We were tasked with conducting research, looking at different examples from different practicioners on mise en scène. From this research, I hope to gain clarity and understanding on what I should do for my Single Image Storytelling and Multi image storytelling.
In this blog post, I plan to analyse two or three examples of mise en scène by different practitioners in detail and understand how they have used different parts of mise en scène to inform their images and how they want the decoders (the audience) to understand that as well.
In terms of analysing the images, I plan to do in a set structure. This is how the structure will look:
Picture
Information
Name:
Genre:
Practicioner:
About the practicioner
What is displayed in the image?
How has the practitioner used the image and mise en scène to inform their movie and the genre?
EXAMPLE 1
Information about the movie
Movie name: Dunkirk
Genre: Historical, War
Practitioner: Christopher Nolan
About the Practitioner
Dunkirk is a movie directed by the British director Christopher Nolan. Nolan has directed many artistic and extremely creative movies such as the Dark night trilogy, inception and interstellar.
Dunkirk was Nolan's first historical movie that he directed. In an interview with Film4, Nolan explained that it was difficult to undertake this movie because it was an extremely large scale event that was one of the hallmarks of World War Two. He said 'I thought long and hard about how you address this enormous story that's far too big to encompass in a movie. There was 400,000 people involved which was a vast scale of human stories and experiences.'
In dunkirk, Nolan decided to focus on the key aspects/elements of the event that made it unique. Nolan wanted to make this unique from any other film in the sense of making it about survival as that is what the event was about. He also wanted to focus the film on suspense, he said 'Suspense is the most visual language in film'. Nolan wanted to use stories from different people to piece together the event in the movie and just how large scale the event was.
What is displayed in the image?
In this poster, there is a clear use of Mise en scene in terms of setting, props and lighting. Nolan uses these aspects to convey the ultimate genre. atmosphere and even the historical gravity of the event. The reason I chose this image is because it is a movie poster and this is perfectly ideal for analysing Mise en scene because this is exactly where practitioners will try and convey their mood of the entire movie and they try and cram that into the poster to grab the audience's attention and interest.
In terms of analysing the image, the first thing we see that is interesting is the back of a soldier looking over at what appears to be a sunken ship. This is quite powerful symbolism as this pulls the assumption that it could've been one of the ships that were mean't to be used to retrieve soldiers but has been sunken by the german forces. This is a powerful concept as it captures the whole story and the whole gravity of the event in that single analysis and concept.
Something else that can be noticed in the poster is how desperate the soldiers want to leave dunkirk. This can be seen on the left of the poster, soldiers are jumping off the port edge into the water to try and escape the battle. This part captures the suspense and the desperation to get back home from the soldiers and that is an important aspect that is captured in the poster.
Airplanes are also noticed at the top of the poster, this also points to the historical and war part of the poster. The airplanes also point to how chaotic and how crazy it is and how chaotic it was at that time and it is really pivotal in showing us the bigger picture.
How has the practitioner used mise en scene in their image to inform the movie and genre?
In this particular poster, mise en scene has been used to really set the scene and build the atmosphere for the movie upon that scene.
Setting
In terms of setting, the producers have really brought this to life. The setting of the movie poster shows and almost defeated like atmosphere. In the background, there is a destroyed ship which would presumably help the soldiers get home. Looking at the soldier himself, he has taken his helmet off and it is loosely hanging on his hand. This kind of pose shows a pose of defeat and it is up to an extent, historically accurate. In the event itself, the soldiers were outnumbered. We can also see setting in terms of how busy it looks, the helmets below the soldier, the ship, the planes flying above trying to fight the battle. This is all leading to building that mood of the movie and to create that in this movie poster.
Lighting
The lighting in this poster is a blue and cold type of lighting. The fact this is being used is adding more to how busy the poster is. The use of the cold lighting also symbolises a very sombre and dark tone to the movie, this suggesting again towards in this context, the theme of defeat.
Costumes
We can see costume is clearly used here to mark the era and also show the historical accuracy of the movie too. The uniform we see infront is a british army uniform that was used in World War Two. This is significant as it is showing the era that the movie is trying to represent. We also see the same with the brodie helmet that he is holding in his hand, that is also representing the history too. On the left of his uniform, he is also holding a rifle, this is also point to the historical accuracy of this movie too and it symbolises that maybe he is the only one left who can fight the battle.
EXAMPLE 2
Information about the TV show
Name: Love, Death and Robots
Genre: Animation
Practitioner: Tim Miller
About the practitioner
Tim Miller is an American film director who has been behind famous productions such as love death and robots, deadpool, the upcoming movie 'Sonic the hedgehog' and many more. He specialises in visual effects and animation. One of his best animations come from the show, love death and robots. Love death and robots is an anthology series that includes many different types animations with different stories. The animation ranges from photorealistic animation to simple animation but they all tell unique and interesting stories. Tim miller talks about love death and robots in this interview.
In this interview, Miller talks about how the animations are made and goes into depth about the show more. He said in the interview that he wanted to 'bring the wealth of short stories and marry it with new and creative animation' His motivation for this was to 'make something fresh and new' Tim Miller really wanted to highlight the aspect of animation in a way that has never been done before. He mentioned that different creators bring different cultures and different interpretations which what helped Love Death and robots become so unique.
What is displayed in the image?
This image is an image from an episode of death love and robots. This episode is futuristic and is based around a 'groundhog day' situation in which a woman witnesses a murder, the murderer sees the woman and chases her throughout the episode. However, it comes to a climax when the man finds the woman, they engage in conflict and the woman kills the murderer in the exact same fashion that murderer did his murder. The shot cuts to the woman looking out of the window and seeing the man in the window opposite. This shot particularly is showing the woman running away from the murderer and this is shown through the pose she is running, it shows she is in a hurry.
Something that is important to pick up in the image is the futuristic aspect of it. The signs that this gives off a futuristic type is the colourful billboards and advertisements behind the woman. However, with the types of buildings looking run down, it looks more like a dystopian future rather than a utopian future.
How has the practitioner used mise en scene in their image to inform the movie and genre?
In this image, there are many uses of mise en scene ranging from what the set looks like to how the animation is portrayed.
Setting
The setting of this image looks very oppressive and contained. We can also see that some of the buildings in the background are run down and isolated. This is very key to understanding the story of the episode that is trying to be portrayed as almost like a dystopian and oppressive city and that's what the setting likes to portray. Similar settings can be seen in the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 game.
Lighting
The lighting in the image is actually quite dynamic. We see in the foreground of the image that the lighting is quite dull and dark. However, as it fades into the background, we see that the lighting becomes more vibrant and more bright, this is key as in the foreground, it is reflecting how the woman feels but in the background it's as if everything is normal.
Costume
The costume the woman is very dirty and ragged, it is also very revealing too which shows she may have had an occupation as a prostitute. Her hair is very messy and she looks very desperate on the face. This is obviously giving the impression she is being chased by someone or something and we see that as it unveils in the episode.
EXAMPLE 3
Information about the movie
Name: The Purge: Anarchy
Genre: Action, Horror
Practitioner: James DeMonaco
About the practitioner
James DeMonaco is an american screenwriter and director. He was behind movies such as assault on precinct 13, the negotiator and of course the Purge. He specialises also in screenplay and creating scripts for different movies too. For example, the upcoming Purge 5, although it is directed by a different director, it is still inspired by DeMonaco through screenplay and script-writing
In an interview in 2013 about The Purge: Anarchy, DeMonaco mentioned that they actually filmed the entire movie in 30 days, he said it was 'ambitious' but it was very hard to film as they also conducted Guerrilla filmmaking too. Guerrilla filmmaking is in essence, going out on to wherever you need to film and just filming with the props, setting and scene that you already have. It also includes not obtaining film permits, especially for street scenes. This can be beneficial but also dangerous. However, this technique is usually conducted by smaller budget movies.
What is displayed in the image?
In this image, there is displayed what seems to be a gang or a group of people that are 'purging' or hunting the streets for people to kill. The aspect of this image is almost like a run down, dystopian city, in the background we can see fires going on as you can see further down the street.
In more of the background of the image, there are more gang members but they are more silhouettes than being seen as significant in the movie. You can tell it is purge because the road isn't busy too, showing that no one wants to be outside right now as it is the purge.
How has the practitioner used mise en scene in their image to inform the movie and genre?
In this image, there are actually quite a few uses of mise en scene and how that is portrayed is pretty unique.
Setting
The setting of this image is kind of symbolic in the sense that is signifying that there is chaos in the city due to the fires around the street. Not only this though but the street looks dirty and looks quite desolate, showing that these gangs are ruling the streets so to say. This informs the movie as it shows what the movie is about just in this image.
Lighting
The lighting in this scene is not really that dynamic, it has a very dull and dark feel to it which creates an eerie and unsettling atmosphere to the image. However, this also relates to what the core of the movie is about and also relates to the genre in which it is representing, such as Horror.
Costume
In terms of costume, the guys in the foreground are wearing horror-type hockey masks, one saying GOD. This symbolises the whole horror aspect and attributes to how eerie the atmosphere is. The other gang members wear similar masks, they also hold weapons too which shows that they want to purge and this also attributes to the horror aspect of the image.
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