Yes I fancy Godard and Flickerfest...

I am on the selection committee for Flickerfest, and have just finished watching 3o short films from around the world.  Worth noting all of these were shot using a hand-held camera.  The  practical approach, given it lowers costs and invariably enhances the emotional impact!


A few years back I co-directed (alongside Gracie Otto) the trailer for Flickerfest 2009.  Referencing Godard's Breathless, we of course shot hand-held. Yes, Godard we love you!!! http://youtu.be/OiFSaF3s1jg  


In ‘Everything is Cinema – The Working Life of Jean Luc Godard’ (Metropolitan Books, New York 2008) acclaimed New Yorker journalist Richard Brody explores the reason behind Godard’s approach, noting it stemmed less from a concern for the emotion and more about how to facilitate the experience of shooting - for the most part Godard didn’t even have a script, preferring instead to work from a treatment then jot down notes the morning of the shoot.  Brody states that:

Godard wanted Breathless to be shot, as much as possible, like a documentary, with a handheld camera and a minimum of added lighting.  This decision had both an aesthetic component, making the film look newsreel like, and on a practical note, saving the time usually spent setting up lights and a tripod. p60