Movies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Movies

 

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Mise-en-scène

1. The film Stagecoach uses composition and lighting to narrate the story of strangers who are travelling in a Stagecoach together (Geiger & Rutsky, 2013). Dallas, a young prostitute who leaves his town, has a starkly contrasted character to Lucy, a pregnant woman who is travelling to his husband. Doc Boone is loud and alcoholic and constantly steals Peacock’s whiskey. Ford uses these contrasts to retain the vibrancy of his characters. Ford also introduced Ringo Kid, a cowboy who escapes from prison to revenge against Luke. While other men’s faces are hidden in hats and shadows, Luke Plummer’s face is the only shown face. The use of positioning and lighting shows the significance of this character and identifies the character.
2. The Searchers uses the male gaze as a component of mise en scene. In the movie, we can realize that adventure and wilderness attracted the gaze of Ethan as this was his fetish. No woman attracted the gaze of Ethan (Eckstein, 1998). In the final scene of the movies, we see Ethan having a slightly awkward pose that mimics the late Harry Carey. Additionally, there are different implications for the bath tab scene with Marty. We can also learn that Scar and Ethan were a mirror image of each other. For the first 14 minutes of the film, uses mise en scene to portray that the two characters, Ethan and Martha, fulfil the theory of male gaze by Mulvey.

Cinematography

1. The film The Kid talks about Tramp, who was famous and found an abandoned baby whom he raises as his own. The film contains a lot of violence, which is used to show Chaplin’s physical slapstick humour (Chaplin, 1921). The film comprises of chases and struggle, objects used to compromise others, and numerous thrown punches. The goals of these elements are to make people laugh. However, these elements are exaggerated, thus making the scenes humorous and silly rather than realistic and scary. The film is silent because it does not use dialogue. Besides the laughs, the film offers us a glimpse of history.
2. Stagecoach uses different elements of cinematography, such as camera angles, zoom, and camera motion. Doc Boone is seen as a fool and not taken seriously because he is a drunkard. All attention is placed on Mallory, and Dallas is always forgotten. In a certain scene, when the stagecoach is going to Apache Wells, the film shows the facial expression of Hatfield. His facial expression indicates that he is concerned and worried when he looks at Mallory. Hatfield does not concern himself with Dallas but offers and serves water to Mallory in a fancy silver cup. When the stagecoach reaches Lordsburg, the director uses a wide-angle camera shot and then shifts to a close-up camera shot (Geiger & Rutsky, 2013). This close-up shot shows that Mallory is remorse to Dallas and offers his help and apology.

Editing

1. The editing in the film The Kid was done by describing what was happening in each scene. For instance, in the moneymaking scene, the kid throws a rock towards the window. We see the rock going through the window and smash it (Chaplin, 1921). Additionally, a god sound recording is a place to accompany this scene. Then the kid runs away down the street. This scene is speeded up to show that he was rushing to getaway. Again, the kid breaks a window, but this time the sound is not edited well because it is delayed. Then the same window getting smashed but this time the sound produced is quiet.

 

Sound

1. The film Singin’ in the Rain? Uses two elements of sound; music and dialogue (Cohan, 2000). In combination with mise en scene and camera movement, the two sound elements bring the effect of intimacy between Don and the audience, making every audience to view the words of Don as face value. The sound elements also enable the audience to have a better understanding of the images portrayed in the film. In the scene depicting the backstory of Don, the sound is used for creating continuity between the shots, improving the scene’s mood, and working together with other film elements to create a specific meaning to viewers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Chaplin, C. (1921). The Kid (1921) [electronic Resource-Digital Video]. Echelon Studios.

Eckstein, A. M. (1998). Darkening Ethan: John Ford’s” The Searchers”(1956) from Novel to Screenplay to Screen. Cinema Journal, 3-24.

Cohan, S. (2000). Case study: interpreting” Singin’ in the Rain”. na.

Geiger, J., & Rutsky, R. L. (Eds.). (2013). Film analysis: A Norton reader. WW Norton & Company.