Jump cuts are sudden, jarring editing cuts which take place out of sequence or during an unexpected moment. They often involve camera angle changes of less than 30 degrees, which can have a disorienting effect on the viewer. Traditional filmmaking rejected such cuts because they threw the viewer out of the onscreen drama. To New Wave filmmakers, that was precisely the point.
Typical conventions emphasized tight control over the filmmaking process--shooting in studio sets where the directors could dictate every single thing that appeared on screen. The New Wave eschewed such restrictions. They often filmed in public locales with improvised dialogue and plots constructed on the fly. In many ways, it seemed sloppy, but it also captured a vibrancy and spontaneity that no "quality" film could hope to match.
Just as they rejected the false artifice of studio filmmaking, the New Wave discarded the use of remixing their sound. Instead, they used a naturalistic soundtrack recorded during the shoot and shown unaltered... even if it featured mistakes or intrusions. Like their other techniques, it lent the films a sense of freshness and energy that earlier movies lacked.
New generations of cameras helped New Wave filmmakers shoot in public locales. They could move the camera around very easily, creating long tracking shots and flowing the camera around a given space. They could also shoot well in tight quarters, creating an intimacy that bulkier and more expensive cameras couldn't rival. Many New Wave films use long, extended shots, which these types of cameras facilitated.
New Wave filmmakers coined the term "auteur", or "author," meaning that the films of a given director (or actor or writer) had common characteristics that no other film possessed. New Wave directors attempted to make each film uniquely their own--an expression of personality as much as a plot or story. At the same time, they also wished to honor the filmmakers who had inspired them by placing homages to earlier films in their works. Such homages often stemmed from "disreputable" genres such as crime movies, westerns or Jerry Lewis comedies.