Monday 3/23: Film, Space, and Mise-en-Scène

SUMMARY

In this week’s reading, we start by learning about shots: stills, stationary images of particular moments in a film, or publicity photos intended primarily to promote a movie. It’s also simply what is recorded by a single operation of the camera. There are different types of shots: close-up, close shot, extreme close-up, long shot, full shot, extreme long shot, medium shot, medium close-up, establishing shot, etc. All shots have a different purpose and intended focus.

Close-ups is intended to emphasize a subject, long shots do the same, but focus more on a specific event instead of a person or thing. Shooting from high/low angles, from different perspectives, all create different emphasis on certain subjects in the film. A variety in different shots allows for a story to be told. The director can dictate how an audience feels or understands a character simply by using camera angles/shots alone.

OUTSIDE EXAMPLE

In Damian Chazelle’s musical film, La La Land (2016), we see many different shots and sequences being displayed. One of the most memorable is the end of the movie: a musical montage of the love story of the two main characters that shows what their story could have been if small details would’ve changed.

Obviously this scene should take up an extremely long time if you are to try to go back and rewrite the entire plot, but Chazelle uses a montage to show this.

CONNECTION

So why a montage and why does it work? A montage can show an enormous amount of time within minutes. The story of Sebastian and Mia takes place over the course of years, but here takes 9 minutes to summarize. Chazelle does this by focusing on major turning points that the audience can recall vividly, therefore retelling the story quickly, but with accuracy. The shots are put in this specific order to tell a tragic, yet beautiful love story that the audience can take part in. Try not to cry while watching the clip.