Mise-en-scene: The Woman in Black

What is Mise-en-scene?
Everything within the frame - setting, lighting, costume, framing and composition, colours, expressions and makeup.

Creation of the mise-en-scene can influence the way the reads the scene/its interpretation of character situation

Semiology - the study of signs/symbols - helps create death to the scene

- It has a limited colour palette (largely greys) because it is a sad film

- They are travelling to an isolated area

 

- They pass a grave maker, which later in the film we find out is the young boy who died in the house's gravestone. This is dramatic irony - once the plot is revealed, it will be more relevant

- More gravestones which has connotations of death

- It is unkempt and messy which implies that no one has been around to take care of it

- Low camera angle to make the house appear more threatening and big

 

- The camera is placed in the window above to make it seem as he was being watched from above      

    

 

- Camera angle is high to make Kipps look vulnerable and small

- He is framed in a shot that is within a doorway and you can see the Woman in Black very subtly

Generic Elements: The Exorcist

How do generic elements encourage the audience to anticipate events in the attic scene of the exorcist?

- It is set at night therefore it is dark.
- The victim is isolated.
- The victim is a young female who is vulnerably dressed.
- It is silent, except from the unidentified noise.
- The victim attempts to turn on the lights but they don't work, so she uses a candle instead which throw shadows.
- As she was walking down the corridor, bar shadows are projected on her suggesting that she is trapped.
- The camera is shown at a low angle at this point to make her seem brave and bigger.
- The camera angle switches between her point of view as well which is significant as it puts the audience in her point of view.
- The attic is big however it is cluttered making it a confined space - it is harder to move around in.
- The handy man finally appears. He brings light, sound and companionship to the scene which drops the tension.

Importance of genre

''Much of the pleasure of popular cinema lies in the process of ''different in repetition'' - i.e. recognition of familiar elements and in those elements might be orchestrated in an unfamiliar fashion or in the way that unfamiliar elements might be introduced''

''Genre is constituted by specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectates bring with them to cinemas and which interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process'' - Steve Neale 1980

Genre Boundaries

Genre Boundaries are flexible and allow creativity and creative interpretation by the audience. There are many sub-genres and generic hybrids: rom-coms (romantic comedies), action comedies etc.

Back to the future III is a sci-fi, western, comedy, romance genre hybrid.

Typical settings for a Horror Story

Many horror stories have the same generic settings, themes, storyline and characters.

Typical settings of horror stories consist of:
Being set at night; set in an isolated and desolate area, set during winter/cold, rainy or stormy weather; set at night in the darkness; set in a foggy graveyard, churchyard, forest, basement, attic, an isolated, abandoned house,  etc.; the area the story is usually set in is quiet and has very minimum sound.

Typical character traits.
The victim is usually a vulnerable, skinny and pretty female. She is mostly alone and is wearing clothing that isn't suitable for a horror scene (night gown, night clothes, shorts and a tank top.) The hero is usually a man as men are usually portrayed as the more dominant and heroic character.

The villain can vary within the theme of the horror for example, it could be a monster, masked murderer, physcopath, demon possessed little girl, zombies, ghosts, spirits, vampires, werewolves and supernatural beasts.

Typical plots.
Typical storylines can consist of:
Two, young and vulnerable woman are driving at night and their car breaks down in a desolate area. They try to call for help but they have no signal, therefore they start looking for help. They find someone who offers them help and it turns out that he is a murderer.

A happy family moves into a house and realise that it is haunted as paranormal activities occur during the night.

What is genre?

Genre means a category or type. You can have genres of books, movies, television programmes and music. For example, the movie 'Terminator 2' belongs in the science-fiction genre, as it includes robots and teleportation.

My Favourite Film

Hello, I'm Casey and my favourite film is Grease.