5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007 - Theme Deconstruction: THE 400 BLOWS

Theme Deconstruction: THE 400 BLOWS
by 5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007

Technological innovations, a new approach to the economics of film
production and a new sense of political and social value of film
inspired New French Filmmakers or any new group of filmmakers in the
1960s to collectively create its own voice in World Cinema. Thus,
the New Wave was born.

The 400 Blows is one of the best-remembered materials that introduced
the New Wave to the world. The movement uses an approach sometimes
called dialectical film that involved reconceiving the entertaining
consumer commodity as an intellectual tool, a forum for discussion
and examination. Often, materials written for this movement were
personal essays that tackles political and social values that sought
to communicate a message by engaging the audience in an intellectual
discussion using the material as the arena for the forum.
Theme deconstruction is a useful tool in identifying the message that
is encapsulated in the material. By doing this exercise, one is able
to understand the evolution of a material in terms of the type of
statement it tries to communicate to its audience.

The 400 Blows, in terms of theme, explores the basic human struggle
between belonging and freedom. The four principal characters in the
material, torn between two irreconcilable needs, complicates their
lives as each one struggles to satisfy the need to belong somewhere
with someone and the need to be free. In the end, one of the
characters, through force of circumstance, opt for freedom at the
complete sacrifice of the need to belong. Thus, it is difficult to
be free and to belong to somewhere with someone at the same time.

This desire to enjoy both freedom and belonging is the very thing
that complicates the lives of the principal characters. The more
that they insist in pursuing both needs, the more it becomes evident
that sooner or later each one will be force to choose between the
said needs.

Marriage, Family and Community are arenas that satisfy the need to
belong to somewhere with someone. But these arenas restrict our
individual freedom to do whatever we want. Being part of a marriage,
family and community requires commitment and consensus. The
individual disappears and the collective emerges. Freedom, on the
other hand, is the absence of commitment and consensus. It does not
submit to any social contract and operates on individual sense of
independence. But freedom alienates a person from the collective and
veers away from arenas that limits it.

Thus, the material is a socio-political value that engages the
audience in a discussion about freedom and belonging. It asks the
question; Are you willing to sacrifice the need to belong somewhere
with someone for the sake of freedom? Or are you willing to sacrifice
freedom for the sake of the need to belong somewhere with someone?
Theme deconstruction enriches our knowledge in terms of understanding
how a material was constructed. We begin to appreciate the skills of
highly creative writers in coming up with materials that engages the
audience in terms of presenting a statement of fact, argument,
persuasion or propaganda.

The 400 Blows is definitely a statement of argument that challenges
us to re-examine our individual definitions of freedom and belonging
as well as the inherent conflict of the said needs. In the process,
as we struggle to enjoy both needs, it only delays the unavoidable.
Sooner or later, we need to make a choice.

5th Sinelab Experimental Workshop Series
Summer 2007

The SINELAB Workshop Series is an on-going, out of school,
alternative mode of educating the Filipino that he is a great
storyteller in the moving-image media of motion picture.

Coverage of the Workshop:
5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007
4 sessions : basic screenwriting (experimental application)
4 sessions : alternative production (producer's course)

Schedule:
5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007
2007 : SUNDAYS

Venue:
5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007
Marikina Shoe Expo, Araneta Center Cubao, Quezon City

Fee:
5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007
PhP6,000 / 8 Sessions

E-mail Address For Registration/ Inquiries:
5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007
(sinelab_workshop@yahoo.com) *workshop fee for lectures only.
*students are required to finish their short films before graduation.

Limited slots available.
Only committed students will be accepted.

PROGRAMS INCLUDED IN SINELAB EXPANSION

SINELAB WRITERS' PROJECT SERIES
(THE RUBBER DUCKY SESSIONS)
Basic Scriptwriting Narrative
Intermediate Narrative
Advance Narrative

FOR EXPERIMENTAL WRITERS
(BASIC SINELAB WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS ONLY)
Intermediate Experimental Scriptwriting
Advance Experimental Scriptwriting

FOR INQUIRIES on
5th SiNELAB Workshop Series 2007
E-Mail address : sinelab_workshop@yahoo.com
Contact number : 09202573776