Film Art Mise-en-scene

MISE-EN-SCÈNE ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS What is mise-en-scène? • French term: “putting into the scene” • First applied to the practice of directing plays • The term extended to film direction: – The director’s control over what appears in the film frame What does mise-en-scène include? Those aspects of film that overlap with the art of the theater: 1. Setting 2. Lighting 3. Costume & make-up 4. Staging Mise-en-scène & the director In controlling the mise-en-scène the director stages the event for the camera Mise-en-scène has a vast range of possibilities It usually involves some planning but the filmmaker may be open to unplanned events as well Understanding mise-en-scène While one film may use it to create an impression of realism, others may seek very different effects: Comic exaggeration Supernatural terror Beauty … and many other functions We should analyze its function in the total film: how it is motivated how it varies or develops how it works in relation to other film techniques The power of mise-en-scène This technique has the power to transcend normal conceptions of reality For example, Georges Méliès’ use of mise-en-scène enabled him to create a totally imaginary world on film His Star-Film studio made hundreds of short fantasy & trick films controlling over every element of the frame. See Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011), with Ben Kingsley as Georges Méliès Aspects of mise-en-scène What possibilities for selection & control does it offer the filmmaker? Four general areas: 1. Setting 2. Costume & make-up 3. Lighting 4. Staging 1. Setting • An already existing locale in which to stage the action OR • A constructed setting The overall design of a setting can significantly shape how we understand story action Color can be an important component of settings 1. Setting - cont. A full-size setting need not always be built Miniature buildings can be constructed Parts of settings can be done as paintings & combined photographically with full-sized sections of the space Digital effects can be used to fill in portions of the setting 1. Settings - props Prop: short for ‘property’ – borrowed from the theater When an object in the setting has a function within the ongoing action, it is called a ‘prop’. In the course of the film, the prop may become a motif When the filmmaker uses color to create parallels among elements of setting, a color motif may become associated with several props. 2. Costume and Make-up Costume can have specific functions in the film The range of possibilities is huge – costumes in westerns; recent example, Phantom Thread (2017) Film genres make extensive use of costume props – super heroes costumes in the Marvel Universe Costume is often coordinated with setting – importance of color design By integrating itself with setting, costume may function to reinforce the film’s narrative & thematic patterns 3. Lighting Much of the impact of an image comes from its manipulation of lighting Lighting shapes objects by creating highlights & shadows Highlights & shadows help create our sense of a scene’s space 3. Lighting – highlights & shadows A highlight is a patch of relative brightness on a surface Attached shadows: light fails to illuminate part of an object Cast shadows: projected by an object 3. Features of Film lighting • Quality • Direction • Source • Color 3. Lighting quality Quality refers to the relative intensity of the illumination Hard lighting creates clearly defined shadows, crisp textures & sharp edges Soft lighting creates a diffused illumination 3. Direction of lighting Direction of lighting referes to the path of light from its source to the object lit We distinguish between frontal lighting sidelighting backlighting underlighting top lighting 3. Direction of lighting - cont • Frontal lighting – tendency to eliminate shadows • Sidelight - sculpts the character’s features • Backlighting – comes from behind the subject filmed Can be positioned at many angles: off to the side, pointing straight to the camera, or from below Used with no other sources, backlighting tends to create silhouettes Combined with more frontal sources of light, the technique can create an unobtrusively illuminated contour 3. Direction of lighting - cont Underlighting – light comes from below the subject It tends to distort features, so it’s often used to create dramatic horror effect But it may simply indicate a realistic light source , such as a fireplace Top lighting – the spotlight shines down form almost directly above 3. Source of lighting A subject normally requires two light sources: a key light a fill light Key light – primary source, providing the dominant illumination& casting the st rongest shadows It’s the most directional light It’s usually corresponds to the motivating light source in the setting Fill light – less intense illumination which fills in, softening or eliminating shadows cast the the key light 3. Lighting – Three-pointing lighting Classical Hollywood filmmaking developed the custom of using at least three light sources per shot: Key light Fill light Backlight It is still widely used Most Hollywood films will have a different lighting arrangement for each camera position 3. Three-point lighting: high-key lighting Overall lighting design which uses fill & backlight to create low contrast between brighter & darker areas Usually, the light quality is soft, making shadow areas fairly transparent High-key lighting is an overall approach to illumination that can suggest different lighting conditions or times of day 3. Three-point lighting: low-key illumination Creates stronger contrast & sharper, darker shadows Often the lighting is hard, & fill light is lessened or eliminated altogether The effect is of chiaroscuro Lighting – remember! No component of the mise-en-scène is more important than the drama and adventure of light! 4. Staging: movement & acting The most familiar case of figure expression & movement are actors playing roles An actor’s performance consists of visual elements: appearance gestures facial expressions sound: voice effects 4. Staging - Acting Concepts of realistic acting have changed over film history Consider performance styles along two dimensions individualized stylized Many filmmaking traditions emphasize the creation of broader, more anonymous types 3. Acting: Hollywood Classical Hollywood narrative was built upon ideologically stereotyped roles Through ‘typecasting’, actors were selected & directed to conform to type Often, however, skillful performers gave these conventions a freshness & vividness In Soviet cinema of the 1920s, a similar principle, typage was used – the actor portrayed a tupica representative of a social class or historical moment 4. Features of acting Cinema calls for a strong interplay between restraint & emphasis Actor must be able to adjust to each type of camera distance The staging of the action & the camera’s distance from it determine how we will see the actors’ performance Extroversion & exaggeration create stylized performances Mise-en-scène in space & time Each element of mise-en-scène setting costume lighting staging seldom appears in isolation Each usually combines with others to create a specific system in every film The general formal principles of unity, disunity, similarity, difference & development help us analyze how specific elements of mise-en-scène function together Mise-en-scène in space The arrangement of the mise-en-scène creates the composition of the screen space Our vision is attuned to changes of several kinds: movement, color, differences, balance of distinct components & variations in size Our sensitivity to these changes allows the filmmaker to direct our notice across the two-dimensional space of the frame Mise-en-scène creates a dynamic relation between foreground & background Mise-en-scène in time Within the confines of the shot’s duration, the director can control the rhythm of time as it unfolds The complex choreographies of Busby Berkeley are a case in point – e.g. the song & dance numbers of The Gang’s All Here (1943) Mise-en-scène: summary As a set of techniques, mise-en-scène helps compose the film shot in space & time Setting, lighting, costume & staging interact to create patterns of movement, of color and depth, line & shape, light & dark These patterns define & develop the space of the story world & emphasize salient story information The director’s use of mise-en-scène not only guides our perception from moment to moment but also helps create the overall form of the film Interesting examples of mise-en-scène - opening sequences, unless otherwise noted • The General (1927) dir. Buster Keaton - the locomotive as a prop • The Godfather (1972) dir. Francis Coppola • The Graduate (1967) dir. Mike Nichols • Hugo (2011) dir. Martin Scorsese - how to stage a scene [74 min & 94 min into the film] • Iron Man 2 (2010) dir. Jon Favreau - digital settings for car race • The Naked Kiss (1964) dir. Sam Fuller • Olive Kitteridge (2014) HBO miniseries • Once upon a Time in the West (1969) dir. Sergio Leone • On the Waterfront ( 1954) dir. Elia Kazan [conversation in car, 72 min into film] • Patton (1970) dir. John Frankenheimer • Phantom Thread (2017) dir. P.T.Anderson - the gowns (props) as emblematic of character • Strangers on a Train (1951) dir. A Hitchcock • Sunrise (1927) dir. F.W. Murnau • Walk on the Wild Side (1962) dir. E. Dmytryk • Wild Grass (2009) dir. Alain Resnais - use of color Mise-en-scène examples – Documentary shorts • “Trick of the Light, episode 11 of doc series Hollywood (1980), dir. Kevin Brownlow • Doc short “James Wong Howe: Cinematographer” (1973) - how to light three scenes • Video “In Service of the Demon”, bonus material of Hellboy II (2008) dir. Guillermo del Toro • Video “Capturing Avatar”, bonus material in Avatar (2009) dir. James Cameron – digital settings Source: This outline follows the concepts on mise-enscène developed by David Bordwell & Kristin Thompson in their book Film Art, An Introduction (2001 & 2010)