Mise en Scène

Mise en Scène

1. Stills From Existing Media:

1a. Still showing how contrast guides viewer's attention from La La Land. Image of Mia and Sebastian dancing. Focus is put onto Mia as she is in white which contrasts the dark surroundings.

1b. Still showing how color guides viewers attention from Spider-Man 2. Image of Peter throwing away his suit. Focus is onto the thrown away costume as it is a warm color surrounded by cooler colors.

1c. Still showing how size guides the viewer's attention from Godzilla (1954). Image of  military forces attacking Godzilla. The focus is being put onto Godzilla as the already large tanks all have to look upwards at the large kaiju standing in front of them.

1d. Still showing how frontality guides the viewer's attention from The Grand Budapest Hotel. Image of Dmitri sitting down. Focus is put on Dmitri as all other characters in the shot are wearing the same colors with the background being a mute color. However, he is put front and center so we focus on him.

2. Stills I created:

2a. Still showing how contrast guides the viewer's attention. Image of Vision providing Batman with data. The whiteness of vision contrasts with the darkness of the background and batman making him stand out. The viewer follows vision as he moves forward towards batman.

2a. Still showing how contrast guides the viewer's attention. Image of Scarlet Spider against red wall. The blue hoodie of Scarlet Spider contrasts with the surrounding redness of the character and background. His chest sticks out from the rest of the shot which draws the viewer in to that spot. 

2b. Still showing how color guides the viewer's attention. Image of Spider-Man fighting Electro on rooftop. The shot has a background full of cooler colors as well as one of the characters being highlighted by cool colors. Spider-Man's suit has the warmest colors of the shot which gets the viewer's attention. 

2b. Still showing how color guides the viewer's attention. Image of Jack-O-Lantern on rooftop. The background has a cool color scheme. The head of Jack-O-Lantern and his broom stick are orange which is a warm color. The Viewer's attention is drawn to the warm colors and focus on the top left of the shot. 

2b. Still showing how color guides the viewer's attention. Image of just regaining consciousness after getting hit by a bus. The bus in the shot is red which s a very warm color. The rest of the shot is full of darkness so the viewer is naturally drawn to the warm-colored bus that is even more highlighted by the back lighting. 

2c. Still showing how size guides the viewer's attention. Image of Rocket and Groot fighting. The low-angle shot exaggerates the size difference between Groot and Rocket. Rocket is facing and pointing towards Groot who is very tall and large in comparison which draws the viewer's attention.

2d. Still showing how frontality guides the viewer's attention. Image of Star-Lord with Gamora and Drax in the background. Drax and Gamora are put off to the sides with Star-Lord dead in the center which draws more attention to him. Star-Lord is in the front of the shot and take sup most of the space so the eyes are naturally drawn to him.

3. Reflection:

During this process, I faced a couple different challenges. The hardest part I believe was distinguishing contrast and color. As you can see in two of my color stills, there is red on blue which a big contrast. I wasn't sure if my eyes were focused on these points because of the warmth of the colors or because that's where the contrast took place. For that reason, I added more to each section so that red and blue weren't the main colors for both. I had a black and white contrast in one still and red on black for my color still. I also took the size image multiple times at different angles. It never felt as though Groot was big enough and when he was, the shot just didn't look that appealing. I also had to take away from the fact that rocket had contrast and warm colors on him so I covered it by giving him something to hold. Finally In the formality still, Drax was sticking out a bit too much so I brought Star-Lord more forward, brought his arm up to cover Drax, and blurred the background so that it was easiest to focus on Star-Lord. Overall I enjoyed the experience but found it stressful. Trying to get that perfect shot forces you to think. You have to put yourself in the audience's shoes and think about what you can do to achieve your goal. It takes many reshoots in order to get your desired affect and changes that you weren't planning on to elevate your shot. Sometimes your final shot doesn't come out the way you want and that is okay, but you should never stop trying to get it as perfect as you can.