social climate of the paris and how this changed the filmmaking itself, then moving on to the analysis of each individual film. From here i recorded each section of the script and created the video portion itself by adding multiple clips from my three chosen film, le petit soldat. i had trouble synching the video to the audio of the script, it was important that this was accurate however as the video portion of the essay needed to be directly linked to what was being said in order for it to remain logical and precise. The recording of the script itself was fairly easy, the only problem i came across was fitting my schedule around my friend who read the script out. we would have to work on several separate days rather in one session, this resulted in audio levels that were often slightly carried from one another, volume levels changed between most of the clips due to moving the recording equipment around several times, volume and enthusiasm for the script wavered as we had to result to recording at different times of the day and background noise can be picked out in some clips. if i were to re-do the audio for the video essay i would set a set day in order to record everything, so that the quality remain consistent throughout the entire video. 

in terms of the actual content of the video essay, i feel like i accurately explained the re occurring motifs of existentialism with Godards films and linked this to the context and social political landscape of the New Wave well. if i were to re do this video essay i would included more context for the New Wave, an explanation into why Godard and his peers felt the way they did, as it stands i feel that i only vaguely referenced this, giving an explanation but only very briefly.  Another issue i feel that i should dress upon reflection of the video is its length. the original brief for the video was for it to be 5-10 minutes long, however my video ended up at around 18 minutes, this was due to it essentially being an auteur study of Godard, and to provide an accurate representation of his work i had to discuss several of his films, this is what took up the bulk of my video. if i were to re-do the video i would focus more on providing evidence to solidify Godards re occurring motifs, more in depth analysis of key scenes rather than discussing the film as a whole. 

In conclusion, i am extremely happy with my final cut of the video essay, i feel that it provides a detailed and intellectual analysis of Godards films, whilst remaining visually interesting and competent, apart from some problems with the audio quality, and some of the transitions between clips, i feel that this video essay accurately explains the New Wave, and Godards work as an auteur.