Lesson 03: Mise-en-Scene

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Lesson 03Mise-en-Scene

• Professor Aaron Baker

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Previous Lecture

• Narrative Structure
• Classical Hollywood Narrative Style
• How Jurassic Park (1993) and Citizen Kane (1941)
  exemplify Hollywood narrative style and how the
  Japanese film Rashomon (1950) illustrates Art
  Cinema Narration.

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This Lecture

• Mise-en-Scene
• Narrative Function in Smoke Signals (1998)

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Part I Mise-en-Scene
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Definition

• Mise-en Scene is
• what appears in
• the film frame.

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Realism

• Often Evaluative Standard for Film Worlds
• Notions of Realism Vary
• More Useful to Evaluate Function

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E.g. Edward Scissorhands (1990)

• Contrast stylized and banal mise-en-scene
• Functions to suggest conflict in story of
  conformism and creativity

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Early Cinema

• 1895 Lumiere Brothers
• First Commercial Films
• Mise-en-Scene of Real Places
• Actualities

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George Melies

• Former Magician
• Voyage to the Moon
• (1902)
• One of the First Studios
• Created/ Not Actual
• World

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Locations vs. Sets

• Two Main Traditions of Film Mise-en-Scene
• Pause lecture to watch a clip of these two early
  cinema versions of mise-en-scene on Learning
  Tasks page.

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Four Aspects

• Setting
• Costumes and Makeup
• Lighting
• Staging (Performance)

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Setting

• Container, Background for Action
• or
• Dynamic Plays Active Role in Narrative

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Prop

• Abbreviation for Property
• Part of the setting that plays active role in
  action.
• May reoccur as a motif.

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Costumes and Makeup

• Like Setting, Function in Story
• Realistic, Unobtrusive or Stylized
• Allusion in Breathless

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Nicholson in Batman (1989)

• Highly Stylized,
• Exaggerated
• Costume/Makeup
• Characterize
• Joker as
• theatrical,
• aberrant.

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Naturalist Makeup

• DeNiros Nose, Eyes in Raging Bull (1980)
• Function unobtrusively to create resemblance to
  real person and support performance.

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Lighting

• Allows us to see action
• Directs our attention
• Impacts how characters appear

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Shadows

• Attached Shadows
• Created by
• Persons/Objects
• Shape, Surface
• Cast Shadows
• Person/Object
• Blocks Light

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Light Quality

• Intensity
• Soft diffused, less contrast
• Hard defined, sharp contrast
• Redford in The Natural (1984)

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Direction

• Path of Light
• Front No Attached Shadow, Fully Lit
• Back Silhouettes
• Side Sculpts
• Under Horror
• Top Glamour

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Source

• Actual/Available
• Light
• Documentary
• Added
• Fiction Films

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Three Point Lighting

• Key Main Source
• Fill Eliminates Shadow
• Back Rim of Light Depth

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Three Point Lighting (continued)

• For Each Major Character
• Time Consuming, Expensive
• Creates Clear Compositions

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High Key

• Low Contrast
• Soft
• Detail
• Clarity
• Hollywood Optimism

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Low Key

• Contrast
• Hard
• Shadow
• Mystery
• Danger

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Chiaroscuro

• Italian lightdark
• Painting
• Rembrandt

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Color

• Mostly White, Yellow
• Colored Light
• Symbolic Function
• Pause lecture for
• clip from Traffic (2000)
• showing the symbolic
• use of color.

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Traffic (2000)

• Blue, Yellow Light
• Symbolizes Traits of Mexico/U.S.
• Coldness, Entitlement/Arridity, Violence
• Common Color Stylization
• Cultures Linked by Globalization (Drugs)

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Part II Mise-En-Scene and Narrative Function in
Smoke Signals
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Smoke Signals (1998)

• Sherman Alexie
• Director Chris Eyre, NYU Film School
• Coeur DAlene Indians
• First Major Feature Written, Directed, Starring
  American Indians

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Setting

• Coeur De Alene Reservation
• Isolated/Quiet/Lack of Activity
• Economic Disadvantage
• Pause lecture for clip from Smoke Signals showing
  the setting in the films early scenes.

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Arizona Desert

• Visualizes Victor Josephs Alienation and
  Isolation
• Father Dead
• No Money

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Costume

• Victor
• -Western wear
• -Long Hair
• Masculine
• Warrior

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Costume (continued)

• Thomas
• -Glasses, Suit, Braids
• -Feminized
• (Like Grandma)
• -Performative
• -Shaman

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Performance

• Victor (Adam Beach)
• -Realist
• -Restrained
• Thomas (Evan Adams)
• -Eccentric
• -Expressive

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Lighting in Smoke Signals

• Scene After Night of
• Drinking
• Low Key
• Chiaroscuro
• Sharp Contrast Dark and Light
• Please pause lecture for clip from Smoke Signals

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Lighting in Smoke Signals (continued)

• Light on Mothers Face
• Choice Illuminated
• Drinking or Responsibility

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More Low Key Scenes

• Flashback of 4th July Party
• Accident

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Discussion Questions

• How does lighting function in these scenes?
• Also scenes about choice in difficult conditions?
• Post a response on the eBoard to these questions
  and the comment of a colleague.

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Summary

• Mise-en-Scene
• Four Aspects
• Narrative Function
• Smoke Signals

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End of Lecture 3

• Next Lecture Editing