Mise-en-scene
Settings and Props – Built from scratch or time spent to find one that already exists, can force audience to have certain expectations and then not fulfil them. Props can be useful in further influencing how a character acts. Settings are also important to help indicate how a character might act, as instantly you can understand how a character might act based on where they live.
Costume, hair and make-up, similar to props, can be an indicator to the audience of what a characters personality, status and job are. In 3D work these are larger consideration as they can involve a lot more work – for example hair physics. Characters should always remain appealing even if they are not meant to be a character who is liked.
Facial expressions and body language – the face especially can provide a very easy way to tell the audience how a character is feeling. The body language can further accentuate this as well as indicate how a character feels towards other characters.
Positioning of characters and objects within a frame – this can be used to draw attention to certain objects or characters that the animator wants the audience to focus on in the scene. Positioning in the scene of characters or objects can indicate relationships – for example a character framed higher up than another character might have more power in the relationship.
Lighting and colour – highlights important characters or objects, similar to positioning. As an example a character who contrasts heavily with their background will be very obvious in a scene. You can further push a narrative of a character by lighting them differently – if they are in the dark they might be a mysterious character. This can also be used to reflect mental states of characters. Different colours hold different connotations for mood that audiences will instantly understand, for example blue meaning a character is sad, or red meaning a character is angry. Low key lighting and high key lighting can be used to make scenes seem more or less realistic/stylized. Colour palettes can be utilised to convey an overall feel to a film – potentially different palettes for different locations or times during the film.
The depth of field can be used to literally put objects in focus in the film. This can be subtly used even slightly to show audiences which characters or objects are meant to be focused on more in the scene. Deep focus is used to focus on everything in the scene including close and distant objects. This can be used to emphasize things that are far away whilst still showing what is happening close to the camera.
Types of shot can be used to give less or more information to the audience. However this can be utilised in an interesting way, for example in a close up shot you can not show what is happening in the scene and instead tell the audience by how a characters face is reacting to what is happening. This can also be utilized to show a sense of scale, with a long shot making a character potentially seem small or insignificant, whereas if they are framed with their upper body and head in the scene, they will seem important. Changing how close the camera is to the subject can be an effective way of really pushing on the audience what you want them to see.
Art of animation
Debate of mainstream versus high culture begins, animation crosses divisions and is promoted as a new technology by both mass producers and elitists. Peg system begins the universal standard for the medium in 1913, and by 1915 cel is introduced, allowing for the animation to be drawn over the top of a background with no redrawing involved. Both of these additions to the technology streamline the process and allow for new possibilities in animation production. America becomes home to many immigrants from Europe after there is social reform. Animation begins to provide a medium for experimental artists, with many artists switching from stationary work to animated.
Tasks
Task 1:
The usage of setting and props in this Fantastic Mr Fox scene set the scene immediately in a science lab with multiple items indicating this – including test tubes, scientific posters as well as props on the characters themselves – lab glasses. This instantly tells the audience where the characters are – in a lab.
Costume hair and makeup as previously mentioned show the characters are all wearing lab glasses to show they are doing lab experiments. For the first two characters, the male character is wearing some kind of cape, potentially showing him as a more eccentric character. The female character is wearing a dress with flowers, a motif often associated with innocence implying that she is a good character. The two characters on the right of the scene are wearing a fairly smart shirt implying he is a more mature and serious character, with the second character wearing a casual t-shirt, implying he is less serious and mature.
Facial expression and body language of the first character on the left show that he is getting gradually more and more frustrated with his lab partner, and his expressions later show him getting annoyed that the other two foxes are getting along, even rolling his eyes. The second character is shown to be very distracted and somewhat self-conscious, with her arms together, constantly looking at the third character throughout the scene, implying she is interested in him. The third character begins the scene looking back at the second character, but his body remains still throughout the scene even when the fourth character makes noise, implying that he is fairly calm and confident. The fourth character immediately enters the scene by slamming down a box near the experiment, implying a lack of care for safety. He also laughs after ruining the experiment, showing that he is not a mature character.
The scene seems to mostly be a dimly lit room with more light near the characters tables, with no particular focus until later in the scene when the characters faces are lit up more to show their emotions and interactions with each other. The posters and other scientific items are shown lit up, whilst the bottom parts of the desks are not as brightly lit, possibly to tell the audience faster that the scene is set inside a laboratory by forcing them to focus on the well lit scientific objects in the scene. The characters clothes are also lit brightly in the scene, for a similar reason as mentioned early in the character design part, showing the clothes of each character to the audience can help them get an idea of what each character is like.
The positioning of the four characters is important because it very effectively shows the relationships as well as intentions of each character. The two characters on the left are clearly familiar with each other and so are placed together, but the right character shows a lot more interest in the third character in the scene, as obviously shown by how she is literally looking out of frame to the right. The third character is positioned further away on another table with the fourth character, and is clearly respected as several other characters in the scene are trying to interact with him. The fourth character is positioned next to the third, though he is clearly not important to the three other characters. The positions of the experiments are also telling, as you can see that on the first table, the experiment is directly in front of the first character, contrasting with the second table where the experiment is between the two characters. This shows that the first character may not enjoy working with others and just wants to use the other character to pass him things whilst he does the interesting parts, whereas the other two characters are willing to work together more equally.
The shot choice frames the 4 characters in two separate groups, and is close enough to show character emotion whilst also showing their setting as well as their clothes. Later, the closeups can show the emotions of the two characters talking to each other, as well as the reaction of the first character behind them. The snapping back and forth between the two groups of characters also shows that there is a distance between the 2nd and 3rd characters that the 2nd character wishes to bridge, as shown by how she looks across the gap.
Task 2:
The mise-en-scene of this scene from Anomalisa show that the characters are lying on a bed, fully clothed, in the centre of the scene.
Based on the setting, they seem to be in a hotel room, as the bed and overall colour palette indicate they are not just on a bed at one of their homes. The room seems fairly bare, with little features to individualise it, drawing the eye further to the people in the middle of the shot.
The costume, hair and makeup show that the man on the left is older, having greying hair and wearing fairly basic clothing. The woman is also dressed in fairly nondescript clothing, though she is wearing brighter colours than the man, indicating that she is perhaps happier than he is. Neither character is dressed in a particularly noteworthy way that would make them not seem like fairly standard people.
The body language in this film to me seems like both are fairly self conscious, both using their arms to cover parts of themselves, especially the woman. She has wrapped her arms around herself as if to protect herself from the view of others. The man’s pose seems fairly unnatural, and not as if he is at ease. This leads the viewer to think that these two people are not particularly familiar with each other, despite lying on a bed together, as they are not in poses that indicate that they are at ease. The facial expressions also don’t seem very relaxed or happy, potentially indicating that they are both unsure about this situation.
The lighting and colour of the scene makes the room seem very neat but also very boring, with very little interesting features. The colours of brown and cream are fairly bland and tasteless, possibly implying that the world that they are currently living in is not interesting to them. The way in which the room is depicted leaves little to look at other than the people in the centre of the shot, and this could be a clever way in which the filmmaker is also showing that there is little for the people in the scene to look at and be interested in other than each other, as they are both more notable than the room.
The positioning of the characters in the centre of the frame seems to want the audience to look especially closely at them, to consider their body language, expression and what their relationship and thoughts are towards each other. The lack of many objects in the scene to draw the audience’s eyes further pushes this.
The shot choice in this scene really seems to want to focus on the personal relationship between the characters as well as to display their inner feelings. I think that it is interesting that choices that may seem inconsequential to most of the audience can drive a narrative and allow the audience to subconsciously understand what the filmmaker is trying to tell them without directly giving them information.
Task 3:
https://youtu.be/OLRMrb6NvmA?t=1861
The setting and props in this scene shows that they are in a fairly large, expensive house. It is decorated with many different props in the scene, implying that whoever lives there is rich and has the means to buy a large, expensive house with a lot of lavish items inside, such as the ornate bed, the paintings, the lamps, candle-holders, etc. Also, based on the setting you can also tell the general time period that this scene is set in.
The costume, hair and makeup instantly tell the audience what status each character holds in the scene. The seated woman has clearly had a lot of effort put into her hair and makeup to make her look attractive, and is also wearing a nice looking dress and jewellery. The other woman initially in the scene is in a standard maid uniform with her hair covered and looks fairly plain in comparison. When “Mrs Danvers” enters, you can still tell that she is an employee here and is dressed in a uniform, though her hair is uncovered and she looks like she has a job status higher than the maid, though is still “below” the seated woman in social status.
The facial expressions and body language in this scene tell a lot of the relationships between the characters, with the seated woman seeming happy and excited before the door is opened, with this turning to a nervous expression and drawn in body language upon seeing Mrs Danvers which persists throughout the scene. Mrs Danvers throughout the scene retains a cold, emotionless expression and stiff body language, subtly implying her distaste for the seated woman whilst remaining civil with her words. The seated woman repeatedly tries to talk to her and smiles at her several times, but is met only with an icy stare.
The lighting and colour in the scene is all in black and white so it is harder to tell, but the woman is depicted as light with the colour of her clothes and hair, implying that she is a character that the audience should be rooting for as she is “good”. Mrs Danvers is almost entirely dressed in dark colours, when coupled with her overall demeanour and body language you can tell that she is being portrayed as a villain of sorts. The seated woman also seems to stay mostly in the light within the scene, whereas Mrs Danvers is more in the shadows.
The positioning of the characters is interesting, as the woman who is seated is in a social position of power over the other two, as she is comfortably seated as the other two working women have to stand. However when Mrs Danvers comes in her lower position can be seen as Mrs Danvers literally looking down on her, when seen with the rest of how she is portrayed you can tell that she does not like this woman and is only serving her because she has to. Mrs Danvers in this scene overlooks how the other two are acting, and seems to be the character in the scene with most power as the other two seem to be wanting her approval. The seated woman eventually stands up and moves around the room, but her overall body language implies she is nervous and unsure.