Contextual studies 28/09/2016 MISE-EN-SCENE

Contextual studies 28/09/2016 MISE-EN-SCENE

Objectives of the lecture: 

To get an introduction to mise-en-scene

To understand how and why it's used.

To get an understanding and to be able to interpret mise-en-scene.

What is mise-en-scene? Miss-en-scene can be defined as anything within the visual frame, it comes from the theatre and is the visual aspect of story telling (the other aspect being the written screenplay.) How mine-en-scene is interpreted depends on cultural context and personal experiences. 

Why does mise-en-scene help story telling? It's useful visual short hand in that it can show something in a 5 second clip that dialogue would take pages to describe, show not tell. It stops it being dialogue heavy. It can help to define characters, emotional states and their status in a story. It can help define relationships between characters.

Realism, Classicism and Mise-en-scene

Realism- the presentation of art as simulacrum (image) of the world as it exists, used to convey notions of authenticity, truth and representation. Miss-en-scene can affect the realism of a character.

Classicisim- the presentation of arts as a continuity with the past: especially formal notions of aesthetics, form, design and content.

Key elements of mine-en-scene are: 

Location

How they physically look e.g. body language, costume, makeup etc. 

Lighting 

Staging

Semiotics: the study of signs and their meanings 

Denotation/signifier: what the sign is showing 

Connotation/signified: what the sign means 

Star Wars and The Matrix both have taken inspiration from Asian culture (however adheres to classic western conventions such as the good wear white and the bad wear black) It adopts a culturally diverse model with asian archetypes. 

We then looked at scenes from Game of Thrones, Towie and Nanook of the North.

Game of Thrones, Tyrion and Cersei 

Setting: warm, rich, exotic

Costume and makeup: wealth and power 

Lighting: warm, soft, natural, filler light (net curtains diffusing the light)

Staging: dominant female

Comparison, Jon Snow and Sir Alister 

Setting: cold, austere, masculine

Costume and makeup: uniformity

Lighting: cold, blue, key light (on Jon's face), harsh and strong lights, light source from small windows giving minimal lighting.

Staging: placing in frame= authority, status, high ranking

Mine-En-Scene and genre

Towie- 'Scripted reality' (Documentary conventions but with scripted situations)

Setting: hyper-realism, stage set (possibly like a theatre production)

Costume and makeup: glamour, possibly aspirational (trying to present a certain image of beauty)

Lighting: high key, dramatic lighting

Staging: imitates conventions of a drama

Documentary- Dispatches Channel 4

Setting: Authentic/local

Costume and Makeup: Possibly defines her social class

Lighting: natural, low-key

Staging: suggests social isolation= someone on the fringes of society.

Is Mise-en-scene natural or constructed?

Nanook of the North 1922 directed by John Flaherty

Staging: Close and intimate, possibly a family 

Lighting: Needed a lot of light for the older cameras= they therefore cut off the top of the igloo

Link to the documentary

Youtuber Philip Defranco

Setting: a bedroom (constructed to emulate the notion of a geek's bedroom), so he can identify his audience 

Character: nerd, fan of sic-fi

Costume/appearance: dressed like a 'normal person' blue collar

Link to one of his videos

Mise-en-scene in drama

Setting: Film and TV drama is classically set in film studios where everything can be controlled

Costume/Makeup: Designed as character specific 

Lighting: classically high key designed lighting even if its supposed to be natural

Staging: predetermined by director

Mise-en-scene in documentary

Setting: classically uses 'real' locations

Costume/Makeup: typically authentic, can be directed 

Lighting: traditionally 'natural' often artificial/designed

Staging: typically natural but often director specific

Afternoon seminar

In the afternoon session we mainly spoke about director's with distinctive styles such as Tim Burton. We also spoke about silent films and their use of music, we learnt that they might've played music on set with a grammar phone to provide a soundtrack on set. 

During the showings orchestras could possibly provide sound effects.

Overall from this session I learnt the importance of mine-en-scene in a production and for the characters in their appearance. It's defiantly something I will be trying to think about when I plan my film and shoot it.