DE LA SALLE-COLLEGE OF SAINT BENILDE

SCHOOL OF DESIGN AND ARTS

DESIGN FOUNDATION

BASIC VIDEO PRODUCTION (BAVIDEO)

LECTURE 3: MIS-EN-SCENE AND LIGHTING

PREPARED BY: NESTOR ABROGENA

MISE-EN-SCENE

• French term from theater, literally means, “put in the scene” or “staging an action”

• Articulation of cinematic space / representation of space• refers to almost everything that goes into the

composition of the shot, including the composition itself, even sound as it elaborate the composition

• director’s control over what appears in the film frame• includes:• . PRODUCTION DESIGN (set design and decor, props,

costume, make-up)• . ACTING• .CINEMATOGRAPHY (Lighting, Camera Position and

Movements)

PRODUCTION DESIGN

- over-all look and design of film

- PD work in consultation with the director and, where necessary, visual and special effects supervisor (change the colour of a film, add grain or texture, virtual sets)

PRODUCTION DESIGN

a.1 Set Design, decor, props – amplify character emotion / dominant mood of a film. Includes color scheme/visual motif, texture, strong patterns and geometrical designs.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

a.2 Costume and make-up – signify character, advertise a particular fashions, or to make clear distinctions between characters. Wardrobe design, special make-up, prosthetics.

ACTING

- Actors and their performance

TYPAGE- selection of actors on the basis that their facial or bodily features readily convey the truth of the character the actors play; related to the use of stereotype

the hero of the Mongol people... and the explotative English capitalist

 

the partisan's leader, noble and stoic in his deathbed...and the pompous and greedy general

the partisan woman, strong mother and fighter... and the decrepit general's wife with royal ambitions

CINEMATOGRAPHY

c.1 Lighting - The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived. Light affects the way colors are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the composition.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• c.1.1 THREE-POINT LIGHTING – standard lighting scheme for classical narrative cinema. Light from three directions is used to model an actor’s face or an object.

• * BACKLIGHT – picks out the subject from its background

• * KEYLIGHT – highlights the object / main source of light

• * FILL LIGHT – ensures that the key light casts only faint shadows

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• c.1.2 HIGH-KEY LIGHTING – the fill light is raised to almost the same level as key light; produces very bright images and features few shadows on the principal subject

• c.1.3 LOW-KEY LIGHTING – very little fill light, creating strong contrasts between the brightest and darkest parts of an image and often creating strong shadows. Usually seen on suspense, thriller films

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• c.2 Space – The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the diegetic world.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• c.2.1 DEEP SPACE/SHALLOW SPACE – significant elements of an image are positioned both near to and distant from the camera. Do not necessarily have to be in defocus / focus. Staging in deep space is the opposite for shallow space

• DEPTH OF FIELD- zone of sharp focus• DOF is shallow at big aperture, also at telephoto lens

moderate at f5.6

• extensive at small apertures, also at wide angle setting

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• c.2.2 FRONTALITY – actors face the camera square-on; avoided by continuity / breaks the spectator’s illusion of peeking into a separate world.

• c.2.3 MATTE SHOT – a process shot in which two photographic images (usually background and foreground) are combined into a single image.

• c.2.4 OFFSCREEN SPACE – space that exists in the diegesis but that is not visible in the frame, commonly exploited for suspense in horror and thriller.

DIRECTOR’S CONCERNS / OTHER SHOOTING

JARGONS

1. DIEGETIC/NON-DIEGETIC ELEMENTS

- digetic: present in the frame, opposite is non-diegetic

DIRECTOR’S CONCERNS / OTHER SHOOTING

JARGONS

2. LEADING THE ACTION- whenever a subject has a definite movement toward the edge of the frame, place the subject closer to the edge from which he is moving

DIRECTOR’S CONCERNS / OTHER SHOOTING

JARGONS

3. 180-DEGREE RULE- screen direction refers to the right or left direction on screen as seen by the audience. The 180-degree rule/director’s line tells how to maintain when different shots from the same scene are edited together. Used in conversations.

DIRECTOR’S CONCERNS / OTHER SHOOTING

JARGONS4. CONTINUITY- usually several takes of the same scripted

action are shot, in part because actors blunder and crew members make technical errors. Allow for an overlap of action for the purpose of editing. Solutions: cutaway, dissolve effect in editing to show time lapse, pull back (either zoom or dolly out)

• CUTAWAY- a shot away from the main action to cover discontinuities.

NOTES ON MIS-EN-SCENE

What is important in the analysis of miseen-scene is the relationships between itsvarious elements. These elements arealso regulated by the conventions of: - genre - film institutions (e.g. Hollywood,independent cinema, and art-housecinema)

NOTES ON MIS-EN-SCENE

• Mise-en-scene contributes to:• • Visual style: e.g. surreal, expressionist, realist, grungy, stark • Tone: e.g. satirical, ironic, nostalgic, camp • Cultural-historical location: e.g. small town America,

Australian suburbia, futuristic urban dystopia • Narrative themes: e.g. alienation, claustrophobia, voyeurism • Character: e.g. loneliness, oppression, repression, rebellion • Point of view: • - of the narration • - of a character • - ideological* • Ideology refers to the representation of social, cultural or

political beliefs as natural or taken-for-granted (rather than historical and open to contestation).

NOTES ON MIS-EN-SCENE

• Perhaps a general rule is that films made in the classical continuity style point of view usher the viewer through the progress of the narrative. Films that depend on mise-en-scene ask true viewer to pause and examine the compositional spaces of the narrative. The classical continuity style is directive the mise-en-scene style contemplative.

LIGHTING

• Light is the most important element in photography, cinematography and videography. It defines the image/images that we capture thru our lens.

• Lighting directs the viewer’s attention, since the eye is naturally drawn to bright areas of the frame.

LIGHT SOURCES

• NATURAL – Sunlight- light that comes directly from the sun. It’s

hard light that cast strong shadows– Daylight- sunlight should not be confused with

daylight. Daylight is a combination of sunlight and skylight. The light is both hard directional, and soft directional at the same time. It has shadowa that are strong and diffused at the same time.

– Ambient- it is the most diffused light source. A completely overcast day is essentially shadowless lighting. The entire sky, hoeizon to horizon , becomes the light source

LIGHT SOURCES

• ARTIFICIAL– Incandescent light sources consist of a

tungsten filament in a sealed bulb which is designed so that the terminals of the filament are accessible.

– Commercial light sources used in film/videomaking

– Practical lights “practicals”

HOW LIGHT REVEALS THE STORY

• TIME AND PLACE • light is shifting all around you (time of day)• MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE• mood is about a character’s feelings; atmosphere is

about the place• MOVEMENT• light changes over time, so one of the primary types of

movement that can be conveyed by lighting is movement through time

• FOCUS• it is the director’s job to tell the audience where to look,

but the DP can always help out. Lighting can help us decide what is important and what is background.

DIRECTIONALITY

• Full Frontal

• ¾ frontal

• side light

• back light

• top light / under lighting