Mise-en-scene

What is mise-en-scene?
Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of everything we seen within a scene. They will display either a meaning, symbolize something or give hints to the audience. They will be anything from the following: props, décor, body language, setting and lighting. Many of these hints can be through connotations – things that are associated with or denotation – what is actually there.

Props and costumes are used to draw attention to someone’s personality, live style, age or even show a stereotype. They can be used to show a person’s job such as a surgeon wearing scrubs or a lawyer wearing a suit. This can suggest that they are hardworking, wealthy, caring. In addition to this, it can also show stereotypes by displaying a a teenager dressed in a chavy way implying they are rebellious and careless.

Décor is another main factor of mise-en-scene as it can make a huge difference on the type of character we see. For example when it comes looking at the interior of a house it can say a lot about a person and their personality. Things like artwork displayed around the house could suggest someone who is very cultural or creative. Furthermore, it can suggest wealth or lifestyle so a house which is tidy and luxurious could suggest someone who is hardworking and considerably rich or top of that they live a stress-free lifestyle without children. This compare to a messy and average looking house could suggest people who are working class and have a family but can give a welcoming view to an average family home which can relate to many people.

Body language can say a lot about a character. Appearance can make a difference so someone who would wear a lot of make up or extreme clothing for example Lady Gaga they can be seen as quite flamboyant and confident. The way a character moves can also suggest hints for example if a character is meant to be seen as sporty you would expect to want to see them running or doing some form of exercise showing this. Facial expression such as love, pain or fear is a main give away for how a character feels and will allow the audience to get a sense of these, and could in return make them sympathise or feel something towards them and connect with them. Lastly, vocal delivery can suggest what kind of person they are, for instance if they talk loudly and boldly implies confidence and outgoing compared to someone who talks quietly indicating they are shy and like to keep to themselves.

Settings and location not only help set the scene but can allow the audience to assume what could be happening in that area. When it comes to areas such as London it has different connotations. In areas such as Chelsea, people are expected to be quite posh, snobby and love in luxuries houses. However, in areas such as Hackney is considered to be quite a diverse culture which is known mainly for gangs and violence. This will have a big influence on the scene and what the audience will be expecting and help picture the character before meeting them. Furthermore, in some case especially soap operas such as Eastenders or Coronation Street the setting of the rows of terraced houses, pubs, parks and cobbled streets helps contribute to working class community.

Lighting can have a major influence on what is going to happen within a scene. This is because if the lighting is dark throughout most of the film we assume the film is a horror or that during a specific scene something bad, dangerous or thrilling is going to happen. Low key lighting can also suggest that there is a lot of negativity and sad news is coming. This compared to a high key setting gives of the image that it is a happy atmosphere and creates a positive mood.

Genre Research

This is my genre research into horror films. By doing this research i found what was included in most horror films, why different types of lighting and music is used and how to use these myself in order to present certain ideas when doing my film opening. This has helped me to understand what makes a horror film successful and using considerably popular horror films i was able to compare different ideas which will also help me when planning what my film will be about.

Opening Credits Research

   

This is research into what goes into opening credits. i used 3 examples using Dead Pool, American Horror Story and Stranger things. I used both TV and Movie openings to see what is included in both.I used presented both the clip f the opening credits and the order in which they appear.

Most of the roles shown are either the producers or main cast who most often are the most famous. For example famous actors such as Johnny Depp will be shown within the main credits.

(Make Prezi full screen for ease when reading)

BBFC

This a presentation of the BBFC who are solely responsible for the age ratings in films. It explains the age ratings and who they are.

Roles within film production

Producer - 

They are the one who develops the initial idea. They are in charge of everything that happens within a film and make sure that everything is following the main idea of the film. They make sure the script is finalized and purely responsible for arranging the financing and managing the production team.

Director - 

They are in charge of the shooting of the film and making sure that everything is being done correctly. They have to make sure that all the camera angles used are portraying the correct view, the actors are playing the character right and mainly making sure that they are sticking to time limit they have to film everything, put it together and release it but the date intended.

Screenwriter -

They are in charge of taking the idea and making the film what it is. They have to create the dialogue for the characters and choosing the order of events. They have to make sure each scene will follow each other as well as making sense.

Production Designer -

The production designer will be the one who paints the picture for the scene. They draw up storyboards of what does what and make sure that the scene is the best it can be. They can change the props or characters used in order to do this. They are the ones who have to create the visual image for what will be happening.

Art Director -

Art Directors are the people who make the set. They design the buildings used, furniture, landscapes and physical props for the characters. They must be able to find the props needs and create the scene to look realistic.

Costume Designer - 

Like the art director, they are responsible for make sure that everything looks realistic. However, their main task is why each character wears. It must present the character to look like the way they are presented to the audience to show their characteristics and behaviour.

Cinematographer - 

They produce the directors vision. If the director wants a shot to look a certain way or have a different form of lighting, it is there job to follow this is and make it happen. 

Editor -

Once filming is complete editors take the footage given and put it all together adding effects and different techniques to take what is good to be the best quality and best possible experience for the viewer.

Actors/Actress - 

The people who star in a film. Once given the part, they must be able to play the role to the best of their ability and give a supreme performance.

Music Supervisor - 

The music in films are crucial and when the right music is used especially in horrors they can make a scene give a more thrilling view. Using deep notes or children nursery rhymes, it can turn scary scene into a heart pounding one.

Preliminary Exercise

This is our preliminary task. In this you will see us using the basic filming techniques: Shot/Reverse shot, 180 degree rule, match on action and making sure all the editing we included used continuity. We found that the shot/reverse shot was the easiest angle to film as the camera just had to stay still and focus on the main character talking at that moment. This compared to keeping with continuity and 180 degree rule as these are the most important to keep precise. If any of these are filmed wrong it would mean that although the scene may still continue and follow through, if anything changed or we broke the 180 degree rule it can leave the audience confused. This was something we has to focus on in order to make sure that even though it was a task preparing us for our main task, it created a realistic view and everything was kept the same. 

The filming was quick and easy to do, especially because it was only 30 seconds long, however, the editing took longer to sort. When it came to the editing we had to make sure that it wasn't choppy and that when we showed the match on action it did follow through and showed the action being completed. We didn't expect it to take so long, but as we used the editing program Premier Pro, we already had a good insight into how to do certain things which made it easy for us.

This gave us an insight before being our main task and would help to improve our filming by comparing the main task to the preliminary.

Storyboard for preliminary

This is the storyboard for our preliminary. It shows the basic outline of what will be shown in our preliminary. This is also used to help us when it comes to planning our main task as it gives us an insight into how to plan and slow the storyboard. This helped us when it came to filming our prelim as we could follow the order and remember what shot we agreed would work best for each part.

Script for preliminary

Two young girls catch up on a conversation on the first day of school. The two sit in a classroom and get very entertained. The first girl walks through the corridor (wide shot) and she calmly opens the classroom door (close up on handle) and then she walks to the table where she sees her friend (wide shot).

Establishing shot)
Girl 1: Hey, are you okay?
Shot Over the shoulder)
Girl 2: Hey, yeah am good you?
Girl 1: am fine, thanks. How was your summer holiday?
Girl 2: Oh, it was really good. I went to Spain what about you?
Girl 1: That's great! And I stayed in England, I was working all summer.
Girl 2: That's good. Well I have to go now, I will see you later.
Girl 1: Okay, see you later.
Girl 1 walks out(Wide Shot).

Research into potential target audience - Primary Research

For the target audience, developing an questionnaire is essential to find out who the main target audience is and how to gain there interests. In order to find information out, i made an online questionnaire which has been posted on social media (such as Facebook), around parents workplace and school. I sent it around different areas to see what feedback i would receive and try to find out more from different age sectors rather than focusing on just one. The survey i made is presented below. 

The questions i asked weren't based around a genre, more to watch films were most popular in a genre and what made people continue watching a film based on an opening scene. In theory the results i receive from this will help me plan my opening scene and if the ideas in which i want to include will reach a target audience or if i need to rethink them.

This is the questionnaire in which i sent out:

Basic Camera Angles

Shot/reverse shot:

This is a simple filming technique which is mainly used for showing 2 people in a conversation. The camera will be focused on one person talking and then cut to the other person in the conversation showing the response. An example of this is shown in spider man, which allows to focus on the person talking at the time.

Match on action

This is when we see a character do an action from a wide shot which then changes to a close up to match the action they are doing. For example, it may be a wider shot of someone walking and reaching for the handle, then changes to a close up of the action for opening the door.

  

180 degree rule

The 180 degree rule, meanings having to imagine there is a line which cannot be crossed. When filming it is essential that the camera man stays only within 180 degrees in the line of action where the actors. This is because if they cross 180 degrees the characters will look as if they are facing a different way. This will then confuse the audience.

Continuity editing

This is all about making sure everything follows through during the scene, basically everything is continuous. When filming things like props, costumes, actors and setting etc cannot change if they do they can lead the audience to confusion as to why an actor has changed costume part way through for example.

Chosen Brief

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.