Mise-en-scene

There is one fundamental question when considering mise-en-scene. What is in the frame?

Mise-en-scene is the director's vision of a setup of a production set / a preferred real location.

• Setting - This is the studio / location of the production. A decent visual impact always derives from the setting.
• Lighting
• Props
• Costumes
• Figures - that is actors and animals / robots etc.

All in all, these are the elements of visual composition and "motivation (apparently.)" This idea comes from the book "Film Art" by Bordwell & Thompson. 

Directors such as Orson Wells, Martin Scorsesse and Tim Burton (millions more) use different mise-en-scene to their desired artistic nature. The directors who come under the totalitarian director (if you want to call them that) are called the "auteurs."

Hollywood:

During the 1920s  - 40s, everything was filmed in a studio. If a film was set in the Austrian mountains for example, there would be a scene painter who'd come in and paint the austrian mountains on set. One blatant example I can think of is "Henry V (1944) with Laurence Olivier." If you see it, you'll know what I mean.

The rudimentary cause for this constant studio work was because of technology. "Rebel without a Cause" was one of the first films to be set in an outdoor real location, the death scene in Griffith Park at the end of the movie.

Lighting

Orwell's motivation in lighting is to project a certain meaning with it every time. There are of course many different ways to light a set and it's characters. The main split between the styles is between 

• Realistic lighting 
• Expressionist lighting
  

Down from there you have

• Hard lighting
• Soft lighting

The hard lighting gives a very crisp composition of a character whilst hitting with strong shadows. A romantic comedy would not use this kind though, it would prefer to use soft lighting. This type gives a soft and diffused look that is more right for picturing contentment and not conflict.

A typical way to light a Hollywood set would be what i called "3 point lighting." example bellow

^

        ^      <----- back light

      /   \

      \

:-)      <------ actor                >>-    <----- key light

      /

_

     | /     |_|               <------ camera

               V        

    V          <------ fill light

       

I'm sorry if that doesn't make any sense to you.

Film Noir: 1930s - 50s was always shot in b/w. The great thing about Film Noir is that b/w was used instead of colour. The lighting is amazingly different to the "3 point setup" that is always used as a convention in Hollywood. Film Noir would light only the back light, get rid of the fill light and only have the starch key light. Chiascuro was a complete classic in Film Noir.

Another amazing thing that helped Film Noir was technology. Good old Technology came in and granted directors such as Orson Wells the chance to come out of the studio and film outdoors in the dark streets of L.A. All of a sudden the real world was portrayed in it's post-second-world-war reality, a dark and dangerous place.

Props

The Lord of the Rings (LOTR) has one brilliant prop that the entire narrative revolves around. This is the one ring (to rule them all, bind them etc.) But props such as cigarettes are used constantly. Generally, anything that goes in someone's hand is a prop that works well, such as, the one and only... gun. Quentin Tarrantino not only uses guns in his films, but also shades. This adds a coolness to the character. In the film "Casino" Scorsesse dresses Robert DeNiro in Armanni suits to make him look the part of a rich Casino owning cheese.

Costumes

It can either be authenticity you're after (realism,) or expressionism. "Dances with Wolves" was the first film about native Americans that aimed to be really authentic. All films prior to it had just added all the hypothetical West Indian stereotypes together to make an amalgamation of all the different American tribes. Gladiator aimed to be authentic as well. A recent film that has triumphed with expressionism over realism though is the mega-blockbuster "300." Here the film was based entirely on a comic book rather than the historical accuracy of Sparta and ancient Greece. Well, the sky was a golden yellow throughout the whole film, there was no blue until the narrative took us into darkness.

Figures and camera

Actors have a certain rhythm on screen that directors have exploited (I cannot give an example at this stage as I do not fully understand it.) Bur having a crowded and busy mise-en-scene is good for let's say, hospital and war films/dramas. "E.R." exploited this to the max by having multiple crashing entries of doctors through doors carrying patients in a chaotic manner. Films such as "Saving Private Ryan" were very powerful when using and not using crowded mise-en-scene. The example I'm thinking of is when Tom Hanks's character falls to the floor in the beginning war scene. The crowds of soldiers suddenly disappear as quickly as they had come.

"Citizen Kane" was the first film to experiment with crowded foregrounds and backgrounds. Robert Altman was influenced by the pioneering Orson Wells and therefore used multiple layers of action in his films to make things look busy. But it could be simple, let's have less action shall we (for some films anyway.)

Having a widescreen compared to the narrow or normal screen adds a completely different emotional effect. Say you had a guy gazing into space shot directly from the side, would you, if you had a widescreen, shoot the man in the centre of the screen or to far side? It was depends how close you are to the character and whether that character is starring into space or is talking to someone. Everything concerns the frame at all time, but these emotional effects can create all different types of meaning.

In the silent era, the styles of acting were obviously very different as there was no sound. This meant actors had to use gestures more than if there were words coming out of their mouths. Like the theatre, but as this is film and we can get close up shots, you would have gestures that were never seen before such as the subtle wink. The modern day version of this extreme gestures actor is Jim Carrey who's acting style is very, very different to that of say Kiera Knightly.

Dances With Wolves

An analysis of a part of the film where Kevin Costner's character is given a buffalo hide for warmth.

The Native Americans are pictured in and amongst their landscape, unlike Kevin's character. This makes them look like they belong to the land. Also, the Natives are pictured in the foreground as well as the background to fill the space they're in, but to also connote that they are weary of this strange cowboy. To make the scenery beautiful, the lighting is that of the "Golden Hour." That is at sunset or sunrise.

Paris, Texas (1984)

A film by the German director Wim Wenders who looks upon America with fresh European eyes.

This is a single five minute scene where Travis walks off and is then pursued by his brother and then talked to.

• Setting - Landscape : The dessert, vast and enornmous. The train track Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) is walking on is pictured in a still at an angle. This makes it seem as if Travis does not know where it is that he is going. If the track was seen disappearing into the horizon, we'd get the impression that Travis is determined and that he doe know where he is going. The train track's presence still adds depth to the picture though. The scene proceeds to a Motel after experiencing the classic American road. When the characters are in the American diner, Travis is yet again framed with the frame. There are more examples of this framing with a frame before hand that involve doorways and mirrors. A classic shot of mirror being used to frame a character within a frame is "(a film with the word clementine in it but i can't say, it's film noir)." This clostaphobicness is pictures when Travis is framed through the diner window surrounded by adverts for food. Travis has a distinct problem with American society.
• Lighting - At twilight on the road the dark clouds take up as much room in the frame as does the wide drizzly American road. Wender has used lighting in a realistic sense in that none of the scenes are artificially backlit. When in the diner, the car head lights count for the key light.
• Costume - Travis is dressed like a tramp (beard etc) and then he gets dressed into your usual Texan clothing (tash and baseball cap,) his brother has at least had his haircut.
• Props - a cigarette is used like a gun in a film, to point. It is also used very confidently.

Fatal Attraction

There are constant silhouettes, a lot of frames within the frames and back lighting. These are all classic examples of what makes a thriller. Sometimes the mise-en-scene is so imposing it gives the impression of entrapment.

Stay tuned for the next batch of blogging, I am now very tired and I would carry on, if I could.