Viewing and Representing

 A term from French theatre: “placing on stage”, it

is a way to describe what appears onstage. In film,
it refers to some to the elements that film and the
stage have in common:
SETTING (sets)
COSTUMES
LIGHTING
SPACE (acting/blocking)

 When we talk about the mise-en-scene of a particular shot or an entire

film, we are referring to what significant props surround the characters,
how what they are wearing impacts the character, or how the light playing
off a character’s features enhances or detracts from the character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=wFiP-E1zTRc
 The shot is the building block of all
filmmaking.
 It is a single, uninterrupted piece of film; the
image that is seen on screen until it is
replaced by another image through some
type of editing technique.
 One of the first decisions a director must
make is how the objects or people will be
positioned within the shot, or how much of
the “frame,” the movie screen, will be
occupied.
 3 main types of framing:
 The long shot
 The close-up
 The medium shot
 In a long shot, the object on the screen
appears small or appears to be seen from a
distance; if a person is shown, you will
generally see his or her entire body.
 Long shots are used to establish the scene so
the viewer will know where the film is taking
place; giving the viewer a sense of time and
place.
 They are also used to show distance or
separation between characters, or to show
how a character interacts with his or her
surroundings.
Harry Potter and the Order of
the Phoenix

Inside the Ministry of Magic

 The object or person takes up 80% or more of
the frame in a close-up.
 Can be used to direct the viewer to a crucial
detail, to emphasize facial expression or a
character’s reaction, or to indicate intimacy.
 Forces the viewer to look at only what the
director intends for the viewer to see.
 Is intimate and revealing though somewhat
intrusive and authoritative.
 In a medium shot, you see characters from
about the waist up.
 This type of framing is probably the most
naturalistic and most common of the types,
as it is in real life.
 Medium shots may not communicate much in
the way of cinematic effect because they are
considered “neutral” shots; however, they
are unobtrusive and comfortable, most like
the way we view people through our personal
space distances.
 Soft Focus: the picture is just slightly out of
focus to give the frame a soft, romantic texture,
to create a lighter mood, or even to create
uncertainty.
 Rack Focus: used by directors to change focus
from one object to another in the same shot; for
example, focus is on an actor looking out a
window at the far side of a room. The phone
rings, and focus shifts to the phone sitting on a
table in the foreground.
 Deep Focus: all the objects in both the
foreground, middle ground, and background are
in focus. EVERYTHING is in focus and can be
seen equally clearly.
 Angle refers to where the camera is placed in
relation to the subject in the shot.
 Low Angle: Can create a sense of power, because
the camera is looking up at the subject.
 High Angle: Can make the subjects look small,
weak, or powerless.
 Eye Level: Considered a neutral angle, it is more
natural. A director can follow a series of high
angle shots to indicate a growing confidences
within the character.
 Dutch Angle: a tilted or “canted” angle in which
the subject appears sideways, it is used to
create tension, or to indicate danger or
uncertainty.
 Pan shots: The camera pivots along a horizontal axis, usually
from right to left, in a long shot, often used to establish the
setting.
 Tilt shots: The camera pivots along a vertical axis, up and down,
to communicate distance, height, size, and/or strength.
 Zoom shots: The focal length of the lens changes, making the
object appear closer or farther away. It is a way to direct the
viewer’s attention to a detail that the director doesn’t want us
to miss.
 Tracking or Dolly Shots: The only one of the four types of camera
movement in which the camera actually moves along with the
action of the scene. The camera may be on a track, a truck, in a
helicopter, or actually carried by the operator (like the Blair
Witch Project). It allows the viewer to go with the action,
become a part of it, or follow along behind it.
 The principal source of light on a film set is
called the “key light.” The other lights on
the set balance, soften, shade, or intensify
the key light as dictated by the director.
 Low-Key Lighting: Uses shadows, darkness,
and patches of bright key light to create
moods of suspicion, mystery, and danger.
This kind of lighting is great for horror films,
film noir (stylish Hollywood crime dramas,
often shot in black and white), and detective
films because things can be hidden or
concealed in the depth of shadows.
 High-Key Lighting: This type of lighting is
distinguished by its brightness, openness, and
lack of shadows or contrasts between light and
dark. Romantic comedies, musicals, and
costumed dramas are often filmed with high-key
lighting, since, with this type of lighting,
characters and situations are seen without
misunderstanding or threat.
 Neutral Lighting: The lighting is even and
balanced; most television programs are shot with
this of evenness in mind.
 Bottom/Side Lighting: When you have the light source
shining from under the chin or from the side of the face of
a character, or from the bottom or side of an object, it
illuminates only parts of the face or object, so that the
shadows distort the figure and makes it look a little
unusual or scary. This type of lighting has the effect of
making characters look evil, sinister, deceptive, morally
ambiguous, or conflicted in some way.
 Front Lighting: Full-frontal lighting which is used to
create an air of innocence or openness. It often creates a
kind of “halo effect” around the character’s hair; it was
considered absolutely essential for most Hollywood
actresses. A character who is honest with nothing to hide
will often be shot this way – the hero or heroine in
particular.
 Sound is equally as important as the visual
imagery in its ability to create an effect on a
viewer.
 Diegetic Sound: (dye-uh-jeh-tick) Any sound
that could logically be heard by a character
within the film environment is called
diegetic sound. Typical diegetic sounds
include such things as background noise,
traffic, dialogue between characters, etc.
 Nondiegetic Sound: Any sound that is
intended only for the audience and is not a
part of the environment of the film is a
nondiegetic sound (the duh dunt, duh dunt,
music in Jaws, for example).
 Internal Diegetic Sound: What if a character
is talking to himself? Or what if a character is
remembering sounds that he heard? If only
one character can hear these things, the
sound is internal diegetic, since it is logical
that the character himself can hear the
sounds, whereas the other characters do not.
 The angle, lighting, focus, and sound are
parts of the shot, but the way the director
and the editor put all the shots together to
create a finished film is a separate process,
called editing.
 The most common type of editing is called a
“cut.” One piece of film is literally cut and
then affixed to another piece, and the result
is a tiny, split second of black (like a blink)
before the next shot appears. This is by far
the most common and the quickest method
for editing two shots together.
 The Fade: This type of edit occurs when the image on-
screen slowly fades away and the screen itself is entirely
black (or some other color) for a noticeable period of
time, and then a new image slowly fades in from that
black screen.
 The fade can be used to denote the end of a scene or that
a measure of time has passed.
 The Dissolve: Like the fade, the image begins to slowly
fade out, but instead of going to black, it is replaced by
another image.
 The dissolve is often used as a way to make a connection
between characters, objects, or scenes that the viewer
might not have made without its use. Think of the scenes
in Titanic when the director shows images of the ship on
the bottom of the ocean, and then dissolves to shots of
the ocean liner in all its shining glory.
 Also called parallel editing, the crosscut is used to show different
events occurring in different places at the same time.
 This type of editing can create suspense and tension, as when the
camera cuts back and forth between the oncoming train and
Buddy Threadgood in Fried Green Tomatoes.
 It can also create linkages between characters, themes, or plots.
The ending of The Godfather crosscuts between Michael Corleone
at his godchild’s baptism, to the brutal murders of his opponents
which he ordered, back to Michael as he swears to renounce evil.
This shows exactly what kind of man he is and what he is
capable of.
 A film like Sleepless in Seattle could not exist without
crosscutting, because the audience would not be able to see the
growing connection between the two main characters who do not
know each other.
 The flashback is designed to give the viewer importance
information about what has happened in the past.
 The flash-forward takes the audience ahead of the story’s
present time.
 These editing techniques can be used separately or
together to give information, or to create tension and
suspense.
 The Eye-Line Match: (AKA point-of-view shot) This type of
editing assembles a series of usually 3 or more shots to
reveal what a character is thinking or to help the audience
feel what a character is feeling. In the film Philadelphia,
a client with AIDS comes into a lawyer’s office and,
through a series of eye-line matches where we see that
the lawyer is watching the client’s every move, we learn
that the lawyer is paranoid about the disease to the point
that he refuses to take the client’s case.
 How long each shot is permitted to stay on-screen before
it gets replaced by another shot through one of the editing
techniques we have discussed, and the pattern of the time
between shots, can be used to create effects in films as
well.
 For example, in a chase sequence a director may crosscut
between the good guys and the bad guys. At first, the
shots may be fairly long, but as the good guys catch up
with the bad guys, the intensification of the action may be
shown by making the shots progressively shorter, cutting
between the two very quickly, in order to build suspense
and anticipation.
 Longer shots may represent calmness, or a more peaceful
environment.