Examples Of Mise En Scene In City Of God

The first shot we see of this sequence is a low angle which shows, quite simply, the sheer enormity of the building Max is about to enter. The shot slowly pans down as the foreboding notes of the score

The term “mise en scene” carries the original meaning of “putting into scene” and was a term that signifies the director’s control of visuals and events in the frame. There are several aspects in mise en scene. Aspect such as setting, lighting, costume and behavior of figures were controlled to allow the director to stage the event and create the overall effect within the frame.

The long take begins with an alarm clock waking up a couple, sleeping out on their balcony. As the camera moves from window to window around the courtyard, we see a few brief snippets of characters’ lives. And finally, the audience sees inside the apartment that has been its point of view all along. Mise-en-scene, framing, and cinematography

The camera follows the elders of the block, Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister, as they talk in her bedroom. For a rare moment in the film Da’ Mayor’s and Mother Sister’s eyes are at exactly the same level, showing that as different as the two may have seemed, they are very much the same. Then the camera slowly pulls out as the two stand and sluggishly walk down a hallway toward a window. Now, where a director would typically have to cut and setup a new shot, Lee pulls the camera straight out of the window as Mother Sister and Da’ Mayor survey the block. The audience would expect to see next exactly what Da’ Mayor and Mother Sister are looking at, but instead Lee quickly pans over in the opposite direction to reveal Mookie standing in the street bellow. By doing this Lee makes a connection that both the elders and Mookie are, in the words of Mother Sister, “still standing.” The shot is not particularly tight but still has a cramped feel due to the clutter of things in the background, the heavy shadowing, and the red tint on the lighting. The red lighting gives sense of volatility to the shot, which is contrasted by the slow camera and character movements. These slow movements are analogous to the block as, regardless of how slowly, it too will go on and life will continue. This shot is in the tradition of mise en scene advocates like Bazin in that,

There are many different elements of film that filmmakers can utilize to make a film. Direction, storyline, cinematography, mise en scene, as well as point of view and tone can all lend a hand in making a film great. One might say that the most important aspect of a film is the script. Others might argue the actors are the most important part. However, an impressive balance of all of the different elements of film are what can elevate a film to greatness. That is why the best film viewed this semester is Night of the Living Dead.

“Children of Men” Directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Is set in the year 2027, in a chaotic world in which humans can no longer procreate, Theo Faron a former activist, agrees to help transport a miraculously pregnant woman, Named Kee, to a sanctuary located out at sea, where her child’s birth could help scientists save mankind. In the film Children of Men, there are many crucial scenes to help convey the idea of the film, however I find one of these scenes particularly important; namely the apartment scene. In this scene Theo is being driven through the streets of London to the Ark Of Arts to visit his cousin Nigel. The director uses a number of techniques to help portray the themes and ideas, such as music, setting, lighting

By making the sleeping area the main focal point of the set Heffner implied that it would be the most important part of the play. The large stereo, tv, and gaming system in the bedroom also show off the families money. Heffner was able to capture the families money just as Spencer was able to do with the costumes. The lighting, also done by Heffner, captures the time of day perfectly. The room is lit by lamps and “ceiling” lights implying night while the window above the table changes between several shades of blue to imply the setting of the sun. Heffner does and amazing job of capturing the viewers attention by dimming the lights in the apartment and drawing the gaze of the audience out into the hall when the characters are outside the

City of God, a movie directed in 2002 by Fernando Meirelles, accurately portrays the slums of the Favelas over three decades, beginning in 1960 where the protagonists are children and merely thieves. Ending around the early 1980’s, the slum is an unrecognisable war zone, most of the main characters are either dead or engaging in a bloody turf war. Following the journey of two children, Rocket and Lil Ze, who are both growing up in the same housing project. Lil Ze, a child who desperately wants to prove himself goes through extreme lengths, eventually growing up to be a merciless drug lord who attempts anything in order to gain power. Whereas Rocket, lives a relatively calm life by comparison, staying out of trouble and eventually becoming a reputable photographer.

     The City of God is based on actual events that occurred in Rio de Janeiro during the 1960’s and 1970’s. The movie is about the rise and fall of a fearsome sociopath gang leader Li’l Ze, who reigned as king of the drug lords during the 70’s. The first part of the movie illustrates some of the forces that mold Li’l Ze into the man he becomes, while the second half shows his ruthless leap to power, followed by the war he wages against opposing gang leaders Carrot and Knockout Ned. The film is narrated by Rocket, a photographer who exists on the outskirts of Li’l Ze’s circle of dominance and control. In the film the city is filled with ruthless acts of delinquency and is basically in

The spectator is thrown into the reckless and expeditious world of the characters, creating a sense of hedonistic abandon and excitement. The chase leads to the first of the dramatic scenes within City of God. A heavily armed stand-off between Lil’ Zé’s gang, and the police ensues and we are introduced to Rocket who is caught between the two. It is here that the shot rotates 360 degrees, spinning us into the past, leaving the spectator keen to understand more. It is this exhilarating sequence of editing and camera work that has led some viewers to brand the film an indulgent exhibition of romanticized ghetto life. However, the producers of the film claim that the effects are present in order to assist the telling of a universally human story and are intended to capture its realism[9]. Kátia Lund commented on the rotation shot and remarked that “the critics would say this is a film from Hollywood, they’re doing The Matrix, these fancy shots. And the cost of the shot was...$20. Just a guy pulling a dolly”[10].

This was stated by the character ‘Rocket’, in the 2002 film, ‘City of God’, which takes place during the 1960’s to 80’s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The film depicts the frustrating and dangerous lives of those living in poverty-stricken conditions, including the corruption that the community faces. A similar film, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, exhibits the frustrations and stereotypes in which those in extreme poverty face, focusing on a young man named Jamal’s journey into becoming a champion on a popular game show, attempting to escape poverty. Both films contain the causes and effects of the issues in which are involved in poverty through a

The camera is moving many times as the three people who seem to be the focus of the scene are moving. However, the real point of the shot lies with the boy in the background which is never not in the shot.

In my interpretation of the video the main setting is a damp and dark lit room inside a mental asylum which gets switched between an abandoned hallway and a veranda.

The audience can plainly see that David Fincher uses the mise en scene to illustrate the theme of the movie. For example, the unnamed narrator played by Edward Nortan is an Ikea obsessed man, as shown in the opening sequence, and the apartment he lives in symbolizes his normal and stable life. When the apartment explodes it indirectly indicates to the viewers that that side of him has too been damaged forever. Tyler Durdan (Brad Pitt), on the other hand, is shown living in a dinghy old abandoned home that can serve as a metaphor for his detachment from society, hinting to the audience that he is not part of society at all. A place like this represents how unrealistic it is for someone to be living in such an establishment, and once the end of the film is reached one can understand that he found the place while in a schizophrenic state of mind.

We learn about Rocket starting in the 1960’s when is a young boy of about 7 or 8 (the movie does not clearly specify) and we follow him for the next 3 decades as we see the ins and outs of his life in the one of Rio de Janerio’s favelas. At first watch one could take the movie as projecting and creating stereotypes of the slums in Brazil, however upon more careful consideration and research it’s easy to see that was is projected in the movie is real. Although the movie was not actually filmed in the real City of God, according to the London Observer the movie was filmed in another “shantytown” on the northern outskirts of Rio de Janerio named Cidade Alta that has a number of the same social and political issues. The Observer says, “Until recently Cidade Alta was best known for its fictional violence. It was here, amid the sprawling mishmash of tower blocks and breezeblock shacks, that the Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles shot much of his Oscar-nominated film City of God, a tour through the violent underbelly of gangland Rio.”