Mise - en - Scene (colour)

Mise en Scene is a French term that loosely translates to arranging the scene. The purpose of Mise en Scene is to basically set up the scene of a shot, and everything from the character's clothing to design of the location to what props are being used are part of the frame arrangement. It will provide information about the location, time and character without words ever needing to be spoken. 

The following are the aspects that make mise-en-scene:

- Settings and Props
Characters can be given a prop that provides additional information about the character itself or the action taking place. These additional props can be added to a person's clothing for more detail or simply be put in the person's hand. Props can also add additional information about the location and time period of the action. 


- Costume, hair and makeup
The right threads, hairstyle and make-up can tell you all you need to know about a character before they’ve even said a word.

- Facial expressions and body language
Facial expressions are among the most universal forms of body language. The expressions used to convey fear, anger, sadness, and happiness are similar throughout the world. 

- Positioning of characters in the frame

Film makers can use positioning within a frame in a variety of ways:

• if the character or object is in the foreground of a image we know as a audience that we should attach some sort of significance/ importance to this character/object, and vise versa 
• A moving body/object placed against a stationary background will immediately draw our attention as it would in real life. 
• Characters/objects positioned evely within a frame will give a balance feel to the shot. if they are all at one end of the frame, it would create an inbalance for the eye by making the shot feel heavy on one side. This can be used to make the audience feel settles or unsettled , thus involving them in the action.
• The positioning of characters can indicate relationships. 

- Lighting and colour

When shooting a film as separate shots, you need to make sure that the lighting in a scene is consistent. If the lighting style and colour is too different, the shots may look as if they were filmed in different locations. Colour - denotation is the literal description of the colour and connotation is the associations with that specific colour. E.g. Light (sky) blue: peace, serenity, ethereal, spiritual, infinity.

Styles of Editing

Straight cut AND Fade
Although straight cut and fade are two different styles of editing simultaneously both can be used to create effect. A straight cut is a basic cut where Shot A abruptly ends and Shot B abruptly begins. A fade occurs when the picture gradually turns to a single color, usually black, or when a picture gradually appears on screen. Fade ins generally occur at the beginning of a film or act, while fade outs are typically found at the end of a film or act.





Dissolve
A dissolve is a gradual transition from one image to another. The terms fade-out and fade-in are used to describe a transition to and from a blank image. This is in contrast to a cut where there is no such transition. A dissolve overlaps two shots for the duration of the effect, usually at the end of one scene and the beginning of the next, but may be used in montage sequences also. Generally, but not always, the use of a dissolve is held to indicate that a period of time has passed between the two scenes.

Cuts and dissolves are used differently. A camera cut changes the perspective from which a scene is portrayed. It is as if the viewer suddenly and instantly moved to a different place, and could see the scene from another angle.

Fades and dissolves typically have a duration of 1 to 2 seconds (24-48 frames), though this may vary according to the preference of the director and editor. Short dissolves (6-12 frames) may be used to soften obvious hard cuts which may startle the viewer, or jump cuts.

Jump - Cut
A jump cut is a transition between two shots which appears to "jump" due to the way the shots are framed in relation to each other. Jump cuts are usually caused by framing which is quite similar.

Pace of editing

Editing determines the pace and the mood of a film in three different ways:

1. The editor determines the duration of a shot. Generally, the longer the shot duration, the slower the pace.
2. The editor can decide what goes in or out of a sequence. E.g  In Lawrence of Arabia (Great Britain, 1962), in one of the most famous cuts in British filmmaking, instead of showing T. E. Lawrence travel from his safe office in Cairo to the desert, we see him extinguish a match in that office, cutting immediately from a close-up of the match light in a cramped office to the gloriously epic establishing shot of the desert and the desert sun.
3. The kind of edit between shots determines speed. The slow dissolve can leave us lingering on a disappearing image for several seconds (for example, the last shot of Psycho [1960], when Norman Bates's face slowly becomes superimposed on the skull of his mother). Or the cuts between shots can be very quick: Gunfights at the O.K. Corral tend to cut very quickly between the various participants so that you won't lose a bit of the bloodbath.

Graphic Match

Graphic matches, or match cuts, are useful in relating two otherwise disconnected scenes, or in helping to establish a relationship between two scenes.  By ending one shot with a frame containing the same compositional elements (shape, color, size, etc.) as the beginning frame of the next shot, a connection is drawn between the two shots with a smooth transition.

Blog Post 2 - Media Theorists and Theories

1. Barthes – Enigma Codes
- Enigma (mystery).
-Roland Barthes: all texts are ‘complex’ bundles of meaning.
• Enigma codes (problems introduced) – usually in ‘disruption’ stage.
• Open – not resolved at end• Closed texts – resolved at end
•  Polysemic texts – lots of different meanings

2. Levi Strauss – Binary Opposites
Heroes and villains ‘Binary opposites’ Levi Strauss.

He said narratives can be organised through binary opposition -  two things opposed – often dominant vs subordinate - e.g. male/female, hero/villain

3. Traditional Hollywood Narrative Structure – 3 Acts
 -Three Act Structure = the typical Hollywood narrative = set up (25% time) /confrontation (50%) /climax (Final 25% of film time)

Linear (chronological), few, if any, sub-plots, tendency towards closure at end of film.

4. Todorov – narrative theory – 5 stages
• In 1969 Todorov produced a theory which he believed to be able to be applied to any film. Todorov  believed that all films followed the same narrative pattern through various stages.

There are five stages the narrative can progress through:
• 1. A state of equilibrium (All is as it should be.)
• 2. A disruption of that order by an event.
• 3. A recognition that the disorder has occurred.
• 4. An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption.
• 5. A return or restoration of a NEW equilibrium

5. Propp – Character Types
1. Vladimir Propp – character types – analysed traditional folk stories –8 key character roles

2.  Hero/Villain/Helper/Donor(Provider)/Father/Dispatcher/Princess/  False Hero -  N.B. one character can perform more than one role – how many in your thriller?

Blog Post 1 - Thriller Conventions

Thrillers usually contain these aspects: fast pacing, frequent action, resourceful heroes which are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger who have to over-power a villain with more power. Traditionally they are men but more recently women have more frequently become heroes. e.g. Lucy, 2014. Although she wasn't a hard man accustomed to danger she was just an ordinary person who was drawn into danger by accident. This characteristic can be used in thrillers also.

A thriller is a villain driven plot which usually takes place in exotic settings and use devices such as: suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers. Although they differ from mystery stories because of the two types of plot structures. In a thriller, the hero must thwart the future plans of an enemy, rather than uncover a crime that has already happened. A murder mystery would be spoiled by knowing the murderer's identity whereas in a thriller the identity of a murderer / villain is typically known all along. Thrillers occur on a much grander scale than Mystery Films: the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination, or the overthrow of governments. Danger and violent confrontations are standard plot elements of a thriller. The climax of a mystery is when the mystery is solved, a thriller climaxes when the hero finally defeats the villain, saving his own life and often the lives of others.

A flexible genre can engage an audience through a dramatic rendering of physcological, social and political tensions. Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like." Not only do thrillers encourage different types of tensions but there are different types of thriller such as: legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller.

But this wide variety of thrillers have one thing in common. They are thrillers because they all "thrill."

Sound Exercise and Evaluation

For our sound exercise we were ordered to do a short film to practise different types of sound we have been learning recently. In our film we added various types of sound: diegetic, non-diegetic, parallel, dialogue and music.

First of all we put non-diegetic music in the background (Maroon 5 - Sunday Morning) of our play to set the mood of a peaceful and calm environment while Ellie and I were reciting our dialogue. We added about 3 flashbacks in our play referring to a "party" that happened the weekend before. For each of these flashbacks we added non-diegetic and parallel flashback music so it would be clear to the audience that we are going back in time, this minimises confusion for the audience. When the flashbacks of the party took place we added diegetic sound that Denis was dancing to on a table and when a "fight" was taking place. We added some more diegetic sound of sirens for when the police arrived at the party.

Evaluation

Diegetic sound is sound that occurs in film that is natural. These sounds include doors opening and closing, footsteps, dialogue (the voices of the actors if they are talking on screen), any music that comes from radios in the film or played on musical instruments, thunderstorms, tyres screeching and explosions. Any sound that is caused by actions or actually happens in the course of the film is diegetic sound. It makes the situation seem surreal as the sounds you would expect to hear in that place would not be occurring. 

Non-Diegetic sound is sound that is added to the film during editing. These sounds included music e.g. the Maroon 5 song that were added to the piece, the music sets the mood for our project, making it peaceful. We made the atmosphere peaceful at the beginning so it can contrast with the chaos towards the end and make the film piece exciting to watch. The music signals what the audience should be feeling or what a particular character is feeling and without it could become slightly confusing and uninteresting.

Overall, I think the sound exercise went well as we used different types of sound effectively and it was coherent with what was going on at each moment, the only thing that went wrong was the fact you could see the microphone in the film. The visual microphone made the piece seem less professional because it reminds the audience that it was unreal and the whole point of the exercise was to make everything as realistic as possible.When I make my thriller I will not make those mistakes.

North by North West

One of the most iconic thriller scenes is the crop duster scene in 'North by North West.' In order to understand the thriller genre further I had to analyse the editing used in that specific scene.

When watching the scene started off slow with a medium shot of Cary Grant deserted in a remote field waiting for a bus. Seeing as very little was going on in that moment it gave the effect of a calm and steady scene. 

In the next scene we see a car appear in the very back of a wide shot and a man comes out of the car then stands at the other side of the road. As they stand parallel to each other we are a shown another wide shot that portrays both men and everything in that setting including the long dusty road. This tells the audience that they are stranded and are vulnerable to anything, this vulnerability links in with the next scene.

 They eventually engage in a conversation with another medium shot to accompany this. So far all the sound is diegetic until this man leaves the scene.

Suddenly, we hear non-diegetic sound which does not fit in with the calm atmosphere then an airplane comes above Grant creating an over the shoulder shot. As the plane comes down towards the man, the speed of switching scenes becomes more frequent: short cuts. While Grant is running away there is a tracking shot so the tension intensifies and takes the audience on a little journey.


It makes the audience almost feel like they're in the situation too, the speed of switching scenes is very rapid and it's parallel to the timing of a heartbeat maybe Cary Grant's.