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.

5 Master Edits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr6pFRBu2L8

The first edit is called Contrast and that is where a scene drastically changes.
The second edit is Parallelism where two unrelated scenes connect.
The third edit is Symbolism where an object in a scene can have a meaning for something other than itself.
The fourth edit is Simultaneity where two or more events are happening in the same reference.
The fifth edit is Leitmotif where a reoccurring musical theme is connected to a subject or object. 

Camera Angles Review - Series Episode

In order to make this blog, I extracted shots from Season 2: Episode 9 from the popular television series, “Shameless”.

The first shot that I picked out from the episode was an over the shoulder shot, this shot resulted from an emotional scene in the show where the daughter Fiona Gallagher is looking back to her mother Monica Gallagher. We are viewing Monica from a couple feet behind the perspective of her daughter Fiona, who has her head turned around her shoulder and is facing her mother. This was an emotional moment because it showed Fiona looking back upon her mother even though she was avoiding eye contact and did not want to look at her mother’s face due to a harsh relationship between the two. Monica, the mother, abandoned her family a few years back and had returned to her past household in this scene. Fiona who is the oldest child, had to drop out of high school in order to take care of her 5 younger siblings with minimal help from her alcoholic father named Frank. Monica is attempting to win back the heart of her oldest daughter in order to once again become accepted by her own children, who now obey Fiona. This camera angle helps depict the feelings of how they both are feeling, and is touching because it is apparent that Fiona wants to accept her mom but does not want to get hurt once again.

This shot is an example of a two shot, where Phillip Gallagher is speaking with a professor that he knows through a series of unfortunate events, but has grown to be close to. Phillip paid this professor a visit and they are seen here having a conversation on the campus from the distance of a close shot. This scene was enraging to me due to the current situation that Phillip is in and how he is asking around for support even as he is making a terrible decision in his life. Phillip’s girlfriend, Karen got pregnant and Phillip chose to dropout of his senior year in high school in order to help his girlfriend. He is a true genius and has so many people that have high expectations of him, but he chose to drop out leaving him no chance of a bright future. He is asking the professor for a job, but his request is instantly declined because he had not yet received his high school diploma. His girlfriend is still in high school and has not dropped out, so it is proven that Phillip has on option to stay in school so he can eventually get a better job in order to support his baby, but he chooses to take an unfortunate situation and turn it into an even worse one. This camera angle was able to express to me the importance of this conversation, which is that nobody is willing to help Phillip if he isn’t willing to help himself first.

This final shot is an example of a long shot. Karen is seen here approaching the house of a man that she had been with in the past; this scene upsets me because it shows her taking a turn for the worse. The reason she is going to his house is in order to lie to him and tell him that the baby belongs to him, and that she will need money in order to support it. He quickly hands her all of the money he can find but is in a rush because his wife is in the house and she is not aware of his situation. This shot is able to set the tone of the situation because it shows Karen waltzing into a peaceful environment, just to drop a bomb on somebody in order to use them and take their money, which is the only positive aspect she sees in having a child. It is visible that there are toys outside belonging to children, and the long shot is able to help capture the subject’s surroundings and furthermore the specific details that add to the scene.

Camera Shots Critique

I chose to comment on both Erin and Lenkas’ camera shots. I made note of 4 different shots that I found the most fascinating from each of their blogs. Both Erin and Lenka took their various shots with unique settings, moods, and subjects which made it much easier for me to comment in regards to their assignment on “12 Camera Shots”.

Under Erins' blog, I commented:"I chose to view the point-of-view, pan, freeze frame, and the dolly shots. I found the point of view shot interesting because as I was looking through the camera, it was almost as if my eyes were attached to the camera and I was in the room. By using her hand, she was able to display a cool affect whereas if her arm wasn’t in the shot the affect may have not been as apparent. The pan shot was my favorite because it allowed for more than what can be fit into the camera frame to be seen, the camera is moved around steadily which allows for both the surroundings in front and behind of the subject to be known which allows for a better understanding of the setting. The freeze frame shot is nice because it sets the mood as calm and relaxed due to both the silence and stillness of the camera and the setting. The dog is highlighted due to there being no distractions in the surroundings which is very nice. The dolly shot was another shot that I found interesting because it showed the subject in the camera appearing closer to the camera by the second which presents an affect that seems to have the subject being sneaked up on at a steady pace and a steady camera positioning."

Under Lenkas' blog, I commented:"The 4 shots that I selected to further review were the follow, cutaway, close-up, and finally the flash shot. The follow shot sparked my interest because it allowed for multiple perspectives to be shown as the camera shifts around an axis, although the subject is still being followed which makes it unique from a different shot such as the pan shot. The cutaway shot was my favorite that I watched due to a break in the main action in order to view how characters that aren’t directly involved are reacting towards the main conflict of interest, this is important to many films due to how the aftermath is affected by the conflict at hand. The close-up shot was beautiful because it showed a beautiful perspective on nature that we often don’t take the time to absorb, we are often so caught up with other things that we forget to take a long look at what is constantly surrounding us. The last shot that I reviewed was the flash shot which held a very surprising factor which is how one of the subjects pops up into the camera which can be used to create a scare effect for the viewers."

In all, both Erin and Lenkas’ shots were very well constructed and interesting to watch. They were able to create a cool and unique contrast within their shots which made it enjoyable for me to watch. It was also beneficial to me in many ways, it showed how I can better my shots through taking on several different angles that I may not have used and also it taught me about some shots where I didn't know a small detail about and also some shots in which I was not confident with at all.

Storyboard Shots

1. Head-on Shot
A head-on shot is where the action is moving directly towards the camera which I represented through the pencil case being thrown at the camera to replicate the affect. This can be used for jump scares in horror movies.

2. Extreme Close-up Shot
An extreme close-up shot is where the subject is a magnified object, which in this case is an eye that is the focal point of the shot. This shot can show great detail in a certain subject when necessary.

3. Establishing Shot
An establishing shot is a long shot that is used in order to show the location and mood of the current setting, in my shot the classroom is my location and there is a calm and relaxed mood.

4. Freeze Frame
A freeze frame is a shot in which the subject is seen moving or doing a certain task and then freezing which is depicted in this shot through the movement followed by a sudden stop.

5. High Angle Shot
A high angle shot is a shot that is taken from above the head of the subjects, shown here as the camera is looking down upon the subjects' head. The camera will often need to be attached to a stick in order to create the affect.

6. Eye Level Shot
This shot is almost as if you are looking into the subjects' eyes due to the level of the camera being at the eye level of the subject as shown here. The affect here is almost as if you are in real time with the subject on camera.

7. Low-angle Shot
A low-angle shot is a short film under which the subject is looking down upon the camera, this creates a unique point of view for the audience as the camera is often placed on the ground.

8. Two-shot
A two-shot can be either a medium or close shot, but in the shot I took, it is a medium shot. This shot is always wide enough to view two people that are often having a conversation with each other. The subjects do not look at the camera, but they are focused on one another.

9. Full Shot
A full shot is meant to capture the entire body of the subject from head to toe which allows for both the subject and their surroundings to be taken into perspective.

10. Follow Shot
A follow shot is where the camera follows the subject and keeps their whole body in the frame, following them and also showing the different surroundings of the area that they are walking through.

11. Close-up Shot
A close-up shot is a shot of a certain part of the subject or a certain object. In this case, the shot is an ioslated part of the subject being the hand that is typing on a keyboard.

12. Medium Shot
A medium shot is a shot where the subject is shown from the knees up and it allows for subjects of all heights to be seen although there is only one subject in this shot.