Film Reviewer by Yanz Sven Paddie B. Madelo B.A.

in CMS II

Chapter 5: Mise en Scene

Mise en Scene
- Staging a scene through the artful arrangement of actors, scenery, lighting, and props.
- Production designer in collaboration with the film director.

Major Components:
- Setting
- Human Figure
- Lighting
- Composition
Styles:
- German Expressionist (1920s)
- French Style (1930s)
-
Setting
- Place where the film’s action unfolds.
- Change in setting can signify a change in character or a change in mood or a shift in the plot.
- Forced Perspective: filmmakers construct and arrange buildings and objects on set so that they diminish
in size dramatically from foreground to background *optical illusion-issh
- Computer-generated imagery (CGI): used to create settings.

Describing Setting:
 Contextual use: Context of interpretation includes the actions taking place there as well
as the way the setting relates to other settings used throughout the film.
Functions of the Settings
 Establish time and place
 Introduce ideas and themes
 Create mood
 *Certain genres are linked to specific settings and time periods.
 *Directors sometimes choose to use settings that work against expectations.
Human Figure
- Acting style and the placement and movement of figures influence viewer’s response.
Casting:
 Typecasting: repeatedly casting an actor in the same kind of role- offers benefits to stars
and studios
 *Sometimes actors deliberately choose roles that work against type.
Acting Style:
 Method Acting: a style based on the theories of Russian theater director Constantin
Stanislavski, who brought a new, psychological realism to character depiction in the early
20th century
 *Method Actors inhabit the psychological reality of their characters.
 Impersonation: describes the work of actors who seem to disappear into their roles.
 Personification: actors who remain themselves or always play themselves and may have
scripts written specifically to exploit their particular attributes.
 Technical Acting: refers to the mastery of external details.
  Character Actors: often play the same supporting roles in many films.
 Extras: Hired anonymously, often in crowd scenes.
 Cameos: are brief appearance by well-known actors playing as themselves
 Ensemble Acting: based on an equitable distribution of the work and the glory.
Acting Brechtian:
 Some filmmakers reject the conventions of realism.
 Film medium as a process of representation.
 Brecht’s Epic Theater (German, Bertolt Brecht): attempt to stimulate the audience’s
critical thought processes, not their emotions, by calling attention to the aesthetic and
political frameworks that produce stories and characters.
 Brechtian Distanciation: refers to the destruction of the theatrical illusion for the purpose
of eliciting an intellectual response in the audience.
Actors’ Bodies, Figure Placement:
 Figure placement and movement: what audiences see on screen- can produce artful
compositions, provide information about the characters and their relationships, develop
motifs, and reinforce themes.
 Actor bodies as elements of the visual field.
Actors’ Bodies, Costumes and Props:
 Costumes provide information about time and place, but, more importantly, they express
social milieu and personal style.
 Example: The Royal Tenenbaums, three Tenenbaum Children wear the same clothing
as adults as they had when they were growing up, humorously suggesting their arrested
development.

Actors’ Bodies, Costumes and Props:

 Make-up and hairstyles establish time period, reveal character traits, and signal changes
in characters.
 Prostheses: three-dimensional make-up that is attached to actors’ faces and bodies. May
produce comical or frightening effects.
 Digital Effects added in post-production also modify actor’s appearance. (Morphing)
 Actor may take serious physical changes in order to play a role.
Lighting
- It illuminates the set and the actors and can be designed to create certain moods and effects.
- Furthers audience’s understanding of the characters, underscores particular actions, develops themes,
establishes mood.
- Three Attributes:
1. Quality (Hard or Soft)
2. Placement (Direction from which the light strikes the subject)
3. Contrast (High or Low)
Quality:
 Hard Light: small light source, close to the subject, unflattering; creates deep shadows
and emphasize surface imperfections.
 Soft Light: large light source diffused over a bigger area or reflected off a surface;
minimizes facial details (wrinkles)
  Available Light (Natural Light): from the sun can be hard or soft depending on the time
of the day, time of year, angle od sun, cloud over, and geographical location, may also
vary in color.
 Magic Hour: just before sunrise and just after sunset in California 1910s
Placement:
 Frontal Lighting: creates flat effect, washing out facial details and creating shadows
directly behind the subject.
 From either side: produces a sculptural effect, rendering three dimensions by making
volume and texture visible.
 From behind: separates the subject from the background.
 Three-Point Lighting: standard approach to lighting; ensure appropriate illumination and
eliminate shadows.
1. Key Light: frontal light aimed at the subject from a range of positions. Next to
the camera or away from it on either side. The closer to 45 degrees the more
subject will be illuminated from the side which produces a sculptural effect.
2. Fill Light: positioned on the opposite side of the subject from the key light. To
eliminate shadows cast by the key light.
3. Back Light: aimed at the subject from behind and above. Separates
background and foreground. With minimal key or fill light, it produces a
silhouette effect.
 Eye lights (Obie Lights; from Merle Oberon an actress): Aimed directly into the eyes
of the actor to produce a gleam in the eye.
Contrast:
 High-Key Lighting: lighting design in which the fill ration is 2:1 or lower. Fill light is nearly
as intense as the key light; eliminates all shadows, provides illumination of the subject,
most facial details washed out; creates hopeful mood for comedies and cheery scenes.
 Natural-Key Lighting: produced with a ratio of key to fill light between 4:1 and 8:1. Key
light more intense than fill light.
 Low-Key Lighting: 16:1 and 32:1. Produce imagery with a number of shadows and high
contrast (many grades of lightness and darkness); for dramas and film noir, gothic
horror.
 Terminology is counterintuitive; higher ratio of key to fill is in fact a low-key lighting set-up.
Composition
- Visual arrangement of actors, objects, and space within the frame.
- Composition may reiterate underlying themes and ideas
- May also be chosen for striking visual effect.

Balance and Symmetry:

 Equitable distribution of bright and dark areas, striking colors, objects and/or figures.
 Unbalanced composition leads viewer’s eye in a direction by giving greater emphasis to a
bright or dark area of the frame, to an object or actor, or to an area of color.
 Asymmetry may suggest a lack of equilibrium but still composition must be interpreted in
context.
Lines and Diagonals:
 Human eye tends to respond to diagonal, vertical, and horizontal lines in decreasing
degrees of emphasis.
  Diagonal line carries the most visual weight.
Framing:
 Loose Framing: refers to shots in which figures have a great deal of open space around
them (may suggest freedom or isolation, depending on the narrative context and other
elements in the frame).
 Tight Framing: describes an image in which the lack of space around the subject
contributes to a sense of constriction.
Foreground and Background:
 Placement in the foreground and background may suggest something in the narrative.
Light and Dark:
 Chiaroscuro: using contrasting areas of lightness and darkness to create compositional
effects; named after a classical painting technique.
Color:
 Color Palette: range of colors, appropriate to the subject matter or the mood of the film.
 Influences the way audiences respond.
 May function as a motif.
 Reds, yellows, and oranges as warm (vibrant with energy)
 Blues and greens as cool (relaxing)
 Saturation: strength of a hue (red, blue, green, yellow)
 Desaturated Colors: less pure, more white than saturated colors, look grayish, pale or
washed-out
Two Approaches
German Expressionism:
- Named after the Expressionist movement in painting and sculpture.
- French used the term Caligarisme
- Dramatic use of mis en scene.
- Chiaroscuro Lighting, diagonal lines, and bizarre, artificial sets.
- Conveys a world out of balance and suggests extreme states of subjectivity- that is, states of feeling
rather than being.
French Poetic Realism
- Emphasized the complex interplay between individuals and society.
- Depicted characters whose fates are determined by their social milieu.
- Used mise en scene to illuminate the possibilities and limitations of characters trapped by social
circumstance.
- Characteristics:
1. Careful construction of the mise en scene
2. Elaborate camera movements.
- In contrast to German Expressionism, depicts realistic and identifiable environments.
Chapter 6: Cinematography
Cinematography:
- First 100 years of cinema was synonymous with photography, a photochemical process.
- As electronic technologies (analog and digital video) recording have eclipsed traditional methods.
Elements:
1. Camerawork (the operation, placement, and movement of the camera)
2. Lenses and Filters
3. Film Stock
4. Special Visual Effects.

Camerawork
Creating Meaning in Time:
 Shot: an image whose meaning unfolds over time. Vary in length.
 Scene: a coherent narrative unit: one that has its own beginning, middle, and end.
 Storyboards: a series of drawings that lays out the film sequentially.
 Director of Photography design set-ups, positioning actors, the camera, and lighting
arrangement.
 Take: every version of a shot.
 Out-takes: takes not included in the final print.
 Long Takes: Uninterrupted shots of more than one minute. Build dramatic tension,
emphasize the continuity of time and space, and allow directors to focus on the movement
of actors in the space of mise en scene.

Altering Time:

o Standard recording speed: 24 frames per second.

o Slow Motion: camera records images at a speed faster than that at which
it is projected. 36 frames per second. Breaks down movement into its
component parts.
o Fast Motion: record images at a slower speed than the speed of
projection. Called before as undercranking the camera. 16 frames per
second.
o Speed is indirectly proportional to the number of frames per second.
o Go-motion: builds movement into single frames. Creates a sense of blur
in moving puppets.
o Time-Lapse Photography: process of recording a very small number of
images over a long period of time – one frame per minute or per day.
o Frozen-Time Moment (Bullet Time Movement): Single action viewed
simultaneously from multiple vantage points around the action. (The Matrix)
The Camera and Space:
 Camera Placement and movement determine the way viewers perceive characters,
events, and objects in the world on screen.
 Three important variables:
 1. Camera height
2. Angle on the action
3. Distance from the action
 Choices convey information, form motifs, and create mood.
 Offscreen space: spaces within the world of the story that are temporarily or permanently
excluded from the viewer’s angle of vision.
Camera Height:
o Eye-level shots: at eye level (duh), usually combined with intermittent
shots from higher or lower vantage points.
o May convey a character’s perspective.
Camera Angle:
o High-Angle Shots: camera is positioned above the character or action and
aimed downward, tend to minimize the subject.
o Low-Angle Shots: position the camera below the subject, aiming upward,
often exaggerate the size and volume of the subject including the human
body.
o Canted or Dutch Angle: Leans on one side; creates a diagonal line;
signifies a moment of imbalance or loss of control.
o Overhead shot (bird’s eye shot): Gives a unique perspective on the
action from above.
Camera Distance:
o Extreme Long Shot: human subject < surrounding environment.
o Long Shot: camera captures the figure in its entirety.
o Medium Long Shot: human figure from the knees up.
o Medium Shot: waist up.
o Medium Close-up: chest up.
o Close-up: closes in on a section of the body.
o Extreme close-up: will depict only a body part such as an eye, ear, or
finger
o Medium and Close-up shots = greater sense of intimacy.
Camera Movement:
o Remains in the same position = stagnation
o Moving camera encourage viewer involvement.
o Reframing: Shifting camera’s height, angle or distance.
Horizontal and Vertical Movement:
 Pan: Horizontal movement; camera fixed on a tripod.
 Swish Pan: pan is executed so quickly that it produces a blurred
image, indicating rapid activity or sometimes the passage of time.
 Tilt: Vertical movement; camera fixed on a tripod; can stimulate a
character looking up or down; help isolate or exaggerate the vertical
dimension of an object or setting.

Movement in Three Dimensions:

 Dollies: Rolling platforms.
 Crab Dolly: has wheels that rotate; can change in direction.
  Tracking Shot: moving the camera on a dolly along a specially built
track.
 Crane shot: camera mounted on a crane.
 Aerial Shots: taken from airplanes and helicopters; help
filmmakers compose shots from great distance.
 Handheld shots: sense of immediacy.
Lenses and Filters
- Focus puller: carefully measures the distance from the lens to the subject being photographed.
- Selective Focus: *not defined in the book. In context: In Elephant (2003) suggests the varied ways
that the film's teenage characters fit into, or are alienated from, their suburban high school environment.

Depth of Field and Focal Length:

 Depth of Field: range of acceptable sharpness before and behind the plane of focus.
 Lenses may be:
1. Normal
2. Wide-angle
3. Telephoto.
 Focal Length: measurement (mm) of the distance from the surface of the lens to the
surface of the film.
 Given the same aperture and focus distance: Lens with longer focal length will produce
a shallower depth of field than a lens with shorter focal length. (Effect sa photos: mas long
ang lens mas blurry ang background).
 Normal Lens (focal length: 27 to 75 mm): like the human eye, no distortion.
 Wide-angle Lens (less than 27mm): wider angle of view than the human eye,
exaggerates the frame’s depth. Characters (or objects) in the foreground appear larger
than they are and characters (or objects) in the background appear smaller than they are;
enhanced depth; distance between foreground and background is greater than it is;
movement becomes faster.
 Extreme Wide-Angle (Fish-eye lens; focal length: less than 17.5 mm): straight lines
appear to be curved. Lens distorts space.
 Telephoto Lenses (focal length: 75 to 1000mm): compress distance between objects
at different distances from the lens; distance between the foreground and background
appears to be less than it is.
 Rack Focus: change of focus form one plane of depth to another.
 Split Screen: combines six separate images.
 Zoom Lens: have variable focal length; changes the size of the filmed subject w/o
changing the distance between the subject and the camera.
 Zoom in: Magnify the subject. Can be telephoto to wide-angle
 Zoom out: subject appears smaller
 Zooming in or out, the subject remains in focus.
 Trombone Shot: By Hitchcock, combines camera movement with zoom lens; creates
unusual shot; In context: The camera was tracked in toward the model as the lens
zoomed out This combination produces an unsettling physical effect because the stairwell
remains the same size (tracking toward it would make it larger, but zooming out
counteracts the track), but the apparent depth of the stairs increases (the zoom-out
increased the depth of field).
Lens Filters and Diffusers:
 Filters change the quality of light entering the lens by absorbing certain wavelengths.
 Neutral density filters: absorb all wavelengths and permit less light overall to strike the
film stock.
  Polarizing filters: increase color saturation and contrast in outdoor shots.
 Diffusion filters: "bend" the light coming into the lens, blurring the image; Mesh, netting,
and gauze (silk fabric) placed over the lens also reduce sharpness.
 Fog filters: have a glass surface with numerous etched spots that refract light, so they
create the appearance of water droplets in the air.
 Star filters: create points of light that streak outward from a light source.
 Color filters: absorb certain wavelengths but leave others unaffected.
Film Stock
- Film stock is composed of two parts:
1. the emulsion: a light-sensitive chemical layer in which the image is formed.
2. the base: the flexible support material for the emulsion.
- Attributes:
1. Gauge: size of the film, measured horizontally across the film stock. Standard Film: 35 mm,
Documentary, Experimental, Independent Film: 16 mm, Home Movies: Super 8 and Regular 8
Film.
2. Speed: measure of film stock’s sensitivity to light and is measured by an index called the ASA or
DIN number. The greater the sensitivity the faster the film; films using this require less light to
produce an acceptable image. Slow film stocks are insensitive to light but produce high quality
images under optimal lighting conditions.
3. Grain: Suspended particles of silver or color-sensitive grains in the emulsion layer. Visible as
dots. The slower the film stock, the finer the grain (In photos: Higher ISO (still sensitivity to light)
means grainy photo if light is very minimal)
Light and Exposure:
 Exposure: refers to the amount of light striking the light-sensitive emulsion layer of the
film stock
 Overexposure: occurs when more light than is required to produce an image strikes the
film stock; the resulting image is noticeable for its high contrast, glaring light, and washed-
out shadows
 Underexposure: occurs when too little light strikes the emulsion. Dark areas in an
underexposed image will appear very dense and dark (including shadows), and overall
contrast will be less than a properly exposed image.
Film Stock and Color:
 Directors and cinematographers choose their film stock according to the aesthetic effects
they are seeking to achieve.
 Tinting: which involved bathing lengths of developed film (typically one scene at a time)
in dye.
 Toning replaced silver halide with colored metal salts so that the dark portions of the
frame appear in color rather than black.
 Orthochromatic film: sensitive to blue, violet, and green-was developed in the 1920s.

*P.S. Nag stop na ako sa may page 167 kay feeling ko di na ito isali ni ma’am kay super damo damo na
old stuff and medg kapoy na ako dito sa chapter na to.
Chapter 7: Editing
Editing:
- allows filmmakers to simplify the choreography in each shot.
- editing allows filmmakers to choose the best moments from various takes and combine them into one
ideal scene-even if the decision is made out of necessity.
- is the combination of imagery, creating meaning by the play of one image against another.
- Attributes:
1. Collage (comparison/contrast of imagery)
2. Tempo (shot length and transitions)
3. Timing (coordinating cutting)
- Editing shapes the way time is presented onscreen in four ways:
1. suggesting continuously flowing action;
2. manipulating the length of time;
3. suggesting the simultaneity of events;
4. and arranging the order of events.
Joining Images:
 Editing forms a collage, an assortment of images joined together in a sequence. When
images are joined, audiences formulate ideas and derive meaning by comparing the visual
details of each shot.
 Editing can also encourage audiences to compare and contrast the cinematographic
qualities of each shot.
 Reverse shot: a shot taken from the reverse angle to the preceding shot.
 Editing can also emphasize similarities between shots, establishing a point of comparison
between two people, places, or things.
 Graphic match: is when two shots are juxtaposed in a way that emphasizes their visual
similarities.

Tempo:
 Two factors:
1. the length of each shot
2. the type of shot transition
 Shot Length: long takes tend to slow down the pace of a scene, while short takes quicken
pace and intensity.
 Shot Transitions: way to adjust the rhythm of editing; method of replacing one shot on
screen with a second; help convey a passage of time; have an effect on the pacing of the
film.
 Cut: when Shot A abruptly ends and Shot B immediately begins.
 Fade-out/Fade-in: Shot A gradually darkens until the screen is completely black
(or white, or red, or some other solid color) and then Shot B gradually appears.
 Dissolve: (sometimes called overlapping, or lap dissolve), in which Shot A
gradually disappears, while, simultaneously, Shot B gradually appears. Unlike
fades, with a dissolve, the two shots will temporarily be superimposed. The viewer
sees the two images overlapping one another
 Wipe: when Shot B appears to push Shot A off the screen; that is, a portion of
Shot B will appear on one side of the screen and will move across the screen until
Shot A disappears altogether.
  Iris in/Iris out: occurs when a circular mask-a device placed over the lens of the
camera that obscures part of the image appears over Shot A. The circular mask
gradually constricts around the image until the entire frame is black, at which point
Shot B appears within a small circular mask. The circle, or iris, expands outward
until Shot B takes up the entire screen.
Adjusting the Timing of Shot Transitions:

 placing shot transitions so that they coincide with other visual and sound elements.
 Shot transitions may also correspond to visual cues.
Story Centered Editing and the Construction of Meaning
Editing and Time:
 Narrative films tell stories by splicing (joining together) multiple shots to convey the cause-
and-effect logic of the plot. The order in which an audience sees shots determines how
the audience perceives the storyline.
 Narrative Sequencing: the arrangement of images to depict a unified story time; allows
filmmakers to shape the audience's perception of time in three ways:
1. to condense or expand time;
2. to suggest the simultaneity of events happening in different settings;
3. and to rearrange the order in which audiences see events.
 Montage Sequence: emphasizes the actual process of passing time; Montage
sequences consist of several shots, each one occurring at a different point in time, and
each joined together by an appropriate shot transition; can span hours, one day, a few
months, or years.
 Parallel editing (cross-cutting): is when a filmmaker cuts back and forth between two or
more events occurring in different spaces, usually suggesting that these events are
happening at the same time; create suspense.
 Editing can also allow filmmakers to rearrange the sequence in which events are shown.
Editing makes possible the expressive potential of those moments when a film's syzuhet
reorders chronology to suggest a similarity between two points in time or a cause-and-
effect relationship.
 Flashback: when events taking place in the present are "interrupted" by images or scenes
that have taken place in the past; emphasize important causal factors in a film's fabula.
 Editing also allows filmmakers to reveal a character's dreams or fantasies.
 A dream: usually signaled by a shot transition that indicates the boundary between reality
and fantasy.
 On rare occasions, filmmakers will insert a flashforward, interrupting the events taking
place in the present by images of events that will take place in the future; significance is
usually far more ambiguous
Editing and Space:
 Tableau Shot: a long shot in which the frame of the image resembles the proscenium
arch of a stage
 Editing focuses the audience's attention on anything from the microscopic
 As filmmakers cut within scenes, they can draw the viewer's attention to a number of
things, including the emotional tenor of a conversation, the objects of a character's gaze,
important details in the mise en scene, and the group dynamics of a scene
 Shot/reverse shot: a standard shot pattern that directors use to film conversations
between two characters.
 Eyeline match: This match cut uses a character's line of sight to motivate the cut.
  In scenes involving more than one or two characters, filmmakers sometimes cut to specific
areas of the mise en scene to help suggest complex group dynamics. This occurs
frequently in scenes where the characters have conflicting goals and distinct character
traits, where editing can help portray a complex interweaving of different emotions, types
of behavior, and physical responses to stimuli.
 Cutaways: shots that focus the audience's attention on precise details are called
cutaways; Unlike an eyeline match, a cutaway is not character-centered; the onscreen
appearance of an object does not depend on a character having to "see it" in the previous
shot.
Continuity Editing: Conventional Patterns and "Bending the Rules"
 Continuity editing (invisible editing): because the cutting is so seamless from one shot
to the next that audiences in the movie theater are not even aware that they are seeing
an assembled sequence of images; ensure that audiences have a clear sense of the
geography of a scene.
 Standard Shot Pattern: which helps to orient audiences to the setting and spatial
characteristics of a scene.
 Establishing shot: usually (but not always) a long shot designed to clarify when and
where the scene is taking place in relation to the previous scene and to provide an
overview of the entire setting.
 Re-establishing shot: another long shot that reorients viewers to the environment, that
offers closure to the scene, paving the way for the next scene.
 18O-degree rule: this rule dictates that, within a scene, once the camera starts filming on
one side of the action, it will continue filming on that same side of the action for the rest of
the scene unless there is a clearly articulated justification for crossing "the axis of action."
 Jump Cut: An abrupt, inexplicable shift in the time and place of an action which is not
"announced" by a transition.
 30-degree rule: dictates that the camera should move at least 30 degrees any time there
is a cut within a scene. For example, if a scene calls for a cut from a medium shot to a
close-up of the same actor for dramatic effect, the camera would need to move 30 degrees
to either side. Moving the camera at least 30 degrees gives the cut dramatic purpose.
Failure to do so gives the editing a feeling of unnecessary or random fragmentation.
 Continuity editor (script supervisor): whose job is to maintain consistency of action
from shot to shot.
 Continuity Error: Any unintentional discrepancy from shot to shot-an inexplicable change
in location, in costume, in posture, in hairstyle.
 Match on Action: If a cut occurs while a character is in the midst of an action, the
subsequent shot must begin so that audiences see the completion of that action, thus
guaranteeing the illusion of fluid, continuous movement.
"Breaking the Rules": The French New Wave and its Influence:
 *References, references, references on different films.
Associational Editing: Editing and Metaphor:
 Soviet montage: is a style of editing built around the theory that editing should exploit the
differences between shots to produce meaning; developed and perfected in Russia during
the silent film era of the 1920s, when the Soviet regime had just come to power.
Chapter 8: Sound
Sound:
1. Dialogue
2. Music
3. Sound Effects
- Mixing is the process of combining the three elements of film sound into one soundtrack, which is added to the
image track in post-production.
*ask nalang ako kay Nong Kyle Later.