Mise en scene in Professional Film

In order to discover mise en scene in a professional film, I watched the 2018 Marvel film, "Black Panther".

Various examples of space were seen throughout the course of the film and they each were used in specific times. Both deep and shallow space were used in times of battles in order to show both the point of view of a spectator and that of the subjects engaged in battle. Frontality was common in the film in times of suspense, when Black Panther was on missions and had his body suit equipped, the camera would often face him as he was talking through a microphone to his sister, Shuri who is the Wakandan technology expert. Shuri is also often shown with frontality when she is communicating with T'challa, her brother. For example she controlled a car by using a hologram, and then in real time the car would act as if she was inside driving it. Offscreen space was the most crucial spacing technique as there was often narration occurring that conveyed a message, or in times of battle when Black Panther was soon to make an entrance.

Lighting played an important role in the movie as it helped add an effect to many scenes. Lighting was used within the armor of the Black Panther's bodysuit, the vibranium was used on T'challa as it would build up all of the energy that had been forced upon it, and would release the energy it had formed onto the target. You were able to see this coming due to the lights that appeared on the armor where the energy was being stored. Low-key lighting was another factor in the film which was used when the plane of Wakanda was flying over Chicago and reflected an image of a panther through the clouds that was seen on the ground in a mysterious fashion. High key lighting was used in the scenes at Warrior Falls, where battles occurred over a steep waterfall that were occurrent when somebody wanted to fight the King in order to overthrow him as Black Panther. The sun here was reflected upon the subjects in order to create an equilibrium in color and lighting.

Staging allowed for the film to be controlled into the different sides of conflict in relation to the world, and also the overall affect of acting on the movie. Performance style was exemplified as thick accents were apparent throughout the entire movie because they showed the origin of which a specific character was from and furthermore who they stand with. The people of Wakanda had a thick African tone of speech that distinguishes them and their support to the Black Panther and the safety of Wakanda whereas American and British accents are apparent and are seen to be the opposition to the secrecy of Wakanda. Blocking was also very contributive to the overall message of who the people of Wakanda were and what they stand for. They respected their King and supported the idea to maintain their hiding spot in the world who believed they were one of the weakest nations on Earth, therefore they served to him and supported the causes that he did.

The setting of Wakanda was what made the most prevalent issues in the movie. They were a nation of secrecy who contained the world's most advanced technology and the richest resources in all of Earth, but it was all invisible to bystanders who saw the ground of Wakanda as a poor and deprived nation. This allowed for the problem to arise that would challenge T'challa throughout the movie as to if he should reveal the true identity of the nation and bring wealth to the world. T'challa has a prominent villain, Killmonger who forces the decision upon the Black Panther due to Killmonger being a Wakandan who is challenging the throne and was not raised in Wakanda so he therefore goes against the beliefs of the nation.

Costume was arguably what made the movie so enjoyable to the world. Various body suits and pieces of armor and jewelry showed the tradition that is presented as unique to Wakanda, but is very original and was derived from designs in African culture. Although there was a strong sense of African originality within the costumes, a superhero effect was also very apparent due to the fact that Marvel was the maker of the film and their movies come from a series of comic books that are being constructed into professional films. Uniforms of the warriors showed great detail and also showed the hierarchy of Wakanda through more advanced costumes belonging to those who hold greater power. Makeup was also very significant in the costumes because it added onto the culture that was shown in the body suits and it adds a tribal vibe to the nation as a whole. The makeup also added onto the knowledge that we acquired about different characters. For example, Killmonger who is the enemy of both T'challa and the kingdom of Wakanda has marks that cover his body and are seen as bumps on his skin which represent the number of people that he has killed.

5 Master Edits with Sound

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns1yIlzIUpQ

We added music, non-diegetic sounds, and direct sound in the edits.
By adding music in the last edit, it creates humor and understanding of what leit motif is. In the symbolism edit, we added Ms. Keegan explaining that we must wear our badges. We added gasps and a 'wow' sound effect in the contrast edit, which is non-diegetic, as a crowd reacts. Whistling in the simultaneity edit shows that I am going somewhere casually but then get yelled at by a teacher which is a sound that is added to the edit. The last edit with added sound represented parallelism, I am shown walking in the edit and there are sound effects of somebody walking on a carpet that are added.

5 Master Edits in Professional Film

To complete this assignment, I watched three movies. I watched "A Beautiful Mind" first and I was able to find both symbolism and contrast. I also watched "The Bourne Ultimatum" and I extracted both parallelism and simultineity. Lastly, I watched "Jaws" in order to find the famous example of leitmotif.

Symbolism- In this scene of "A Beautiful Mind", symbolism was shown as the tie that a man was wearing was noticed by the main character, Dr. Nash. Nash originally sees the tie which has stars as a design on it, he then viewed the reflection of the glass onto the lemons and lemonade which all reflected back upon the stars on the tie of the man. The illusion symbolizes the main character's great intelligence and the way his mind functions in noticing such intricate things.

Contrast- This moment is also from the Ron Howard film, it showed the main character, Dr. Nash who is a genius yet very emotionally unstable, having a drastic mood swing from being distraught to laughing in relief. The contrast is shown as Nash puts a gash in his own head and slams his roommate onto the floor as he is angered by his inability to make a groundbreaking discovery, and then is relieved and begins to crack up in laughter after his friend/roommate throws his desk and all of his work out of the window that Nash had been working endlessly at. (Part 1 on top and Part 2 on bottom)

                                              

 

Parallelism- The second film I viewed showed me a good example of parallelism as the main character, Jason Bourne has a series of flashbacks dating back to when he was being forced into the life of a spy and man on the run. Meanwhile he was in Moscow, Russia running away from authorities as they were out to kill him. He made it to a room where he was attempting to heal his wounds inflicted by the Russian police, and was continuously remembering traumatic experiences he went through. The parallelism is shown as in his flashback he had a black hood thrown over his face, and in real time he was splashing water into his face and fighting off a Russian policeman who had discovered his position.

Simultaneity-  This excerpt from the movie shows simultaneity due to the various points of views being shown in the scene where the specific side is being fooled. The police are after the reporter, Simon Ross who allegedly had information on a secret organization and a prime suspect who had been on the run, Jason Bourne, who is also the main character of the movie series. Bourne is giving Ross directions over the phone as he commands Ross to go to the bus stop and pretend to talk to a random man, and when the man gets on the bus he creates a diversion for Simon Ross to escape the area. The police eventually go onto the bus and drug the innocent man who was used as a pawn. This shows simultaneity as the police are misled as they enter the bus and attack a man who was innocent and meanwhile they are letting Ross escape due to the mishap.

Leitmotif- The famous film "Jaws" was used for leitmotif. The background music in the edit is apparent in the movie whenever the shark is near and ready to attack and kill its prey as it eats the child in the film leaving a pool of water within the ocean.