Inception- Mise-en-scene (Summary and Lighting)

Summary of what is happening before the scene I am analysing. 

Cobb and his team are in the dream world, in 3 levels. A rainy day in Los Angeles, a hotel room and a snowy mountain fortress. In the scene i am looking at, the hotel is dreamed by Arthur. On this level, the extractors recruit Fischer, convincing him that his kidnapping was orchestrated by Browning and that they are Fischer's subconscious protectors. They persuade him to go down another level to explore Browning's subconscious (whereas it is actually a ruse to enter his own). The scene i will be looking at goes from 1:37:55 where the team have been put to sleep and are going into the snowy level dream.

Lighting

After putting everyone to sleep, Arthur in charge of keeping security away has the job to lead them on what he descibes 'a merry chase' to keep them away from the hotel room. The hotel room's lighting is quite dim, it is lit by few ceiling lights and mainly lamps and wall lights. This gives the room a darker tone to it, maybe a nice lighting to fall asleep in?

The room shakes, this is from disruption in the first level, where Yusuf and the sleeping team are now being chased. They are in an outside setting which means it is using natural lighting, in this instance it is grey and foggy with mild/heavy rain. 

Arthur then packs a briefcase on the bed with brown covers. He leaves the room and enters the corridor which has brown walls and tan coloured pillars with small wall lamps on. I think this was done to match the rooms theme and it was used purposely to be dim lighted, to create a sleepy, relaxed sort of look to assist the fact that it is a dream. 

The Dark Knight - Opening Scene Mise-en-Scene Breakdown & Analysis

Props

From the very opening scene of the dark knight it is clear to the audience that the movie is of the thriller genre. The most obvious thriller convention used is one of the props, the masks. The masks that the villains wears instantly show the audience that these characters are strange and most likely about to do something dangerous due to them wanting to keep their identities hidden. Also, the masks themselves resemble sinister looking clowns. This will most likely make the audience feel afraid as some people are afraid of clowns. Also, by hiding each individuals face with the mask, it confuses the audience and keeps them unsafe of who is the "Joker". furthermore, these criminals are made to look even more dangerous by carrying grenades and firearms. This confirms to the audience that these characters are soon to cause chaos which is a important when generating suspense, a key aspect of any thriller film.

Lighting

The lighting within the dark night further establishes that the movie is indeed of the thriller genre. This is also clear from the very opening scene. Towards the end of the bank robbery the one of the criminals takes off the mask. This then reveals the face of the Joker. However, as this happens sunshine is hitting the back of the jokers face. Doing this makes the joker look very dark and psychotic while emphasising large red cuts running across the jokers face.

Setting 

Like many thriller movies, the dark knight begins with an establishing shot. This establishing shot consists of a very wealthy district, a ideal place for a crime to take place. This establishing shot also denotes the theme of wealth and power and shows that what is about to take place in this area is going to effect the whole city.

Characters

The main characters within this opening scene are clearly very dangerous and threatening, with a sole intention in causing damage and destruction within the city. Even though you cannot see each criminals face, you can still see that they are intent on causing chaos through there outfits and body language. The very way that they walk even emphasises this. Their confident walk shows that they are confident about their flawed plan. furthermore, this highlights to the audience that these are villains as they are shown to be un-resourceful due to multiple set backs when executing the bank robbery.      

How Taken Influenced Our Film

Taken had a huge impact on our film, that's for sure. It was undoubtedly the movie that inspired us (and our movie) the most.

Upon going through our personal favourite thriller movie moments, we found that the kidnapping scene from taken was one that we all thought was impressive. This scene had a big impact on us and from then on we knew we wanted a kidnapping scene in our movie.

One thing that we noticed from watching taken is how "alone" the victim was. With this in mind, we wrote the script for our movie. We knew that having the victim alone would make them seem much more vulnerable and this was a great way to build the sense of danger and so the sense of danger.

Target Audience

Target audience

Target audiences for thriller films usually are aimed at people aged 18 and over.

This is because some issues shown in thrillers can be disturbing or inappropriate for younger viewers such as too much violence. Thriller movies are more for older adults as it demands intellectual thinking, so even if younger audiences liked thrillers, it would be harder for them to understand. From the graph below we can see that 26% of viewers are over 50 and 23% are between the age of 18-24. This is because most people enjoy themes of action, violence and suspense. Men are found to enjoy themes of blood, sex and violence which are commonly used in thriller films, thus raising popularity of the genre from the male population. Although it is stereotyped for men to like thrillers, the pie chart below shows a significant amount of women enjoy this genre too.

Thrillers contain mystery which leads to the audience being intrigued in the storyline and gives the 'on the edge of my seat' effect. By using mystery it gives hints towards possibilities in the film causing audiences to try to work things out. A lot of people enjoy films where there isnt an obvious story, it makes thrillers more original and unpredictable. This gives off an element of surprise and thrill

A Most Wanted Man- What I Learnt

The whole film was filmed by hand except establishing shots. I always thought not using tripods was a risky move because it would look amateur but it looked really good. This may have been because of the expensive high definition cameras. The film pulled it off in most shots.

The film used quick cuts to go to the next scene, when I think about using this in our film opening I worry it would look like too much of a cut, too jagged but when they did it in the film it did not look as cutted as I thought. It was not smooth but it worked. I am reassured if we have to use such cuts in our opening film because of lack of shots or inability to edit certain shots. 

Because there wasn't any tripod used, the camera was hand held even for walk and talk shots. I have realised it is okay to use these techniques when filming, for me the film became more interesting because of it.

Thriller Film Research

Thriller Film Research

After some research our group has come to realise a few key things relating to thriller films. Firstly, we noticed that thriller films gain their uniqueness and generate suspense in a few key ways. Perhaps the most prominent suspense generating aspect of a thriller is the soundtrack. We found that thrillers tend to have a slow, tense and dark soundtrack in order to make the audience feel vulnerable, ultimately creating the suspense. Another key aspect of thriller films is fast paced editing. Again, this makes the audience feel on edge and alert throughout the whole movie. Having this atmosphere is key, especially when the movie is trying to frighten the audience. Lastly, We found that the most effective way to generate a suspenseful atmosphere through mise-en-scene is dark lighting. Dark lighting is great for this as it keeps the audience guessing, stopping them from feeling safe and secure, essential for any decent thriller film.