Mise en Scène

1. Mise en Scène the staging of a scene where the action unfolds the overall look and feel of a movie the sum of everything the audience sees, hears, & experiences

2. Four Basic Elements of Mise en Scène: • Setting • Actors (and their performance) • Lighting • Composition

3. Setting (where the action unfolds) • Can be: general or specific, real or imaginary • set construction vs. on location vs. CGI • All are creative and $ challenges

4. Setting • Visual and spatial attributes of setting • Inside/outside, bright/dark, open/closed • eg: open spaces can be limitless (Red River) or show dread (Castaway) • Contextual use of setting: qualities of what’s included • Cultural meaning, insight into characters • Function of setting • estb. time and place, themes, ideas, create mood • some genres have particular settings, like…

5. Actors* • Casting • (type-casting, A-listers) • Acting style • (impersonation, personification, method, character actors) • Actor placement • Props, costume, and make-up

6. Lighting • Illuminates set /actors; used to create mood and effects • Three attributes of light: • Quality (soft/hard) • Placement (direction the light hits subject) • Contrast (high/low) • Looking at Movies (ch 6, 10min)

7. Lighting: Quality • Hard: small light source positioned close to the subject • Unflattering (deep shadows, shows imperfections) • Soft: large light source that is diffused/scattered over a bigger area or reflected off a surface before it gets to the subject • Minimizes details, actors look more attractive http://www.photomatters.org/hard-light-soft-light

8. … Lighting: Quality • Available light (natural) • Can be hard or soft, depending on time of day/season/location • “golden hour”

9. Lighting: Placement (direction of light) • Lighting in front of subject creates flat effect • washes out details, shadows only behind • Lighting from either side of subject creates a sculpted effect • 3-dimentional with volume/texture • Lighting from behind separates subject from background

10. …Lighting: Placement • Three-Point Lighting • Diagram: http://www.mediacollege.com/lighting/three-point/ • Video: http://vimeo.com/25449708

11. Lighting: Contrast • one of most important factors in estb. mood • Depends on the relative intensity of key light to fill light (lighting ratio) • High-key lighting (2:1 or lower) • Illuminates most shadows, most details washed out • Creates hopeful mood (comedies, musicals)

12. …Lighting: Contrast • Natural-key lighting (‘normal’ light; 4:1 to 8:1) • Key-light is more intense than the fill (cannot eliminate every shadow)

13. …Lighting: Contrast • Low-key lighting (16:1 to 32:1) • Fill light cannot eliminate shadows – lots of shadows and high contrast • Somber and forbidding mood (crime drama, film noir, gothic horror) Counter –intuitive: higher ratio of key to fill is a low-key light set up

14. Composition • visual arrangement of objects, actors, and space in the frame • Balance and symmetry: • Essentially a two-dimensional space • Horizontal (left to right) and vertical (top to bottom) • Rule of Thirds (video) • Balanced composition: equal dist. of bright/dark areas, colors, objects, figures (classical Hollywood) • Unbalanced – leads viewers to a particular direction • Lack of equilibrium

15. …Composition • Lines : diagonal lines carry most visual weight (v. vertical and horizontal)

16. … Composition • Framing: • Loose framing great deal of open space around subject • freedom or isolation • Tight framing - lack of space around subject • Sense of constriction or intimacy

17. … Composition • Foreground/background focus • Can highlight significance of object/subject • Use of light and dark • Chiaroscuro • Color • Color palette to go with movie – appropriate to mood • Cool, warm • Colors in sets, props, costumes • May function as motif

18. … Composition … Color • Saturation (strength of hue) and desaturation (colors are less pure, contain more white than saturated colors) • Highly Saturated:

19. Desaturated: