Micro Features: Lighting

Lighting is important to the mise-en-scene of a film and creates an different effect depending on which type of lighting is used.

A standard lighting set up involves three cameras which can all be used different and singularly to create different effects;  backlight, fill light and key light.




Key Light
Key light is a bright light placed to the side of a subject. This use of key lighting is supposedly used to create a big impact and create shadows along the face.

Back Light
Using a back light can create the effect of a silhouette. The lighting placed behind the figure will make it so the features upon the figure will not be shown, any facial features and such will not be clear and should appear black using back lighting.

Filler Light
Filler light is used to make sure shadows do no appear upon the figure. It is used to makes actors look youthful as shadows that may make someone appear to look old are rid of using the filler light.

Underlighting
Underlighting is most commonly used in horror films to make a subject appear sinister and frightening. The light source is placed below the characters face to creates shadows upon the subjects face.

Top Lighting
Top lighting is used to highlight features upon a persons face. Top lighting will show no lines or shadows upon their face and so the subject will appear youthful. Top lighting will usually accentuate their features eg. cheekbones

Low Key Lighting
Low key lighting is suitable for use in horror and thriller films to create suspension and fear in the audience. Low key lighting produces various deep shadows upon the scene, and can be used to produce shadows upon both the subject and the scene. It is a contrast between both the light and darkness of the scene.

Nosferatu

The scene above, the trailer of the film Noferatu (1922), is a good example of use of low key lighting within a horror film. Rather than show the figure of the antagonist low key lighting is used to show the shadow rather than the actual subject to create suspense and fear as the audience cannot see the vampyrs expression and this digs into the audiences fears.

Suspicion

This scene is an extract taken from Suspicion (1941) and is another example of low key lighting. The woman within this film is concerned her husband is out to kill her. We see the husband climbing the stairs but we do not see the husbands face nor any of his features, he is a black figure due to the low key lighting and this creates fear and suspicion within the audience. The audience cannot see the expression on the husbands face so we are unable to make a judgement about him and this gives a sinister feel to it. The glass of milk is very bright within this scene and so the focus is placed upon the milk, and this is so then audience will then make an assumption that the milk is poisoned.

High Key Lighting
High key lighting usually gives a more realistic look and is most commonly used in shots within films. High key lighting will rid the scene and/or the subject of shadows.

Mise-en-scene

High Key lighting is the use of a Fill light placed above what is being lit. This creates a brightness and softness to the scene or a glamorous or angelic appearance to a character as it does not create may shadows upon a scene or character and will make a subject look more youthful as few shadows will appear upon their face defining aging features. 

The word mise-en-scene is french and translated means "placing on stage"and refers to what is in front of the camera and where what is on the camera is placed. This includes; props, characters, sets, lighting, and costume and includes the actors movement and placement. It is used when a director means to create a certain impression of what is happening or of the characters without the use of dialogue, so the audience will know without it really ever being said.

1. Settings & props
Setting and what is within that location is important in setting a certain scene and mood the audience can pick up on and can also reflect the personality of the character. For example in the film Psycho we see the parlor within Bates Motel where Norman Bates takes Marion to dine with him. In this room upon the walls are dead birds of prey giving the audience a sense of what Normans character is like. It signifies him as himself perhaps a bird of prey, a bird of prey kills as does Norman Bates. Most people also get a sense of discomfort and will find the hanging of dead birds upon walls as decor to be creepy. The audience creates this impression of Norman Bates character being odd and a hunter, a man who kills. The stuffed birds give the audience a hint of Normans other personality.

2. Lighting and colour

Lighting can be used in various ways to create a different effect upon how the character or setting will appear. The position and what lighting is used can make the audience view the scene in a different way and create a certain impression. Most popularly used is a Three-Point lighting in which Key, Fill and Back lighting are used in most scenes as just a normal visual as to how the lighting would be, without manipulating it too much. 

High Key lighting is used usually upon a scene or person to create a glamorous perhaps even angelic feel. High Key lighting uses a Fill light upon what is being lit to create few shadows and upon a person would create a youthful look as few shadows will appear upon the characters face. Upon a scene High Key light makes a bright and softness to a scene. 

Low Key lighting is useful in horror films as it is often used to create a feeling of tense, thrill and fear within the audience. Low Key lighting creates many shadows and a huge contrast between light and dark. The darkness can make antagonists and characters obscure creating fear in the audience. 

Colour is also very useful in changing how we view a scene. Within Wizard of Oz colour is used to represent a fantasy world Dorothy finds herself in and the use of black and white within her life at home to show the dullness of her life at home in contrast to this exciting new world she dreams about. 

3. Costume, hair and make-up

A very noticable aspect of the mise-en-scene is costume including both the makeup and outfit of the subject. Costume gives us an idea of the characters personality and to signify differences between characters and change in costume can be of great significance to what has or is going to happen or a change in the characters personality or status. Costume can be chosen either very stereotypically or to contrast the persons character. Costumes and make up can be stereotyped by the genre and the position of the character. For example within the western genre you would be most likely to find a man wearing a cowboy hat, waistcoat and boots. A villain would often be found to be wearing dark clothing and heroes found in capes and spandex. 

Left to right: Loki (Villian) & Thor ( Hero)

4. Performance (Facial expression, Body language)

Performance is important within any film regardless of how interesting the story is and the actors performance as their character can decide how the audience will then perceive that character. Facial expression and body language usually give us an idea of how that character is feeling. Performance is usually individualized for that character and gives that character unique movements and the actor will give the character their own movements and expressions. 

5. Positioning of characters and objects within the frame

Directors can use positioning in various ways in the mise-en-scene to create a variety of effects. 

Characters that are placed in foregrounds of scenes are usually attached some sort of significance to, as they are placed within the foreground for a reason or will be then introduced to you. Characters you see placed far apart from eachother, with one on one end of the scene and the other placed on the other end we see a distance between these two characters whereas if we see people who are quite close to eachother we see that this could indicate a relationship of some sorts between these two people. 

Moving bodies or objects placed in backgrounds grasp our attention, so the positioning of characters and objects within the background that are moving are usually supposed to catch our attention.

Denotation - Literal description of an idea, object or concept
Connotation - What we associate with an idea, object or concept

Sound Exercise: The Accusation analysis

The Story
The Accusation begins on a young man whom is strolling through school, listening to music and unaware of whats happening around him until he hears the sound of a large crash. The student follows where the noise came from and discovers another student in a room and an object laying in pieces on the floor. This is obviously an object of some importance to the male student as they begin to argue and the female student denies his accusations. The camera then zooms onto a male figure in the background who is hidden from the two arguing, who is the real culprit of the disaster.

Use of sound
We used; diegetic sound, on-screen, off-screen and contrapuntal sound. We we're unable to use all of the sound techniques because we couldn't see a way in which we could appropriately interpret them into the piece. We tried to input as many different uses of sound as we could but were unable to use non-diegetic, parallel and a sound bridge.

1. In the first scene we use a low angle shot to film a male student making his way up the stairs. The sound in this shot is coming from both the boys headphones and his footsteps as he walks up the stairs. The sound from his headphones is both diegetic and on screen as we can see both the headphones and the audience and character can hear the music. The sound of his footsteps is again the same, it is both onscreen and heard by both the character and the audience.

2. The second shot carries on from the first as a panning shot and the same sounds are used again. Both the music and footsteps carry on as the sound and so the sound in this shot is still both diegetic and on screen.

3. The next shot is of the back of the boys head as he makes his way through a corridor, this could be seen as a close up of the back of his head. Both the sound of the footsteps and the sound of the music carries on and the sound of the music becomes louder in this scene to signify we've come closer to the character who is listening to the music. There is an offscreen sound when we hear a large banging sound in this shot and this is when the music then becomes parallel and the music suddenly does not match the mood.

4. This then carries on into a long shot in which the character is running towards the sound he had just heard. The music has been cut off at this point and the only sound used in this shot is the sound of the boys footsteps.

5. The next shot is a point of view shot, from the male students point of view, of a female obviously in distress. There is dialogue in this scene but this is coming from the male student and the camera is focused not on him, but the other student. This would make the sound an off-scren sound as it cannot be seen by the audience.

6. We then used a mid shot of both of the characters arguing over the destruction over what is was that was obviously broken, signified by the large crashing sound. All the sound in this scene is on screen and diegetic as it comes from both of the characters who are both onscreen at this moment.

7. The scene then cuts to them still arguing but the shot is focused on a figure hiding somewhere behind the female student and zooms slowly into the figure in the back. This makes the sound of the arguing become offscreen as we can no longer see both of the characters arguing.

I believe that the types of sound we chose to use suited what was happening within each of the scenes. We used all of the types of sound we were able to use, except from non-diegetic sound. The music we used would effectively match what we were trying to do. Like when we used the sound of the crash from the scene but we had the boy listen to his music before the crash to make a parallel sound, we wanted the parallel sound to create an effect upon the audience and to make the audience unsettled by the sudden change in sound.

Critical assessment 
As for the camera work, there were plenty of places in which it was wobbly and unsteady when we required the camera to move. We tried to keep it as stable as we could but in some places due to the shot type we wanted to use it was difficult for the shot not to be slightly shaky. As for the sound we both used sound we recorded, used microphones and input sound. When it came to the music coming from the boys headphones we input the sound in and I think this was more effective that just recording the sound from his headphones, although the sound was not as muffled as it perhaps should have been. But we chose the better option to put the sound in rather than record in in this instance. However the crash sound we used wasn't as magnificent as it should have been. I think that our uses of sound were very effective and we used them in the right places and at the right moments.

Conclusion
I think that what was positive about our piece was the way we appropriately used both shots and sound together. Our downfall was the shaky shots and that sometimes the sound was out of place, for example we change shots near the end of the piece but we made the sound overlap so that the sound from both the shots would fit into one another but the sound increases. Our final shot was a zoom and this was very shaky and didn't work as effectively as it should have, we could have used a different shot for this. We were trying to make this a dramatic moment but it was ruined by the wonky zoom.

Sound Exercise: The Accusation

North by Northwest (1959)

North by Northwest is a film about a man, Roger Thornhill, who finds himself being mistaken for someone else named Geoge Kaplan. He then finds that people are trying to eliminate him

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

The Manchurian Candidate is a film that was set around the time of the Korean war between Russia and America. The story is about a sergeant, Raymond Shaw, who returns from combat and is praised for saving the lives of his men and rewarded for this with a Medal of Honor for this heroic act. The commander of these men starts experiencing a recurring dream in which Raymond Shaw murders the two men it's said he was unable to save. It turns out Raymond has been brainwashed controlled by a Queen of Hearts.

The Birds (1963)

The Birds is a film about a wealthy well-known woman who follows a man to his home in a small town in Northern California. This is when strange things start to occur, episodes of birds begin to attack people. These attacks increase in viciousness and in larger numbers throughout the film.

Thrillers often include fast paced scenes. A scene will have something sudden happen and this changes the entire atmosphere of the scene and will scare the audience as they would not have had the time to examine what had happened as it has happened very suddenly.

This can be shown in the clip above. Melanie makes her way slowly towards the sound she has heard, the audience doesn't know what will happen when she opens the door and she is very suddenly attacked by a flock of birds. The viewer doesn't realise the full extent as to what will happen until it is happening.

The film uses an antagonist that is overwhelming. It doesn't seem as though the antagonist can be beaten and this is often portrayed in horror films. Often what we find horrifying is that there is no way to defeat what is causing such destruction and chaos.

The heroic figures in The Birds are Melanie and Mitch. Melanie protects the children and helps to instruct them to leave the school and get them to a place of safety when she is aware that the children are in danger. When she hears a noise from the house, she bravely goes to look for herself rather than putting someone else at risk of being killed. Mitch is heroic in that he keeps them safe within the house and plans their escape from the town. Mitch keeps the house secure and the birds from entering the household when they are trying to fight their way in.

The end of the film is a cliffhanger, as the car leaves we don't know what will happen next. If leaving the town will help them to escape or if the birds will just follow them or even if the birds continue to act violently towards people. The viewer is unaware of all of these things and the film is left with the audience asking themselves several questions.
The audience is aware that the film is called "The Birds" so when Mir

Psycho (1960)

Psycho is a film we watched within one of our media studies lessons and is a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is a horror based during the time in 1960 in which a woman is desperate to marry her lover, Sam, but she can't due to Sam's financial difficulties. The woman, Marion, works at a bank and when told by her employer to put $40,000 in the bank instead she takes the money in hope of playing off Sams debt and starting a new life with him. After many other interruptions with the police and with switching vehicles she finds a hotel off the main road to stay in for a night called The Bates Motel. The hotel is run by a man who seems quiet and submissive to his mother.

The audience is deceived into thinking that the film only concerns the $40,000 and whether Marion can escape from being punished for what she did and live a happy life with her lover, Sam. But this is not the case and this means the audience will be shocked by the murder of Marion in the shower scene as it is unexpected. The audience are then aware that anything could happen at any point and are on the edge as to what might happen next or who may be killed.

Psycho shows signs of being a typical horror film in the clip of Arbogast meeting the mother below.

This clip starts off slow in what is happening, Arbogast takes a long time in making his way into the house and up the stairs which is building up the tension as the audience is unaware as to what may happen next, whether or not Arbogast is killed by the mother is not yet known and this puts the audience on the edge of their seats. This changes suddenly when he makes is to the top of the stairs, the music makes a sudden change and is no longer slow but fast paced and high in pitch. The mother makes quick and sudden movements to walk into the scene and kill Arbogast. These sudden changes are there to scare the audience, the contrast in the change of sound and movement within those few seconds are what will scare the person watching, they go from the tension and not knowing anything at all to the mother killing him very suddenly. These are things we associate with many horror films.

I believe that Norman Bates was the antagonist of the film but I would not call him a villain. Norman Bates isn't a villain like the ones you see in James Bond films who plan on taking over the world but is a man with a mental illness. The things he does, he does to cope with the loss of his mother. He has a multiple personality that he is unable to control, he actually believes his mother is still alive and that it is her and not him who is killing all these people. Norman Bates himself, without the side of his mother coming through, wasn't and isn't a bad person. If there had to be a hero in Psycho then Arbogast or Sam would be the closest you could get for trying to do what is right.

Primarily the greatness of Psycho comes from the way Hitchcock reveals things to the audience that they didn't expect to happen which happens at three moments within the film; when Marion is killed in the shower scene, when it is revealed that infact Mrs Bates has been dead for years and the revelation that Norman Bates is infact who he has been claiming to be his mother the entire time. The shower scene was not to be expected as the viewer is focused upon the trouble Marion has landed herself in, the viewer will undoubtedly want Marion to find Sam and marry him and live happily and by killing her off Hitchcock has fooled us into believing that Marion is the main character and that the film is entirely based upon her life. The discovery that infact Mrs Bates has been dead for years comes as a shock to the audience as they will then question who it is then who is killing all these people after having been led to believe for so long that it has been Mrs Bates. And finally the scene in which it is known that Norman Bates is dressing as his mother and killing all these people will illude audience after they have been led to believe that Norman Bates is just covering for his mother. The character of Norman Bates has acted shocked and appalled all this time when witnessing the aftermath of these murders so the audience will not believe at first that it was him.

Alfred Hitchcock extensively used red herrings, suspense and cliffhangers within his films. One of the major red herrings is when Marion is told that Normans mother lives up in the house and we can see Mrs Bates shadow in the window and we also see Mrs Bates shadow on several different occasions by the window but at the end of the movie we discover Mrs Bates is dead.
The use of music is also important in building the suspension within this movie.

The video above is of the visceral music used whenever something violent or shocking happens. Alfred Hitchcock uses this music suddenly. Usually the previous piece of music would be more focused on building the tension and be slower before this music is used. This piece of music is much like nails being  scratched against a blackboard in a sense.

Micro Features: Sound Terminology

Sound

In our lesson we learnt about the different terminologies that are used when describing the different types of sound used within a film.

Diegetic sound is the terminology used to describe the world of the text. An easy way of thinking of it is that it is sound that will be heard by both the audience and the characters within the film.
Some diegetic sounds for example are; sound effects, dialogue, televisions, radios, knocking sounds, sounds of cars, screaming and internal thoughts are all diegetic sounds that are used within films that the character can hear.

Non-Diegetic sounds are opposite, and are sounds that are used out of the world of text. Non-diegetic sounds are sounds that the character will not hear but will be heard by the audience such as; music (soundtracks), voice overs, captions and titles. These are all heard by the audience but not heard by the characters within the film.

On-Screen sounds are sounds which are shown on the screen so the audience can see what is producing the sound. If a person is talking and the audience can see the characters that is talking on the screen as they speak then this would be an example of an on-screen sound.

Off-Screen sounds are sounds where the audience cannot see the source of what is making the sound. If you can hear a car driving but the image on the screen is not focused on the car that is producing this sound then this would be an off-screen sound. Off-screen sounds are used to make the audience aware of the diegetic world, that there is more than what appears to be happening on the screen.

Parallel sounds are sounds that match the action of what is happening within the scene. Sounds are used to create an atmosphere within a scene and parallel sounds are when the sounds used match what is happening within the scene or match whatever action is being made. For example in a horror film, if the scene is a scene in which they are running to escape from something the appropriate music to use would be fast paced to show urgency. This would then be a parallel sound.

Contrapuntal sounds are the opposite. Use of contrapuntal sounds are the use of sounds that are not matching that of what is happening within the scene. If the scene has a happy atmosphere but there is a use of sounds we wouldn't relate to being content or relaxing then this would be the use of contrapuntal sounds. For example in Jaws the scene set at the beach is a scene of enjoyment and relaxation but the music used when looking from the point of view of the shark is that of suspense and danger and does not match the happy beach scene.

A Sound Bridge is what creates a smooth transition from one scene to another. If you're moving from one scene to the next a sound bridge is used to make this change efficient and easy and to link both the scenes together.

Camera Exercise: Safe Place thriller analysis

The Story
Safe Place is a thriller set in a school. In the school the boy played by Corey starts to notice suspicious paranormal activity and shares this with his friend, who is played by Michael. They then seek to hunt out the cause of the strange goings on within the school and spot a strange figure in one of the windows. Quickly to prove the sighting they take a photo of the dark figure which then starts to move towards them. Both of the boys run but are caught by the figure at the end of the scene and fall to the floor, presumably dead.

Use of Shots
We used; long shots, over the shoulder shot, tracking shot, point of view, medium shot, high angle shot, close up, pan and a low angle shot but we did not use all the shots listed in the lesson because we didn't find a opportunity to use it within the story. We used the shots that were appropriate and made sense to the story.

1. The first shot was a long shot which we used to establish the scenery of the thriller so people would know the setting and be able to tell where the boys were coming from and going to. This shot also introduces the characters to the audience as they approach the camera and so the audience are aware that these are the two characters that the film will be focused on.
2. We then use a medium shot of the boys legs as they make their way down the stairs, this is used to show they are moving throughout the school and to show they are making their way down the stairs, they are obviously going somewhere but the audience are unaware yet of where they are going and what for
3. The next shot is a high angle shot from above the stairs the boys just walked down, of them walking from the room. Again this is just to show the boys are moving from place to place so the audience questions what the boys are doing
4. The next few shots are over the shoulder shots, we used these as it's an efficient way of showing the audience that both of the boys are now discussing something with each other and it gives the audience the chance to see the characters close up and so they can now distinguish the main characters. The audience can also see the urgency shown in the boys expressions in this scene as the shot gives the audience a good view of the boys faces as they talk.
5. The next is a mid shot of the boys leaving the building, again a shot of the boys walking so the audience are still wondering what will happen next and to hear the boys discussing more of the story
6. We then used a tracking shot to move to the next scene
7. We used a close up of the camera once Corey had taken the shot so the audience saw that he had taken the photo and in attempt to make the audience feel frightened of the dark unknown character
8. We used a pan shot of the boys that then turned to the dark figure which then turned back onto the boys running towards the dark figure as it moved away. We used a pan shot because we wanted the shot to be quick as to express the urgency of the event and so the audience will feel tense as to what will then happen next.
9. The second to last shot we use is a point of view shot, the camera is held by the boys so the audience will feel as though they are in danger because they see the scene from the point of view of the characters and so feel the characters fear and terror.
10. The final shot used is a low angle shot as the boys fall to the floor and the monster appears to make the dark figure look more menacing by looming over the two characters and combined with the point of view gives the audience the same feeling of peril and being in danger of the looming figure.

I believe my shots were successful as they gave us the effect we desired and the impact we wanted to impose on the audience, using particular shots and angles to effect the audiences feelings and thoughts. Each shot fit with the scene it was portraying and contained the characters and the settings effectively.

Critical assessment
Mostly the shot is held steady and the camera was kept on the tripod in most scenes, however in one of the tracking shots the camera movement jumps and seems unsteady at first and a steady shot is not held perfectly in all scenes. In the final scenes where the boys are running the unsteady shot in purposefully placed into the scene as part of the shot.
In each shot the characters were appropriately kept within the frame and the scene, although in some shots the frame is slightly tilted and not purposefully so, it was just a mistake that was not set correctly during the filming.

Conclusion
I think that the most positive elements of the film was our use of shots, I think we used each shot appropriately and the shots fit in well with the story and created the suspense and fear we wanted to instill in the audience that we wanted it to.
I do however think that some of the shots were shaky and that the editing could be improved. There were continuity errors with the changing of the characters clothing halfway between shots and lighting changes in some of the scenes, mostly because we had little time to focus on these faults and to re-film these scenes. Also in some of the scenes people were talking in the background and it distracted the audience from what was being said by the characters and so some of the audio was muffled and one scene had to be cut from the final product due to us being unable to hear one of the characters in his scene over the sound of the noise.

Camera Exercise: Safe Place Thriller

Micro Features: Cinematography

The Micro Features of a film include shot types and cinematography. 

Below are some of the different types of shots.

long shot

low angle shot

high angle shot

over the shoulder shot

mid shot 

point of view shot

close up

extreme close up

Macro Elements: Genre & Narrative

The Macro Elements of a film include genre and narrative.
Macro Elements are used when it comes to creating a response from the audience and regards the films structure and form and how this will generate a certain response in the viewer. Themes, debates and such need to be thought about when creating a structure for a film.

Genre:
Genres are a collection of groups that films, TV programmes and books can be placed into to create a particular look in a film or story. Genre is a way of categorizing things that use similar objects, characters, props and language.

For example if you see the use of things such as that in the images below:

(Spaceships, aliens, UFO's and futuristic technology) would suggest a sci-fi genre. As can the sound effects of lasers and spacecraft doors.
Music, sound effects, props and characters can all determine a certain genre.

Narrative:
A film is to tell a story and has a plot, this is called the narrative. The narrative is the relationship between the audience, the plot and the story and the control of this information being passed to the audience.

The narrative of a film can either be linear or non-linear.
Linear Narrative is the most frequently used when writing books or making films. Linear Narrative is when the story is arrange in chronological order. A story has a beginning, middle and end. Linear Narrative is when the film is told in this order; beginning to middle to end.

Non-Linear Narrative however does not. Non-Linear Narrative does not follow he story from beginning to end but rearranges this order. A film can be told with the end at the beginning or the beginning at the end. Non-Linear Narrative is when the order of the story is rearranged and is effective when it comes to how the audience will see the characters and the viewer will ask more questions.

Welcome to my blog

I am Jadzia Bambridge.
This is my blog containing my work for Media Studies AS which I am studying at Robert Clack school within their sixth form at year 12 and 13.