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DEFINITION OF MISE EN SCENE
� a French term for "staging" or "putting into the scene or shot“
� in film theory, it refers to all the elements placed (by the director) before the camera and within the frame of the film -- including their visual frame of the film -- including their visual arrangement and composition;
� elements include settings, decor, props, actors, costumes, makeup, lighting, performances, and character movements and positioning
� (there are no static elements for mise en scene but the stated elements above are the common ones)
ELEMENTS OF MISE EN SCENE
performanceperformance
framing and compositionframing and composition
propsprops
setting and décor
setting and décor
colourcolour
miseen
scene
miseen
scene
lightinglighting costumecostume
How do these different elements interact with one another?
LIGHTING SOURCE (2): NATURAL LIGHTING
greater realism
expert cinematographerscan use natural lighting expressively
the ‘magic hour’
PERFORMANCE
actors construct characters by using their voices and bodies
acting ‘signs’ can include: body, gesture, posture,movement, make-up, costume, voice (tone, accent, delivery etc)
performance and verisimilitude
performance and other aspectsof film language
what makes a performance realistic?
of film language
how do the use of camera, editing and sound influence an actor’s performance?
COMPOSITION AND FRAMING
arrangement of actorsand objects…
…in relation to one another
…in relation to the sides of the frame
LOOKING AT SETTING AND DECOR
what is the role of the production designer?
do they try to reflect the real
is the set design invisible or visible?
or do they invent a new world?
the real world? new world?
can the setting be considered a character?
KEY FUNCTIONS OF SET DESIGN
expresses emotionalstates
connotes fantasy
recreates the past
connotes fantasy
reinforcescharacterisation
generatesatmosphere
LOCATION SHOOTING
location or studio?
location as marker of authenticity
Italian Neorealism
French New Wave
Contemporary TV crime drama
STUDIO AS LANDSCAPE: THE MATTE SHOT
a matte shot is where different areas of image are photographedseparately and combined during
post-production
COLOUR AND FILM STOCK
first Eastmancolorfilm: Royal Journey (Bairstow, 1951)
first Technicolor film:Becky Sharp (Mamoulian, 1935)
Soviet film stock
COLOUR AND REALISM
unlike sound, adoption of colour was a gradual process
colour was ‘inauthentic’ and connoted excess and spectacle
INTERPRETING COLOUR
depends on cultural context
meaning is unstable
colours createthematic contrast
filters used to create a melancholycolour scheme
colours can evokethe past
FUNCTIONS OF COSTUME
creates contrastbetween characters
constructs character
signals transformation
between characters