Elements of mise en scene using stills from films

Composition Balanced

From this still of the film spiderman we can see that is balanced. We can see the character who is positioned in the centre and is wearing a mask with a spider on his top. There are bright lights behind him and it seems from the still that he is standing higher and looking down, this makes him seem powerful and strong.

Imbalanced

 

From this still from the film Timecrimes we can see it is imbalanced. We can see that there is a character wuth a type of cotton mask over him and then next to him we can see a character with a pair of scissors to his face. This is used to make the viewers intrigued and to know what has happened and who is the character with scissors.

Framing Include

This is a still taken from the film 12 years a slave. we can see a character being hanged and women behind him who are not doing anything about it. This shows the cruelty of slavery.

Exclude

This is a still taken from the film It Rains On Our Love. From this we can see a character looking down at something which us viewers cannot see. This is used to make us intringued to know what it is. Setting This is the most distinctive point in mise en scene. The location in which the characters are situated and located makes the viewers have a more abstract understanding of the situation they are in. When filming a film the location manager has the choice between shooting a film in a sound studio or on location shooting. Location shooting would be more verisimilitude (appear more real. On the other hand it could make it more expensive on certain locations and could make it harder to film. In a sound studio, shooting would be much easier because the filmmakers would be able to be in control of what they need to do, for example lighting and recreation of locations. Always sets where ever it may be will always change in the way it is presented in order to pass on the meaning. This can represent: -Period: eg the 90s -Genre : eg comedy/horror -Information of character: eg lifestyle/social class/ -Information of a locatio: eg house/city/country

Lighting

High key lighting:

This is a still from the film Blade Runner, the whole still is evenly lit and there are no shadows shown. This makes the still more clear,which enables the viewers to have a better point of view of the character and his surrounding.

Low key lighting:

This is a still from the film Star Wars, the use of low key lighting makes it seem darker and scarier to the viewers and from this it can convey mixed feelings and emotions.

Naturalistic

This is a still from the film A Serious Man, the use of naturalistic lighting makes it seem like light it is coming from natural sources and increases the verisimilitude of the still.

Props

This is a still from the film Hot Fuzz, the use of all the props shown can signify information about the character. From this still we can see a character with many DVDs, this indicates that he is most likely a film fanatic, without even knowing anything about the  character this already tells a lot.

Costumes 

This is a still from the film Life of Pi