This week, we began to look at the techniques of continuity editing as developed by Edwin Porter and D.W. Griffith, including the match cut, cross cut and analytical editing. Along with continuity editing, aspects of mise-en-scene (the elements/figures placed before the camera to be photographed) play a significant role in the viewer's comprehension of the film story.
1) From your reading in Film Art (Chapter 4), identify and briefly describe the four aspects of mise-en-scene in the following clips:
The Baby's Meal (Lumiere Brothers, 1895)
The Cook in Trouble (George Melies, 1904)
2) Exercise: 180-degree rule
The 180-degree rule states that when filming, the camera must remain on one side of the 180-degree line (axis of action) in order to maintain consistent left-right relations from shot to shot.
In this brief clip from Frank Capra's Meet John Doe (1941), locate the axis of action and provide a brief explanation as to how you've determined its position.
1) From your reading in Film Art (Chapter 4), identify and briefly describe the four aspects of mise-en-scene in the following clips:
The Baby's Meal (Lumiere Brothers, 1895)
The Cook in Trouble (George Melies, 1904)
2) Exercise: 180-degree rule
The 180-degree rule states that when filming, the camera must remain on one side of the 180-degree line (axis of action) in order to maintain consistent left-right relations from shot to shot.
In this brief clip from Frank Capra's Meet John Doe (1941), locate the axis of action and provide a brief explanation as to how you've determined its position.
16 comments:
According to Film Art, the four elements of mise-en-scene are setting, costumes/makeup, lighting, and movement/performance. In The Baby's Meal, the setting is on the patio of a family home. The costumes are simply the clothing of the era the film was made in. Lighting appears to be natural, mostly coming from the right side of the screen. The movement and performance in the clip are provided by the three family members - father, mother, and baby. The activity is comprised of the eating of a meal - the parents eating their food, and the baby eating the food fed to him by his parents. It's a very simple, straightforward clip, without much contrivance or manipulation of mise-en-scene elements.
In The Cook In Trouble, the setting appears to be a large kitchen, but from the clip we don't know whether it's a bakery, a restaurant kitchen, an estate kitchen, etc. The costumes are those of chefs and what seems to be servants or cook's assistants. Lighting is straight-on, eliminating shadows and depth. The action looks like the main chef is cooking something in a large pot upscreen right, and the other cook and two assistants sit downscreen left and husk corn, peel potatoes, or something similar.
The axis of action in Meet John Doe runs between the man on the right of the desk and whoever is on the left of the desk. In the beginning of the clip, the person on the left of the desk is another man, who speaks briefly and then exits through the door upscreen left, which the camera catches in a match-on action shot. The shot then changes back to the man on the right, who is on the telephone until the shot moves back to the door and a woman enters. The woman then moves through the same path the leaving man took, to take up the man's place at the left of the desk. The axis of action stays the same through the replacing of characters.
Bethany Davey
The four aspects of mise-en-scene are setting, costumes, lighting and movement. In The Baby’s Meal the setting is outside, possibly on a back porch. The costumes are just regular average day clothes, the lighting is from the sun, and the movement is the action of feeding the baby.
In The Cook in Trouble, the setting is some sort of kitchen. The actors in this film are dressed as chefs or servants. The lighting is balanced throughout the screen so that the audience can see everything. The movement is that of cooking, and peeling potatoes.
In the clip from Meet John Doe, the axis of action stays the same when the man is talking on the phone is talking to the other man, who then leaves. Next we see the man still talking on the phone and then we see a woman entering the room and walking to the same place where the original man had been therefore staying on one side of the 180 degree line.
Alexandra Keck
In The Baby’s Meal, the setting appears to be outside of a family’s home while they’re having lunch. The costumes and makeup look very simple to try and give off the feel of a normal family. With lighting, it seems a little darker on the left side, so maybe they’re caught in the shadow of the house, but from the right side it appears that the sun is shining over that portion of the table. The movement and performance is very simple. The father is leaning in with a spoon to feed the baby, while the mother is stirring her cup of tea.
In The Cook in Trouble, the setting is some type of kitchen that has few props set in front of a painted backdrop. Everyone in the scene appears to be wearing very simple costumes, nothing more than a chef’s outfit. Lighting is very plain, nothing extravagant. It probably just wants to give off the impression of big overhead lights in the entire kitchen. The movement and performance consists of one man stirring a pot, while the other three people surround a tub that they’re cutting something into.
In regards to the 180-degree rule being used in Capra’s Meet John Doe, it is rather evident where the axis of action is within the room. The director uses the desk as the axis of action and then centers all of the actors on it. There’s the side shot that focuses all of the actors within the frame and then over the shoulder shots used from both the left and the right to focus more on the man on the phone and the woman.
The four main aspects of mise-en-scene are setting, lighting, costuming, and actor’s behavior. In the first clip from The Baby’s Mea, by the Lumiere Brothers the setting is what appears to be an outdoor dining area. The background, the corner of the house and the trees in the distance, seem real as opposed to a painted backdrop. The table the family sits at has quite a few real props on it including cups, a bottle, and plates. The costumes are slightly elaborate or fancy but this may be considered normal dress for the time period. There isn’t an excessive use of make-up as the characters are to appear relaxed. The lighting seems very natural and could possibly be mostly, if not all natural sun light. The action of the characters on screen is that of sharing a meal. The father feeds the baby while the mother tends to her tea. In the second clip, The Cook in Trouble by Melies, the mise-en-scene is quite different. The setting is a large kitchen but the backdrop appears to be painted instead of staging the scene in a real kitchen. Also, a lot of the props used (the boiling pots and the stove) seem fake. The lighting is rather direct and covers the entire scene, not really highlighting any particular part of the shot. The costumes are those of cooks and kitchen staff. The characters are dressed in a manner that tells the viewer they do not own the kitchen but are employees. The action the actors are engaged in is that of kitchen work, peeling potatoes and stirring a giant pot.
In the clip from Meet John Doe, by Frank Capra, we get a brief lesson on the 180-degree rule. The axis of action in the scene is between the man on the phone and the man on the other side of his desk at the clip’s opening. The camera never moves to the other side of this invisible line. When the man on the other side of the desk leaves, a woman enters and stands where he stood, establishing that this is the axis of action. Also, by utilizing over-the-shoulder shots, we are able to see action on the two different sides of the room and look at the man on the phone and the woman straight on without breaking the 180-degree rule. While the camera moves quite often in this scene, Copra is careful never to break the 180-degree rule, as to not confuse the viewer.
Part 1
One major aspect of mise-en-scene is the setting we see in The Baby’s Meal, that the background to me at least looks authentic, giving it realism by placing it outdoors. Although “alternatively, the filmmaker may construct the setting,”(Film Art 115) which is what is seen in The Cook in Trouble where the set is obviously constructed, which brings it’s own unique mise-en-scene. Another aspect is the costumes and props, in The Baby’s Meal the costumes look a little more like average cloths and alternatively in The Cook in Trouble we see more exaggerated costumes perhaps pertaining to a different time and/or culture. “In cinema, lighting is more than just illumination that permits us to see the action.” (Film Art 124) Although in these shots the frame are mostly entirely lit up, we can see some areas where the lighting is a little dimmer, however the main action is lit up very well ensuring that your attention is drawn to it. Another major aspect is the staging, now from these freeze frames we can’t look into too much detail of the movement and performance, but there are some conclusions I’ve drawn. From The Baby’s Meal we see more simple ordinary placement of the actors which are sitting around a table eating. By looking at the freeze frame in The Cook in Trouble I would imagine that the acting and performance of the actors would be more drastic. Seeing as they are not confined to sitting at a dinner table. The have more space to move around and I’m sure the cook in trouble had an ecstatic performance.
Part 2
The axis of action in Frank Copra’s Meet John Doe is a line drawn through the table in which the characters revolve around. You can see this by the way the camera’s will switch angles to the side creating a 45 degree angle or so with the table but never to a position in which you are looking across the table from the characters perspective or beyond that axis of action.
Andrew Fleckenstein
The four aspects of mise-en-scene consist of lighting, make-up and costume, setting, and staging. In The Baby’s Meal, it can be observed that the lighting effect of a bright light helps represent a happy setting with the family enjoying a meal together. The setting makes it realistic adding in tea on the table with a numerous of other of beverages it seems. The background shows a part of a house that the audience would recognize, making the feel a homely gesture of comfort seeing a normal family spending time together outdoors.
In contrast, The Cook in Trouble shows a theatrical setting, having obvious fake props on display in the setting. The costumes are obvious to the eye in that if the props and setting are fake, then the clothes have to also be a dress up costume. Also, the staging shows everything with a long shot, revealing unrealistic qualities of a narrative film.
In Frank Capra’s Meet John Doe, the axis of action runs frequently between two people conversing across each other from the desk. I’ve been able to determine the camera’s position by observing the angles and shots that are taken in this one scene. It first shows the man with the hat over the boss’ shoulder then changes in favor of a medium shot showing all three men in the room. It then transitions to the right camera to show the man in the hat on the left leaving the room. Then as the woman enters the room, the camera is able to switch back and forth with ‘over-the-shoulder’ shots as the boss and woman converse about John Doe, convincing me to believe that the location of the camera is presenting the axis of action always between the two people conversing the room.
Jean
In the baby's meal clip the setting looks like it was outside. It looks like their clothes are somewhat casual for the time, maybe upper middle class. The lighting gives off a sense of a nice day, something that would be ideal weather and thought of as a perfect day. It looks as if it were a bright and sunny day. As far as the actors behavior goes, the actors seem like they're a happy family. They seem normal. Not a fake 1950's sort of perfect family idea, but instead a normal family enjoying a nice day.
When someone leaves the room the camera shows them walking from the right side of the screen to the left. Whenever we seen someone enter the room the camera is placed directly in front of the actor with the actor walking a slight left to right. The woman who walks in keeps the same 180 degree axis of action.
Nick Aldrich
Although mise-en-scene has many attributes, the four main points of mise-en-scene are costumes/make-up, setting, lighting, and movement/performance. In The Baby's Meal, the mise-en-scene seems to be fairly simple. The setting seems to be the backyard or patio of a rural family home. The costumes in this clip seemed to have been chosen to fit the setting. They are plain, proper, and just what we would expect from a nice family sitting outside having a meal. The lighting illuminates the scene fairly well from all angles but the key light seems to be coming from the bottom left corner of the screen. The movement in this scene is simply the family eating a meal and the baby being fed.
In The Cook In Trouble, the setting is a fairly large kitchen with people sitting in front and a man stirring a pot in the back. The costumes are typical of our stereotype of what chef's would wear while cooking. The lighting seems to be coming from above, illuminating everything well and getting rid of most shadows. It seems to be lit more like a theatrical play and less like a film. The movement in this clip is dominated by the three characters in the foreground who seem to be in conversation while peeling potatoes.
In the clip from Meet John Doe, the axis of action, or 180 degree line, is between the door to the left of the set and the character behind the desk on the right of the set. I've determined that this is the axis of axis by observing that the shots which are the farthest off center are shot from the door and from over the left shoulder of the character behind the desk. All of the other shots are somewhere in between these two angles. This creates the axis of action for this scene and gives us a perfect 180 degree range of viewing angles.
Nick LaVake
The four elements of mise-en-scene are important when considering how realistic or provoking a film can be. These elements include setting, make-up/costumes, lighting, and the movement/performance. In the still frame from "The Baby's Meal" the setting shows us an outdoor space next to a house. The make-up and costume aspect gives us an idea of a traditional family in the 1890s, the woman's dress really stands out with the vivid black stripes. the man also appears dark with is complexion and vest. The two parental figures set up a nice surrounding to contrast with the pure white infants gown the baby is wearing. The lighting of this scene is set as a realistic outdoor light. It seems as if it was lit by the sun. The movement is centered around the parents feeding the baby which makes the viewing focus mainly on the baby.
The setting in "The Cook In Trouble" is not so realistic. There is obviously a painted back round for the setting which detaches the viewer to some point of a realistic understanding. The costumes of the two men on the left and right of the screen are identical, pure white robes which focuses the viewer's attention on them rather than the other two characters. The scene seems to be lit with a standard key and fill lighting which makes the scene appear flatter and less dynamic. The movement focuses us on the cook who is off and away from the three other characters and this could be to get the viewer to identify him as an individual.
In the clip from "Meet John Doe" the axis of action is directly between the face of the man on the phone and the clumsy guy who runs out the door. You can tell this because the man on the phone is the main subject and the direction of his action (in this case talking) is the line of action. He is talking to the clumsy guy which creates an axis of action between them.
Jacob Rengstorf
1) The four elements of mise-en-scene, as described in Film Art, are setting, costuming, lighting, and movement.
In the clip from 'The Baby's Meal,' the setting is an outdoor patio with a table in the foreground, the side of a house in the background, as well as some plants in the background as well. The costuming consists of the man's vest and dress shirt, the baby's outfit, and the woman's dress. Lighting is fairly even in this scene, with a key light, a backlight, and a fill light, however a slight emphasis is placed on the plants in the background to show that it is outside with sunlight. Movement would be fairly basic in this clip with the three people sitting stationary at the table. The only movement would be the man feeding the baby, and whatever the woman is doing with her hands.
In the clip from 'The Cook in Trouble,' the setting is a kitchen with two large stoves, and a staircase in the background. The costuming is the white uniforms worn by both bearded men, and then the clothing of the other woman and man. The lighting is also quite flat with a basic key light, backlight, and fill light. Movement would be the man's hands on the right side of the frame, and also the work the other three seated people are doing around the barrel.
2) The axis of action in this scene runs straight down the middle of the desk, going out forward from the man standing behind it. This line runs to the chair which is sat in by the woman. The camera never crosses the near side of this line. In the close up shots of the man the camera is placed in the chair looking straight at him, and in the shots where he is not featured, the camera is placed behind his left shoulder. These are the two extremes of the axis of action and how I've determined it's location.
The four main aspects of mise-en-scene are setting, lighting, costumes, and performances. In The Baby’s Meal all four aspects are kept simple as the video itself seems to be just what it says “a baby’s meal”. The setting appears to be the family’s back porch/yard. The lighting is the sun. The costumes are everyday clothes of the period. Finally the “performance” consists of the father feeding the baby whilst the mother eats. In the clip The Cook in Trouble however the mise-en-scene is a bit more complex with a constructed set for the setting. Direct lighting, to ensure no action goes unnoticed. The players are wearing exaggerated chef/servant costumes, and it contains a slightly more involved performance of cutting, peeling, and stirring.
In the video Meet John Doe, by Frank Capra, The director uses the desk as the axis of action. By using over the shoulder and medium shots Capra is able to show us any pertinent action taking place in the room without breaking the180-degree rule and causing the viewer any unnecessary disorientation.
Kelly Pelot
The four elements of mise-en-scene are setting, costume and makeup, lighting, and staging:movement and performance.
In "The Baby's Meal" the setting is that of some sort of outdoor meal, with the emphasis being on the parents feeding the child. The costume and makeup look typical of the era, it looks like a less formal meal. The lighting clearly illuminates the scene and has no hard edges or anything. It portrays the scene in a rounded light. The staging is shot from the waist up putting the emphasis on the actions of the 3 characters.
In "The Cook in trouble" the setting is in a beer garden or outdoor market from the looks of it. The costume and makeups show these characters as working people on the job. the lighting is at the forefront and shows puts the emphasis on the characters actions. The staging is showing people in action, by using the long shot showing what each character is doing simultaneously.
In "Meet John Doe" the axis of action appears to start slightly in front of the character on the phone on the right side and runs to behind the left edge of the desk. i determined this because it shows him talking to a women in a chair slightly in front of him, and the camera doesn't go beyond the left area near the door to the office.
1) From your reading in Film Art (Chapter 4), identify and briefly describe the four aspects of mise-en-scene in the following clips:
In The Baby's meal the use of mise-en-scene seems to be entirely documentary of the situation. The setting is a basic outdoor (I don't believe studio created) location. There are the trees in the background and the picnic table in the foreground that were not created to motivate the viewer towards any possible motive. The lighting is natural, most likely sun lit and is very fitting for its outdoor location. Their costumes are, I would say, very normal and ordinary. They do not stand out or look contrived for a play or movie. The staging and movement of the actors seems to be just simple feeding movement. There are no exaggerated or posing movements, just the movement needed for their task.
In The Cook in Trouble the setting is very contrived and artificial. The background is obviously painted on and even most of the props are 2-dimensional and fake, such as the stove and the pots. The lighting is very controlled seems to be mostly fill light. It is artificial lighting and used for the purpose of controlling the texture of what you can see in the picture. The costumes are very abnormal and standout-ish. All the characters seem to be wearing bright white on their clothing and it makes all of them stand out from the drab backdrop. Their make-up, especially the man sitting down to the right, seems to be painted on heavily almost resembling a clown. The staging of the characters is bordering farce. It seems to be highly exaggerator and abnormal.
2) 180-degree rule:
In the short clip I would say the 180-degree line is from the balding editor of the paper to the wall next to the door or the door. As the action plays out the camera never crosses that line. even when the woman walked in the room the camera did not cross the invisible line, even though it came very close.
The four aspects of mise-en-scene that the reading identifies as such are:
setting, costumes/makeup, lighting and movement/staging.
These aspects of mise-en-scene can be described in the Lumiere Brothers' film
"The Baby's Meal" as the following: The setting is natural as it is set in what
appears to be the backyard of a home. The "props" are real in as much as they
are not painted nor made from cardboard. The lighting too is natural or in
other words not controlled. It is simply capturing whatever light is available
at whichever angle it tends to lend itself to. The costumes are ordinary and
not very elaborate at all. The characters also appear to not be wearing any
makeup whatsoever, allowing the image to share a documentary appearance. The
movement of the characters are minimal and not so much expressive or over
expressed. They move with natural, non exaggerated gestures.
Analyzing these four aspects again but in relation to Melies' film "The Cook in
Trouble," we begin to see a completely different mise-en-scene. The setting in
this case is constructed with painted backdrops and cardboard props. It is more
than likely filmed on a set/stage. The lighting is controlled. While still using natural sunlight, Melies is able to control the amount and location of the light by sliding panels that will block or allow light to enter a specific area of the set. The costumes are flamboyant and in some cases elaborate. Heavy makeup is also used to accentuate facial expression as well as enhance the ability to see the characters as the bright lights tend to white out the faces but more so because it was difficult for old film technology to capture fine details. Lastly, i'll mention movement and staging. In "The Cook in Trouble," and in many other works of Melies, the actors act with exaggerated gestures and mannerisms that one would not find normally in day to day life. This technique was adopted from theater in attempt to make the experience larger than life.
The axis of action in Frank Capra's "Meet John Doe" appears to be running diagonally from the editors desk to the door on the adjacent wall of the office. These two points seem to be the most active in the scene. Also, the line is determined in its extremity when we see the camera over the editors shoulder, being positioned directly on the right side of the axis.
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