When thinking about photography and Mise en Scene they are in many ways related. The fifteen elements of Mise en Scene incorporate a lot of photography ideas into to it. When analyzing a scene’s Mise en Scene it is important to know what elements make up Mise en Scene. Mise en Scene is made up of: a Dominant, Lighting key, shot and camera proxemics, angle, color values, lenses, filters and stock, subsidiary contrasts, density, composition, form, depth, character placement, staging positions, and character proxemcis. The Raiders of the Lost Ark was definitely an interesting movie to think about when you are looking for Mise en Scene characteristics.
The first scene that I looked at was towards the beginning of the movie when Indiana Jones is about to steel a relic and replace it with sand. The scene is shown below.
The dominant of the scene is where the eye is attracted to first. In this scene the eye is attracted to the face of Indiana Jones and the relic that he is trying to take. This is really given away by the lighting key. The whole scene while in the cave and including this shot is set in a low key. There is a low light source that creates a dramatic effect and the only lighting is really on Indiana Jones and the relic. The shot is slightly a low angle shot but level with the table that the relic is positioned on. There are a lot of dark colors in the background of the scene that contrast with the lighting on the relic and Indiana Jone’s face. The main eye-stop in the scene is the sandbag. Once the viewer sees Indian Jones and the relic the next thought is to what he is going to do. The attention is then turned towards the sandbag. The image is sharp on the relic and Indiana Jone’s face but then seems to not be so sharp in the background. The form of the scene is closed with a tight frame because it is a close up shot of Indiana Jones. There is not much depth in the scene really no middle ground just the cave back ground and the dominant image. The character Indiana Jones is centered in the scene taking up all of the frame space. These Mise en Scene characteristics all have to do with glorifying Indian Jones giving evidence to who is and why Indiana Jones is the dominant.
The second scene is the digging process once Indian Jones finds the relic as seen here.
The dominant once again is Indiana Jones it is a combination of low key and high key lighting. The low key light from below and the high key light of the sun give a dark contrast. The shot is a long shot and a low angle shot. The colors of the figures in the scene are black with the contrasting lights showing just silhouettes. With just the silhouettes the image is not really distorted but obviously not very clear. This in my mind was intended to give a feeling of fast moving time and a lot of work being done while once again glorifying the dominant, Indian Jones. This scene is a lot more dense than the first scene because this is a long shot. The composition and character placement of the workers just behind Indiana Jones gives a hero feel to Indiana. The space between the characters is fairly uniform. The form is open with a loose frame giving the characters a lot of room to move around.
Understanding Movies 13th Edition Louis Gianetti
alymanstall001 