400 BLOWS : Theme Deconstruction

400 BLOWS : Theme Deconstruction

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.

9th SiNELAB WORKSHOP SERIES
(3rd Edition - 08)
STARTS AUGUST 2008
@ Quezon City
Workshop Outline : 8 Sessions

SINELAB WORKSHOP
Write. Produce. Direct.

We'll teach you the basics of Filmmaking the Indie way.

9th SINELAB WORKSHOP Series starts AUGUST!

Start: August '08 2:00p
Location: Quezon City

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 pictures.

Coverage of the Workshop:

"BASIC SCREENWRITING & ALTERNATIVE PRODUCTION"

4 sessions :
Material & Script development & management
additional subjects :
( Conflict Dynamics Study )
(Milieu Development and Management)
By MELCHOR df ESCARCHA

4 sessions : alternative production
By MIKE DAGÑALAN

Venue:
Quezon City

Schedule:
Saturdays, 2pm-5pm

Fee :
8,000 pesos / 3 stages-installment scheme

8 Sessions/ covers both the material and script development and
management & alternative production.

----SEND your one to two pages essay why you are joining the workshop ----
----SEND your resume ----

E-mail Address For Registration/ Inquiries:
(sinelab_workshop@yahoo.com)
mobile phone :09215081060

* workshop fee for lectures only.
* students are required to finish their short films before graduation.
* Limited slots available.
* Only committed students will be accepted.

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www.yahoogroups.com/group/ sinelab_workshop
www.sinelab.blogspot.com
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