Tuesday, 20 April 2010

Mise en Scene


Costume
Costume is one of the first things that an audience notice about a character. It can tell the audience alot which can save alot of time, adding other scenes and descriptions to set the scene. For example, in the first scenes of "The Pirates of the Caribbean" the audience instantly know that it is not set in present times due to the clothing of "Elizabeth Swan".
As well as setting the scene, clothing can tell the audience alot about the social class of the characters, for example we instantly associate a man wearing a suit with a middle class professional. We also associate a woman wearing a ragged, dirty dress with shackles around her ankles as a low class prisoner.
The personality of the character can also be shown using clothing. For example a Punk Rocker is obviously displayed by the clothing that he/she wears.

Makeup
Makeup can be used to create wounds on a character if they have just been injured in a battle scene. It would not be ethically correct if every wound seen on screen had to be inflicted onto the actor so that they could appear wounded for the film.
It can also be used alongside special effects to age a character, for example in the film "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" the characters had to age and it would effect the continuity of the film if two different actors were cast to play the same person.

Sets
Sets can sometimes be real places and the film is shot on location. However, it is sometimes not appropriate to shoot scenes in real places surrounded by the general public. For example if an explosion needed to be shot in the middle of London, the film company would have to pay for any damage done to the surrounding area, and the public would have to be cleared out of the area before, during and after the explosion to prevent any potential health and safety hazards. They would also have to notify people to prevent confusion and panic that would occur if they thought that it was an actual explosion. Therefore scenes like this would have to be shot using either special effects, added after shooting or on controlled sites made to look like the real location. Another potential downfall to shooting on location would be the public getting in the way of the filming and this would cause an effect on the continuity of the film.
Other scenes need to be shot in a studio in front of a screen where the scenery is added onto the background after filming. This is a cheaper way of filming but it can sometimes be obvious to the audience that the character is not (for example) walking down the streets of London. It is very difficult to get the character lit in the same way that the background is. So film companies prefer to shoot on location despite the costs.

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