Cinema Vérité.3

When I started on working on my final part of my Mimesis project, I have started to work on the movie. For me, to be able to become someone else from a film has it's steps of progress. The character that I am going to act is named 'Nana' from Jean-Luc Godard's film 'Vivre Sa Vie'. However knowing the film and the character is not enough for me to build my own perspective of the character. So that I've made research on the term Cinema Vérité which affected The French New Wave. The French New Wave is the cinema movement which Jean-Luc Godard had significant contributions on it.

The term Cinema Vérité was first used by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. Jean Rouch is an ethnographic filmmaker. Most of his earlier documentaries were filmed in Africa like; "La Pluie", "The Human Pyramid". Jean Rouch did a film with Edgar Morin who is a sociologist. The film called "Chronicle of a Summer" in 1961. Chronicle of a Summer is the first film that described itself as a work of Cinema Verite. Jean Rouch' s documentaries are often inspired by a specific context. In Human Pyramid which was shot in Africa; the issue of racism seen through the eyes of young black and white students. On the other hand in Chronicle of a Summer; the subject is the parisian society in the after math of algerian war.

Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin' s Chronicle of a Summer was recognized as a landmark in non fiction filmmaking. With the innovative cinematic techniques of Cinema Vérité, Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin was able to catch direct synchronized sound and extreme close-ups. The choice of scenario of Chronicle of a Summer is important in film history because that it depicts the rough, urban streets of Paris during a significant historical moment. There are four significant reasons why Chronicle of a Summer is important in film history is that; it's place in the film history, it's relation to the political history in france, it's contribution to french intellectual history and it's status as a source for charting a history of memory.

The chronicle of a summer was a social experiment of Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin on the Parisian society that they interviewed citizens from very different backgrounds. And in the end of the movie Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin showed the filmed material to the subject and filmed them again as they discussed their reactions to seeing themselves.

There is another term which is related to Cinema Vérité is "Direct Cinema". Both Cinema Vérité and Direct Cinema come from similar roots but they have different philosophies. The main difference is the function of the filmmaker. In Cinema Vérite there is a high level of involvement of filmmaker to the activities in the film. On the other hand in Direct Cinema, filmmakers act is to only observe the subject. Jean Rouch cited that Cinema Vérité; " Does not mean the cinema of truth but the 'truth of cinema'." For Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin the only possible truth was the one which included the filmmaker.

The sociological experiment of Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin with Cinema Vérité profoundly affected the "French New Wave". In French New Wave movement in cinema Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette and other's intention was desire to shoot more current social issues and experiment in cinema.

I have always been an admirer of Godard's work. As Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, he also was interested in sociological contemporary contexts and he was innovative with his camera techniques. In The French Wave movement, Godard and others used fragmented, discontinuous editing and long takes as filming techniques. So that Cinema Vérité and The French New Wave nurtured one another and formed a new way of cinematic language.

In my project 'Mimesis in Cinema', I am highly interested in Godard's films. The reason is that Godard have filmed his subject as if he is combining the two personas of the character in the movie with the person who is acting. In his film 'Vivre Sa Vie' we are able to observe Anna Karina character combined with the character Nana. Spectator is able to observe Nana from Anna Karina' s perspective. So when I decided to take a character from a movie and decided to act her life in mine, Nana from Vivre Sa Vie was the perfect choice. I am going to become Nana, and live her life from my point of view. When I observe Nana, I can relate the character to myself. I took Nana as my idol thus the mimesis I am going to create out of her is going to be my observation of Nana in my own life.

Cinema Vérité.2

In my research, Cinema Vérité has been stated simply as to present the 'truth'. Cinema Vérité has been important in film history it has brought contributions to film-making. In Cinema Vérité films, direct synchronized sound and extreme close-ups have been used. It has been claimed that Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin' s "Chronicle of a Summer" was the first film that described itself as a work of Cinema Vérité. This film recognized as a landmark in non-fiction film making.
The importance of Cinema Vérité  could be stated in reasons as; its place in the film history, its relation to political history in France, its contributions to French intellectual history.
Before "Chronicle of a Summer", Jean Rouch was working on ethnographic films about Africa. And Edgar Morin's background on sociology; Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin was able to create sociological experiment in their film. One example that could be seen as experiment of Rouch and Morin is that; they shoot participants to interview at the beginning of the film. Months later, they showed the shootings to participants in the film and filmed their discussion on their reactions to seeing themselves.
There is another term in film terminology that is related to Cinema Vérité which is "Direct Cinema". It is cited that both Cinema Vérité and Direct Cinema came from similar historical roots. However they differ on their philosophies that the main difference is the function of the film-maker. In Cinema Vérité there is a high level of involvement of film-maker to the activities in film. On the other hand in Direct Cinema, film-makers act is to only observe the subject.

https://mural.ly/#/dilayozguven/1382527431516

Cinema Vérité.1

The term means 'Truth Cinema' which was found by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. Cinema Vérité is a documentary type of filmmaking. Cinema Vérité is similar to "Direct Cinema" which is based on observation. However Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin was observing their subject from anthropological and sociological aspect which led them to be innovative in documentary filmmaking.

https://mural.ly/#/dilayozguven/1382296435200

Creativity.2

When I have done research on "What is Creativity", the most common comment is that it is hard to give one definition to creativity. What I think on creativity is that creativity is related to innovation. On my research on creativity, I have found that inspiration is one of the key concept in the sense of creativity. So that when I judge my own opinion according to my research on creativity, our own fund of knowledge is important to be creative. When we can observe other materials, we can judge whether what we form is creative or not.

 Another term which might be important on the process of creativity is originality. When we create, the work might be a variation of someone else' s work hence the creativity of the work is questionable in this sense. What we produce is from our own imagination but it is reliable to search if our own idea is original. In this case research on the subject might help us to determine our originality.

In my research, creativity has been stated as a mental process where both problem finding and problem solving is required. I think that the mental process in the sense of creativity is where we use our own fund of knowledge to form an idea and to find ways to produce this idea.

Creativity.1

While thinking on artistic creativity; people tent to mix up creativity with talent. However i think that creativity is not directly related to talent. To form something creative, requires more than talent. In my opinion an artist might not be talented however he or she can construct creative art works. The notion of creativity arises while we examine our own fund of knowledge. In this circumstances our own fund of knowledge helps us to determine a whether an art work is innovative or not. In my process of creativity I make research on my subject before I create. This helps me to improve what I already know on the subject.  To know what others have done before in this context might help an artist in his or her process of creativity. While creativity relates with innovation, the research on existing materials helps me to think original. With this way an artist will be able to look on a subject from different aspects hence he or she will be able to combine their fund of knowledge with other's creative thinking.  

Abstract

In this paper I will focus on how my way of idolizing characters from cinema effected my work. I have been working on mimesis for two years. My way of working on mimesis is that I transfer my shadow image to film scenes, to create mimesis of certain characters with my own mimesis; which is shadow. In this process I use my shadow as a mimesis of myself. So that when I act synchronized with the characters in the films, I become their mimesis. Until now, I have been searching for an idol, while acting with characters in films. I have been trying to become them, understand and think like them. This two years of process of working with characters, I have tried to figure out who is my idol in these character. So that for my future work, I am going to become one of these characters and live that character's life from my point of view. This way, I can value my past two years of studying on mimesis as a training period. This training will come to an end with me coming out of the shadow image of myself and actually living someone else's life who is a film character. 

Abstract.Draft

In this paper I wish to examine the effects of collective memory on artworks. The very recent history of Turkey have been an impact on art world. Everyday we come across with new terms, new ideas, new regulations. These "new" issues affect our lives directly, hence what we create as an artwork. This recent history of Turkey, has many "new"s that we can not remember every detail. For every individual the importance of every event differs according to his or her memory. In this circumstances collective memory is important to create our own history and for not to forget. Collective memory can be defined as the memory of social group. Individual memory can be supported by the outside remembrance in order to compose memory that the person did not witnessed. Because of interaction of individuals played significant role in order to create history, this interaction mirrored to art as well.