Film Appreciation - Mise-en-scene

 

 Film Appreciation

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is a French term derived from drama. It means “putting-on-stage”. It is the basic grammar of film-language. It stands for the particular style or technique of a maker in designing a visual.

Shot

A shot is an uninterrupted filming of an object or an action. It generally is marked by the director’s call ‘start’ and ‘cut’  on a shooting spot. It can also be understood as the ‘camera-distance’. There are six basic shots. They are: i) Close up  ii) Extreme Close-up  iii) Mid-shot  iv) Full shot  v) Long-shot   vi) Extreme –Long shot.

A film uses different shots, not just to keep the viewer engaged through variety. Each and every shot has its specific value and impact.

Close-up

Close-up is a miracle of cinema. Close-up creates an unsurpassable intimacy between the viewer and the visual.

Extreme close-up

 An extreme close-up is as unique to cinema as any fairy-tale exoticism. If cinema is a surrogate with its vicarious experience, an extreme close-up shot is a perspective which one can never have otherwise. Da Vinci  in his precise description of perception points out that the minimum distance required for a clear perception should measure equal to the length of the viewer’s face. So outside filmic experience an extreme close-up is impossible in life. Also, if a close-up creates intimacy revealing features of the object, an extreme close-up presents the minute details of it.

Mid-shot

A mid-shot is closer to everyday reality than the other shots. It gives an impression of being there. It is almost like being a passive participant and a silent spectator of a neighbourhood affair. That’s why this shot is generally used in TV dramas and talk-shows. It is almost like the frame accommodating the viewer and the camera nodding a ‘thanks- for-stepping-in’

Full –shot

A Full –shot or a mid-long shot it like a drama director asking his actor to ‘open-up’. Remember the striking mid-long shot used in the airport scene in ‘Return of the Dragon’ to introduce Bruce Lee.

 

 

Long-shot

A long-shot places the character in the space. Sometimes a character exists in the space and sometimes it struggles against the space. So, in a long-shot both the character and the backdrop are important. That is why to suggest a morbid, unlocalized space  the maker uses a limbo shot in which the background is just painted in white. It is like a colour contrast as the one effectively used in Matrix when Neo calls for weapons.

Extreme long

An extreme long shot is genereally used with wide angle, telefocus lenses in wild life and nature photography. In cinematography it attributes grandeur to the visual. The tone of the shot is always philosophical.