Mise en Scéne

Mise en Scéne, is the term used for anything visual in front of the camera, such as props, actors, their placement of these objects, the lighting, all of that, this creates a mood or effect that can highlight or extenuate a characters mood, or feeling. But it could also contrast what the character could be thinking, but making the set light and having the character unhappy, this would be juxtaposing.

What I will analyse is a scene from The Karate Kid (2010)

During this scene we have two opponents fighting for the title of champion, previously the opponent is injured and has a broken leg.This is shown with the mood of the character, because he is feeling disheartened and hurt, so the scene to start is dark and bleak, but when he lifts his leg, and the audience realises what he is about to do, ( leaving appropriate time, to ensure this it is in slow motion, including the background ), when he is in the desired stance the camera pans up, and light beams down, showing hope and prospectful glory. Also during this scene, to begin with the camera is wobbly, just like when he is lifting his leg up into the desired stance, to maybe give the audience the emotion and nervousness and trepidation that he is feeling. Also, just before the attention is drawn away from the main actor, the background darkens, he becomes the highlight, he has reached "his zen".

Next, the camera changes between all the people that are resting and hoping that this child will win, and defeat his opponent, or maybe a few that want to destroy him. Also in this part, the camera flicks from the main actor to his trainer, and his astonishment on what he is about to do, but then to the previous winner and how nervous he is, this is then backed by having the camera change to the coach of his, and what the coach expects of him is reenforced.

After this, the whole scene becomes about the two opponents, and close ups of their face, almost like a cowboy film and a mexican stand off. But soon after this is broken by the flags of the referee, creating a break of the stand off and the camera zooms out and shows the realisation of the largeness of the stadium and his task, overwhelming the audience, to maybe make their mind hesitate about whether he will win, now his focus is broken.

The slow motion is broken briefly to highlight this, but then the slow motion is reintroduced and is slower to show the challengers move, his "finishing" move.

After the Previous champion is defeated, the camera pans to everyone, the coaches the previous fighters, his mother, all the people that he has faced, or he has had behind him supporting him.

Finally the slow motion is broken completely and the victor receives a trophy, at this point the room is very bright and loud.

To analyse this film completely I turned the sound off. But afterwards I turned the sound on, and the sound highlighted these effects and emotions futher.

Sound of Cinema: The Music that Made the Movies

Neil Brand explains that adding music to a scene can add a whole new story, depending on the music, for instance when music that is played in different ways, it adds different moods a expressions that the scene may never be able to produce otherwise, like the coffee scene by John Barry, in the "Ipcress file".

He explains that central to Barry's theme is a Chimbolum, a hungarian hammered dulcima, this unique sound played gives a sort of "spy" theme to his score, along with the highlights in which bring the lightheartedness of the scene out, otherwise there would be too much of a scene of danger. 

Martin Scorsese explains that he tries throughout all his films to create the score throughout the whole film to excentuate the dialogue, the camera movement and the actors themselves, but also not forgetting about the scene which they are in. He says that this is all critical to have together to produce what is undoubtedly a thicker storyline and scene.

To begin with the films had no sound, no music, they were silent, so to accompany that they had a machine that produced a variety of sounds, that a musician would play alongside the movie, but unfortunately the film makers had no control over what they played,sometimes they also had their own orchestra, so every experience was different. So one film maker decided to integrate the two together, sound and movie, to create an altogether more appealing movie. But this was done with a disk, which was "synced" to the projector, this was called "Vitaphone". This was used for a film called "The Jazz Singer", but this included talking too, only a few lines, but they had created the first "Talkie".

People during this stage were convinced that people wouldn't want to hear the music without seeing the musicians themselves, but this meant that they could not produce and underscore, but only opening and closing credit music. Making the films pretty dull.

But in 1933 that all changed, when Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack created King Kong, with this film they created a underscore the whole way through, creating emotions and hidden dialogue, it also gave King Kong a lighthearted effect, making the viewers feel sorry for him. This was only possible through the soundtrack, also it helped with all the scenes, this is done by throughout the whole film, adding a score to associate with King Kong, with different instruments, or in a different key.

The one composer who changed film the most, was Erich Wolfgang Korngold. He started as a composer for operas and theatre work. He created magical pieces of work, and was hired by Warner Brothers to work on most of their films, he was so highly regarded that he could chose what he wanted and could make them film extra scenes so he could finish his score, at that time no composer had that freedom.They kept all his work.

In the late 1900's a new type of film emerged, which was called, film "noir" which was about moralities, and good and bad, but mixed them together. But ambiguity was captured with a film called "Double Indemnity", at the start there is no good or bad, they neither play definite major or minor keys, but something in-between.

Torn curtain was a film composed by Bernard Herman, and directed by Alfred Hitchcock,
 a great duo, that worked on the film psycho but this film tore them apart because they could not agree on what they wanted, and when Bernard went against Alfred's orders, he fired him. Breaking up the two greatest film makers.

What sound in a film does is create what dialogue cannot, it creates a different motif, a underlying mood, a suspense, sound that matches the action, and if used right it could make or break a film.

"Some think that the best score is the one you never hear, but I think the best one is the one you hear when you need to."

(Neil Brand)

First Recorded Assignment. (Scenario "Only Five Minutes to Save the World")

First Recorded Assignment. (Scenario "Only Five Minutes to Save the World")

This is a joint blog post with  http://coulsdonfilmlauriearnold.blogspot.co.uk/ 

The goal of this project was a to create a 5 minute (or less) film with the scenario of "Only Five Minutes to Save the World" 

It had to meet the criteria of:

• At least 5 shots
• A storyboard
• 30 Mins to film
• No disturbing other classes
• No being killed

Scene 1: The Table Scene

We used this scene to try and introduce the character roles and the event to audiences in a short period of time without having too much exposure, this scene was recorded after 3 rehearsals.

Scene 2: The Stairwell

In this scene the character that is doubting that the apocalypse is happening falls down a stairwell and dies, we did this to create a sense of irony as the character believed all was fine.

 This was filmed after 2 rehearsals.

Scene 3: The Running Scene

In this scene new character is introduced whilst one of the other characters runs off out of the scene, this was done to shock the viewer and to make them wonder where he went.

This scene took 1 rehearsal and had to be recorded quickly because people were walking in and out of the college.

Scene 4: The Falling Scene

This scene was shot quite close and shows one of the characters smoking a cigarette to try and calm his nerves, we also used another cigarette to try and imitate smoke coming out of a hole in the ground.

This scene took 1 rehearsal.

Scene 5: The 'End It' Scene

This scene also used a cigarette to creat the same smoke effect as before but we had to do it quickly as the cigarette was almost out, also this was the only scene filmed without a rehearsal and we didn't really know when to stop recording so that's why at the end the character says 'End it?' but we added a 6th scene to make up for that.

Scene 6: T'was all a dream.

This scene was added last minute just so that it added an extra story element to our film and also so that the parts in the film that were messed up could just be seen as intentional, therefore it made it so the character saying 'End it?' could have been talking to the main character that makes him wake up.

This scene also wasn't rehearsed.

For video links, refer to Laurie Arnolds Blog.

Why I love/hate this film ( 1st Assignment )

Film Studies

Why I like my favourite film

My favourite film has to The Green Mile, I love this film for many reasons, one is the cast. The cast in this film is absolutely superb, it has Tom Hanks, who is one of the most well known actors ever, and also starred in Forest Gump, Saving Private Ryan and Toy Story. It also has Michael Clark Duncan who played John Coffey, I find his acting impeccable, he not only creates a scene but can quite capably  make any grown man cry, unlike another acting powerhouse (Arnald Swarztineger). Both of these together make in themselves a brilliant cast, along with the others who all play their parts excellently. Another reason I love this film is because of the script, most of the film is set on a tiny scene which consists of about 8 prison cells and the hallway imbetween, I think this is done so well because of how the characters play out, for example there is;

The Leader, guard (Paul Edgecombe)

The Muscle, guard (Brutus 'brutal' Howell)

The crazy, selfish, stubborn and greedy "fathers son", guard (Dean (percy) Stanton)

The large murderer, with a twist (John Coffey)

The insane real murderer (Wild Bill Wharton)

The Frenchman and his mouse ( Edward Delacroix)

And so on

All of these compose a storyline that I think never gets old.

I think that my least favourite think about this film is that my favourite character dies, but it's what he wanted, and without that ending, the storyline would make no sense.

Even though it hurts to say it, it would not be my favourite film with a different ending.

I also love the last five minuets, where he shows his love ( Paul ) his mouse ( Edward ) and that the reason he is still alive " I think that god was punishing me that day for killing one of his angels".

These reasons are why I love this film.

The next film I am going to review is "Twilight Saga"

Why I dislike my least favourite film.

My least favourite film is Twilight.

I would compare it to another terrible film, but it is that terrible I can't think of anymore, not even one comes close. I can't underestimate how overjoyed I was to hear that they were only producing a trilogy, but also how devastated to know that that my life would be wasted for another four hours or so when it carried on further.

I thought that "Mission Impossible" and "Fast and Furious" went on too long, I was wrong, they could have produced another 20 films before I got sick of them in comparison to Twilight. Let me tell you why...

Firstly the cast is dreadful. To chose the main role as a previous Harry Potter actor was a mistake, but even though I am patriotic, he may WELL be the worst British actor ever. He is dry, tasteless and bland, there is no other way to describe his indecent acting.

Next, we have a woman called Kristen Stewart, how can I describe her? Well, her acting is very similar to the character of "Plank" in "Ed, Edd and Eddy",but even he has more emotions than she does. When she eventually decides that she finally has to show some emotion, such as smiling it reminds me of the smile that "Mr Burns" would pull, as if she has never smiled.

These may be very large contributing factors in the story of my hatred, but I think that they would contribute more if I didn't have to comment on the storyline of the film, and how they had no interesting bits at all.

How they managed to make a love triangle go throughout all their films is beyond me, the woman is pathetic, she could quite easily chose without having to throw herself off a cliff or fall off a bike

 ( although, if it shortened the films, I would be more than happy if she didn't get back up).

As for the people who see the film I'm sure all they could comment on was the love triangle, which like I mentioned was boring and dragged on. ALSO it was very predictable, from the start, in fact, if that's the case, I recon you could watch the first movie and the last and then you wouldn't have to sit through what the writer calls a "middle".

I am displeased to say that I have had the missfortune to sit through and waste several hours in which I could have watched paint dry.

I would happily go on further but I am out of time, and I'm sure I'd run out of paper (In this case, internet and binary) my disgust runs that deep.

01001001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110010 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101100 01101101 00100000 00101101 00110001 00110000 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 00110001 00101101 00110001 00110000 00100000 01110011 01100011 01100001 01101100 01100101 00001101 00001010
(I would rate this film -10 on a 1-10 scale)