Monday, 9 November 2015

Mise-en-scene

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire- setting

One the settings in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is quite contradictory to the actual events that occur during the film. This is shown when the contestants enter the arena and find themselves on podiums surrounded by water.
The setting seen in this image, i believe sets off the contradiction of the movie as the scenery comes off calm and relaxing with a sense of adventure due to the sandy beach, clear blue water and the big green jungle behind it, however the juxtaposition to this is the audience know of the horror of events that are about to take place, which ruins the peacefulness of the setting.

Conan the Barbarian (2011)- Costume

Conan's appearance when he is an adult give us an insight of the life he has had to endure from a young age without even having to watch the opening of the movie.
From this the audience can see his lack of wealth by the dirt coating his skin and the shortage of clothing plus that his is quite unkempt as his hair is long and visibly dirty, contrariwise this gives off a sense of rawness and brutality and evidently we can see the scars on his shoulder allowing the audience to know he has fought/ been attacked in his past as the sword he holds is stained with blood.

Another character we see in the film whose costume/s give us a insight to her character without knowing much of her is Tamara. Throughout the film Tamara's costume gradually represents her becoming tarnished in three stages.

In the beginning of the film we see her dressed all in white, this shows her pureness/innocence as her clothing is quite conservative and the head dress gives off the image of a veil.
The first time we see any change in her clothing is when she is rushed off, so she wont be captured and then she gets ambushed and her white clothes become disheveled.  

Tamara second change of costume is when she is placed on a ship with Conan and his friends. Her costume changes to a vest, top, trousers and boots items more common for the time and what people from poorer backgrounds would wear. The clothing is significantly different from her first outfit as it isn't such pure colours and have a worn air to them, it also makes her look less feminine and innocence.

Her third and final change is the biggest one of them all. Her clothing becomes revealing due to the deep cut, the dress clings to her frame and the colour is very dangerous, the fact her clothing has changed so drastically is like a late kind of foreshadowing as we know by now she is no longer pure and innocence as she has witnessed and done things that have ruined/tainted her however she is still known and called the "pure blood" within the film which is very contradictory to the actual facts of the things Tamara has been opened to.

Resident Evil (2002)- Lighting

There is a good use of lighting in on particular scene of Resident Evil where Alice is left to defend herself against one of the 'dogs'. In the beginning of this scene we see Alice staring out into the open door way, the use of lighting makes her eyes stand out more than the rest of her features, giving the audience a chance to see her true expression of worry, questioning and fear for the first time as up to this point in the movie we see her being this hard woman who doesn't allow for her emotions to be seen.


The camera then moves on to the doorway which has little to no lighting at all, putting us the viewers on edge as we cannot see what lies ahead of her for any comfort of what's to come and any chance of being able to prepare ourselves.

When the 'dog' then does appear there is still low key lighting used but enough to let us make out what it is and in turn allows the viewers to see the disoriented body of the dog and its flesh and some colour be shown. This type of lighting then makes the audience feel/become nervous and uncomfortable of not being able to any type of insight or full prospective of the creature.



Resident Evil:Afterlife- Props

In the movie Resident Evil:Afterlife the Axeman's axe brings a big effect to the scene as not only is the appearance of him extremely frightening and disturbing, the axe itself makes viewers more distressed as when the prop is displayed the viewers can instantly imagine the weight and force of a blow it will give when struck by it. When Alice is hit by the axe we can only picture the pain and agony brought by the prop.
Although during one of the many fight scenes between the Axeman and Alice, his axe is never completely seen in a shot this exaggerates how big the axe really is bringing the audience to the edge of their seats.

Wild (2014)- Figure Expression

In a clip of wild when Cheryl reaches one of her camp destinations, in the start we see only her feet and legs walking down towards the mountain and just by the movements of her legs you can see she's unsteady so may be carrying an excessive amount of weight and that she is possibly tired.
We also see 7 seconds into the clip her facial expression when the camera first pans out to the scenery and then to Cheryl and we see her first experience surprise/disbelief then her evident relief of reaching camp. 

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

10 Rillington Place

The start of 10 Rillington Place is of just a house address sign, the lighting is excessively dark so the only visible thing is the sign, this immediately tell us (apart from the title of this film) that it is based on this one particular house. The fact the lighting is so dark it gives a sense of mystery, darkness, fear and makes the audience wonder what lies in the darkness.

The next part we see is the building in the night, where it all takes place. When Mrs.Evans shows up to John Christie's house she carries a lamp with her to light the way, however the moment the door is opened the light inside and the lamp held are put out making the identities of one another unknown.

Inside the house

We first see the hallway of the house which is very dim-lighted and also extremely plain there is no touch of colour, imagery or any decoration of the sort. Now going on into the kitchen is still kind of the same, the colour is consistent old cream coloured walls that are evidently old.

The kitchen is a scattered mess, that hold of type of objects that seems as if they haven't been used for decades, everything is much mix and match which could mean Christie lives on his own with no wife or children and its very empty and not homely at all. The kitchen has no type of appliances.

Overall the setting of the opening gives off a huge aura of mystery, secrets and dark obsessions all the right themes need for this film.