Mise en Scene

 Mise en Scene

In this post today I am going to go explain the Tems of mise en scene and how Mise en scene is presented through Thriller films.

The 5 elements of Mise en Scene are an indicator of the genre of the film and as an audience we have expectations of the Mise en Scene depending on the genre.

Definition: French for "Everything that is put on Stage" or "What is put into the scene or frame"

Going into further detail, put on stage with in reason. The way things are set out on stage is to have a representation for something in that particular scene. It is anything that creates a believeable world and adds to the understanding of the story.

Five parts of Mise en Scene:

. Iconography

. Body Language/Facial Expression

. Costume

. Lighting/Colour

. Setting/Location

Iconography: Iconography is another word for props and objects of the scene. The props used in a certain scene depend on the setting and the location of the Scene. For example, if a scene is set as a classrom, the iconography expected in that scene would be tables, chairs, a chalk board etc.

Body Language/Facial Expression: Facial expressions are a clear indicator of how a person feels. The film maker may use a characters eyes to drraw our attention for something or a slight change in a characters face can tell us something has happend.

Costume: Costume plays a large part because it can indicate a character's personality, social status and job. Make up also plays a big part because it involves colour and colours can show the different sides of a character. For example, Bright make up can indicate innocents, angelic, Crazy and an outgoing personality. Whereas Darker shades would represent evil, suductiveness, trouble maker etc.
Also in Costume, certain characters are expected to wear a certain colour or style of clothing to represent their role in the film. For Example,
Typical action hero:
. Bright colours
. Superhro altfit (Superman)
. Capes and carries weapons

Typical Villain:
. Capes
. Dark Colours (Usually red and black)

Someone ready for battle:
. Armour
. Protective clothing

  Someone Vunerable:
Light Colours (Mainly white)

Lighting and colour: Lighting can help to give a scene a relative look (Lenghtley) or a dramatic look (Low Key). Colour is a big part of mise en scene because colour can be used to represent the personality of the character or to determine if a place is meant to look bad or good.

Setting: Settings are chosen very purposefully and are NOT just backgrounds for acting, Film makers can choose to build a set from scratch into a studio.



Editing

Editing

How does the speed of editing empathise the action?

When there is action, the speed of editing increases because so much is going on at once. When it's building up to the action the editing starts from being slow and eventually gets faster as the tension of the film builds up.

Comparisons

Halloween and Psyco

. Both use same weapon

. Innocent blobe woman (Protagonist)

. Victim alone to start attack

Speed of editing:

. Films are joined together at certain points. The length of each shot determines the pace of the film and helps determine mood.

General... Trailers...

. Film trailers are an excellent way of commencing an audience to a film. Film trailers mainly use a mixture of editing styles, techniques, and also speed to appeal to an audience and also advertise a film.

Straight Cut Example:

When one shot moves into another shot in an edit and it does not confuse the audience.

Fade to Black Example:

When one shot goes/moves into another and then is black further in between.

Wipe Cut Example:

When the shot slides into another.

Dissolve:

When one shot disintigrates into another.

Reaction Shot:

Any shot (often used as a cut way) in which a subject reacts to a previous shot.

Montage Example:

Id the speed of editing, where shots are quickly juxposed together to create excitement.

Slow editing: Is when clips are put toghether at a slower pace and this is to create suspence and capture action.

Fast Editing: Is when clips are put together at a fast pace and this is to create suspence and thrill.

The editing types you need to know...

. The 180 degree rule: When you stay within the 180 degree line to view the scene if you go beyond the 180 degree line the shot wouldn't make sense and it'll confuse the audience.

Shot reverse shot: This is mostly used in films where a conversation is taking place and it is one shot quickly follows another.

Jump Cut Example: A drastic camera movement that is noticeable to the eye. The shot/edit almost "jumps"

Narrative Theory

Narrative Theory

Storyline:

. Characters effect on the narrative

. Structured BME

. Non-Chronological Order

. Plot

. Things that happen in the story

. Message 

Narrative:

. In Media terms, narrative is the coherence/orginisation given to scenes of facts.

. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things.

. In everything we seek a beggining, Middle and an end.

. We understand and construct meaning our experience of reality and of the previous texts. Each text becomes a part of the previous and the next through its relationship with the audience.

Expected in a tradtional Fairytale:

. Princess

. Prince

. villain

. Love

. Wishes

. Happy ever after

. Castle 

. Mystical Creatures

. Quest

. Sexist

Film as Fairytale:

Vladimir Propp, a Russian Critic, active in the 1920's published in his morphology of the folk tale in 1928. While the soviet cinema was producing excellent films , Propp was essentially interested in the narrative of folk tales he noticed. 

. Folk tales were similar in many areas. They were about the same basic struggles and they appeared to have stock characters. He identified a theory about characters and actions as narrative functions.

. Characters according to Propp, have a narrative function; they provide a structure for the text.

Characters that perform a function

. The hero- A character that seeks something

. The villain- Who opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest.

. The Donor- Who Provides an object with magical properties

. The Dispatcher- Who sends the hero on hbis/her quest via a message

. The false Hero- Who disrupts the hero's quest by making false chains

. The helper- Who aids the hero

. The Princess- Acts as the reward for the hero and object of the villain's plot.

My 10 points of a Narrative story
1. New girl moves to a cottage
2. The most beautiful girl in thew cottage addresses the new girl
3. The guy of the town introduces himself to the new girl and taking a keen interest
4. The beautiful girl gets jealous and dispises the new girl
5. The beautiful girl has men to capture the new girl in a tower house where there is no way out.
6. A few days later the guy of the town realises the absence of the new girl as the beautiful girl lies and says the new girl had moved away immediately.
7. The guy of the town is then forced to Marry the beautiful girl by her father but then realises this is all a trap.
8. The new girl manages to escape as a worker in the tower who hates the beautiful girl and her family helps the new girl out by letting her escape.
9. The new girl then runs to bump into the guy of the town and explains what has happened. The guy of the town plans a get away before the people of the town can track them down.
10. Before the beautiful girl could find them, the guy of the town and his new lady get away and live happily ever after.

Sound

Sound

Sound in Films:

Sounds are used in films to create understanding for the audience and to create more meaning about the character and their emotions.

Sound is also used to create a response from the audience.

Terminology:

. Diegetic sound: Sound, which is part of the film world e.g. dialogue, music from a radio or jukebox, the sound can be seen on screen.

. Non Diegetic sound: Sound which is not part of the film world e.g. a sound track, sound effects, voice overs.

Parallel sound:

. On screen sound: You can see where the sound is coming from (Radio or Car)

. Off screen sound: You can hear sounds but cannot see where the sound is coming from, but it makes sense to the film world (Traffic sounds, Coughing)

. Parallel sound: Is when the sound you hear in a film is what is expected e.g. a scene with children playing on a beach the parallel sound would be laughter, talking and the sea.

. Contrapuntal sound: Is when the sound does not match the expectations of what you are viewing. An example of this is Jaws. The scenes of the beach are accompanied by the contrapuntal sound of the theme tune "Dur dur". Which does not fit in with the happy images

How to use PEER?

P: The sound you are discussing.

E: Provide a detailed explanation of when you here it in the film.

E: Explain your example and discuss why you think it has been used.

R: How does this create a chilling response from the audience?

Example:
Scream
P:Diegetic sound of the popcorn
E: In Scream, when the tension builds up bit by bit, a shot is taken of the popcorn on the stove. This is to show that the protagonist's attention has been drawn away from responsibiliy and focused on the antagonists distractions
E: The sound of the popcorn has been used to symbolise trouble and lack of concentration from the protagonist.
R: By doing this, it gets a fearful and confusing response from the audience.

P: Non- Diegetic sound

E: The Non-diegetic sound creeps in minutes after to create tension.

E: As soon as she gets worried and becomes aware the non-diegetic sound creeps in.

R: It makes the audience feel a sense of fear.

Lighting

Lighting

Lighting: Lighting helps tp convey mood and atmosphere in a scene/film. It can also be used to guide the audience's attention to a particular object, person, emotion of gesture. Lighting can also be used to cast shadows and build tension and suspence.

Key Terms... Angles of Lighhting 

. Under Lighting: Main source of light comes from below the person. This tends to have a distorting effect on the character and is often used in horror films.

. Top Lighting: Min source of lighting comes from above highlighting the features of a character. It is often used to create a glamourous look in a character.

.Back Lighting: Light source is behind the person. If little or no light used, silhuouettes are created.

. Low-Key lighting: The lighting is dark with small areas of light, which also creates shadows.

.High-Key Lighting: Lighting appears more natural and realsitic to our eyes. For example used in film to recreate a sunny day in the park.

.Natural Lighting: When no light has been added, it is what you expect to see.

High-Key lighting:

1. Sci-fi

2. Romance

3. Acrion

Low-Key Lighting:

1. Horror

2. Thriller

3. Action

Lighting is a very important micro element because the light is based on the mood of the film in addition to always being low key when it comes to the thriller genre.

Cinematography

Cinematography

In cinematography, there are three very important things included which is angle, size and movement.

Cinematography: Is looking at the way the shot is framed, the angle it is taken in and the movement of the camera. All these things give the audience a different representation of the character and allow the audience to respond in different ways.

Shot sizes:

. Establishing shot (Set a scene) XLS

. Long Shot (Shot from head to toe) LS

. Medium Shot (waist up/captures action and shows detail in shot) MS

. Medium Close Up (Between the waist and shoulders up) MCU

. Close Up (Shoulders up) CU

. Extreme Close Up (Usually in face to show emotions in detail) ECU

Camera Angles

Low Angle: Represents character as superior, strong and powerful, someone to look up to.

High Angle: Represents character as weak, looked down upon, more sympathy from the audience for this character.

Camera Movement

.Canning shot: Camera moves showing what’s in view. Usually when someone is walking.

. Tilt Shot: Camera looks up and down. As if someone is giving a dirty look from head to toe.

. Crane Shot: on a crane, camera movement can be quite flexible (Always used by action and adventure)

. Zoom: Capture emotion or to get away from it finding something out.

. Point Of View: When it looks like it’s from the person’s view. It Creates tension and suspense.

.Handheld: When the camera moves with the person

. Over Shoulder Shot: Shot over shoulder to capture conversation.

What Makes a Thriller?

Thrillers Media AS

There are many different genres within the film world.  Some of these are more intense than others. For instance the Thriller genre. Let’s take a look at what makes a good classic hair standing and disturbing thriller.

What makes a conventional thriller Opening:

. Tension

. Fast movements

. Storyline not in chronological order

. Mystery Character

. Antagonist/protagonist

. Low- key Lighting/flashes

. Time (Past, present and future)

. Sound

. Dark and gloomy Colours

. Camera Shots

What are Genres? Why are they important?

A genre is a category a film falls into for example “Norbit” would fall into Comedy

Film Genres are very important to both the film producers and the film audiences because the producers need to engage their target audiences in order to be successful, whilst the film audiences need to be interested and engaged in the genre so that they go and watch the film. Genre theory is used in the study of films in order to put the films into categories. Genre is dependent on various factors such as the story line, the twist to the story line, which the director is who the characters are and the actors of the film and what are the audience expectations. By using this genre theory, it creates short cuts in how we are to describe the films.

Thriller:

A Thriller is a genre that follows a storyline which also includes the conventions that will thrill a particular target audience. For example

. Fast and slow movements

. Airy sounds that are used to build up tension within the target audience

. Mystery Characters

. Lighting (Mainly Low-key lighting and flashes)

.Twists and surprises

. Storyline jumbled up

.Time Warp (Past, present and future)

. Cinematography (film shots)

Example of Thriller Films:

The Grudge

The Grudge first released in 2004 a horror/thriller film set in Tokyo which is based on a curse that is passed down to the victims from a person who has died to re-gain their revenge. The evil curse is then stuck inside the body of a young woman and a little boy who goes around Tokyo killing people for revenge. The grudge has Three Films the first released in 2004 the second in 2006 and the third in 2010.

Dressed to kill

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Dressed to kill released in 1980 is about a mysterious blond woman who murders one of her patients and is witnessed by a prostitute who then later becomes the victim for the woman to murder.

Final Destination

Final Destination first released in 2000 thriller film is based on a group of friends or people who get trapped in situations where the result of it ends up with all of them getting killed by freak accidents. Usually the storyline following the order of the people getting killed. Final destination is followed four more films which make 5 films of Final destination.

Sub-Genre:

Sub-Genre of thrillers: Sub- genre is a Stems of classical Genres combined.

Action Thriller: “Sand Sharks”, “The Girl from the naked eye”

Psychological Thriller: “The talented Mr.Ripley”, “Fatal Attraction”

Comedy Thriller: “The Lady Vanishes”, “Fright Night”

Common Themes:

In every thriller there has to be a common theme to answer the questions of the storyline “Why has this happened” “What do they want?” For example the antagonist is always getting payback by using these common themes murder, revenge, a curse, Family, fights, religion etc. These common themes are usually in the storylines of Thrillers that grow into more and more answers.

The Audience’s response to thrillers

When watching a thriller film there are a lot of different reactions from the audience, different reactions depending on how much you can take in from the film and the type of person you are.

The most common reactions:

. Fidgety/Flinch

. Goosebumps

. Tension

. Uncomfortable

. Funny (LAUGHTER)

. Nervousness

What do you think?

As I watch thriller films I usually get a lot of mixed emotions from these different thrillers. For instance, scenes that use surprises usually make me very uncomfortable and flinch. On the other hand if someone is to fall into a trap of the antagonist due to their stupidity and unawareness I would find it quite funny.

Conclusion: How can this help your understanding?

This has all broadened by understanding of thriller due to the research I’ve done. I am also more confident in understanding the reasons for this genre and how it affects the film and the Audience.

I now Know and understand what conventions in thriller will appeal to an audience and how they will react to the thriller films.