This paper aims to use mise-en-scène while looking at film adaptation in an attempt to try and understand the difference between author and auteur and how it affects the end product. It also attempts to look at music and sound in the films and the impact music has on these films.
Sound and music play a very important role in the film. The end-product, after the process of editing and piecing together all the mise-en-scène elements to creatively put together a style that the filmmakers can call their own. While following a standard form it can still be unique. My dissertation also looks at the elements of sound in a film that has been adapted from a book and how it appeals to the senses. It also looks at songs that are chosen in the most appropriate manner that fits into the scene with impeccable accuracy.
The two chosen texts are The Perks of Being a Wallflower and its film adaptation with the same title and Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda and its film adaptation Love, Simon.
This dissertation is an attempt at understanding comprehensively how film adaptations make use of the various mise-en-scène elements during the filming process to reach the outcome of the completely edited version that is available for our viewing.
The term “mise-en-scène’ translates literally to “placing on stage” in French. This “staging in action,” is supposed to have originated in the theatre and is used in film to refer to everything that goes into its composition (Film Glossary). It is a well-thought-out, strategic placement visible to the audience through each frame and scene. It includes elements like sets, props, lighting, costumes, actor blocking, and the composition of shots. The placement of these elements in a sequence in order to increase the meaning in each scene and the shot is how mise-en-scène in films makes it more artful. It does not just end with what happens on the screen but also how every angle and every cut if done right, adds more meaning to the film.
The two films, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) and Love, Simon (2018) have been chosen based on it having many a few similarities between them. For instance, both the protagonists are teenage boys that of similar age that go to high school and have relevant social issues that the story revolves around that are very relevant and need to be spoken about. Both these novels and its film adaptations have music as one of its key elements they also both have writing as an integral part as one uses letters and the others emails, therefore having an epistolary format and also map the growth of the individuals hence get categorised as bildungsroman.
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The chosen film The Perks of Being a Wallflower has been adapted from the book by Stephen Chbosky with the same name. The author is also the director and scriptwriter of the film and hence this can enable bringing about his perspective as it was intended into the film. The dissertation tries to make an analysis of the novels and films too. In The Perks of Being a Wallflower, we can see that the mise-en-scène element that is used to change the mood and depict the emotions of the characters on screen is the lighting. The film is about depression that the protagonist goes through and the lighting highlights the highs and lows of his life. The lighting makes a lot of difference and adds more depth to each scene.
“Auteur” is the term that was used to describe how directors used the various elements of film in a manner that depicts their perspectives through the film. Films with a very clear and distinctive point of view make the storyteller unique. Directors can be called auteurs only if they have a clear distinctive style that sets them apart from other filmmakers. These auteurs can be identified while viewing the film without the audience having to know it.
The main difference between a book and a film can be seen as a film shows us what it tries to imply using various elements like editing, sounds, lighting, and camera angles while a book portrays the in-depth thoughts of the characters and the underlying emotions that lead to the actions, they take by using various literary devices.
Films are processed differently from books and hence appeals to the senses differently. Long paragraphs of what goes through the characters need to transition into short scenes as each film has a time constraint, unlike a book. Hence the efficient use of mise-en-scène elements while the film does its ‘showing’ helps the director say more than with just the dialogues and the acting.
Sometimes the adaptation does not do justice to the book as a lot of in-depth meaning loses its impact just as sometimes the essence of emotion in a piece of work gets lost in translation. To make up for this there is music added to the film as a means to indicate the mood of the scene and it adds another level into meaning formation and helps objects in the film start to symbolize a certain signified meaning that can be identified just by seeing the object or listening to the audio and by bringing together the two to form new meaning. Many movies have film music that accompanies it so well that just the music can immediately make one recognize the film. For example, the Harry Potter series written by J K Rowling has its own theme music that runs throughout each sequence, and the various sound elements used in the films adds to set the mystical mood of the films.
One of the other reasons why I chose The Perks of Being a Wallflower was because of the number of music tracks and mixtapes that are used in the film that add to the description of the mood of the film. Sounds can be of two kinds, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. In this case, a lot of the sounds are diegetic in nature, where the sound is heard by both, the audience and the characters on screen. These are sounds whose source is visible on-screen or implied to be present by the action in the film. It could be the voices of characters, objects on screen making a sound, or music coming from instruments whereas non-diegetic sounds are from sources not visible nor been implied, as the sound effects, commentary by the narrator, or music used to set the mood of the scenes.
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