Film & TV Language: Mise-en-scene blog tasks

Mise-en-scene is a critical aspect to our work on film language and textual analysis.

Remember the mnemonic that will help you recall the different aspects of mise-en-scene: CLAMPS.

• Costume
• Lighting
• Actor (placement and movement)
• Make-up
• Props
• Setting

1) Find a distinctive still image and write an analysis of the mise-en-scene. Use each of the aspects you've learned in the lesson.

The two characters are actors from Jekyll & Hyde - a well known piece of text within English literature. The film producer deliberately made the actors dress up in formal attire to show their respectable appearance that is shown to the Victorian era. Choosing to shine the light on Dr Jekyll's face makes the audience perceive that he's a respectable law abiding citizen being over powered my Mr Hyde - a menace to society. Making Mr Hyde appear to take up most of the image in comparison to Dr Jekyll, makes the audience think of Jekyll as being a lower life form. Dr Jekyll leaning away from Mr Hyde makes it seem as if he's pushing himself away from Mr Hyde like a magnet repelling from the same force. In some ways this can be linked to Jekyll trying to escape his dual personality Mr Hyde. However, the audience could say that Hyde leaning over Dr Jekyll was the final stages of his transformation becoming complete. I believe the photographer deliberately chose to have a black background to show how his dark past (or some would say drug addiction) was intoxicating him making it hard for him to escape his inevitable fate.

2) Find three film or TV extracts on YouTube from different genres (e.g. horror, sci-fi, costume drama). Embed them in your blogpost and write a comparison of the mise-en-scene in each.

This is a clip from the movie Annabelle. This scene in the film contains some of the horror but this scene has the most extreme horror. This scene set in a house but as the clip develops the setting changes to one of the individual rooms in the house. Its just like the women being closed in by the doll which is like the horror object in this clip. The audience think that the house but once the action starts in the house their opinion will probably change from positive to negative. It looks genuine but that is what creates the tension and horror in the clip the setting suddenly changing from beautiful to horrific.

The opening scene for harry potter has the natural dark light as it was set during the night. The contumes worn by the actors are vey peculiar as it indicates something magical which is further backed up when they use the torch like object which is shown to take away the light from the street lamp. This makes the audience feel as if the genre of this film if fiction. The setting is a normal court with houses in the background contrastedwith the magical elements which can be used to distract the audience. Coming up to the end the actors leave a baby by a door. This causes the audience to raise alarms and question the actors intentions.

This clip was taken from the film Wolf of Wallstreet. The lighting used in this clip is natural to resemble Jordan Belfort's extremely happy and positive lifestyle as reflected and shown by his flashy suits and cars. The lower shot of the yellow car as the men continue to talk about Jordan's profits, emphasis and show off his luxurious lifestyle. The costumes that these two men wear are extremely different and the director has purposely done this to show the difference in wealth. Jordan wears a luxurious suit while the man next to him is wearing very casual clothes that would cost much less than the suit. The positioning of these two men is also very specific as Jordan is sitting down eating his food while the man on the right stands talking to him. This was done very specifically to show that despite their wealth Jordan is not seen as someone better than the other man.