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The God Father Mis-En-Scene Analysis

Decent Essays

Midterm Essay During the “baptism scene” in “The God Father”, director Francis Ford Coppola, uses many different elements of mis-en-scene, and also utilizes cross cutting throughout the whole scene. What the director decides to put on the set, which is visible, or can be heard by the audience, can be described as mis-en-scene. The director may use some mis-en-scene elements to give the story deeper meaning, or to portray the mood of the scene that is going on. There are many different elements of mis-en-scene, and they include, actors, lighting, sets, costumes, make-up, and other features that exist independently on the set. With the “baptism scene” in “The God Father”, Coppola uses different elements of mis-en-scene to describe the mood …show more content…

When the director uses cross cutting, to the audience it can seem as if the two events are happening at the same time, even if they are not. This is a very good technique to impact the audience with powerful shots. In the “baptism scene” Francis Ford Coppola uses many cross cutting shots to grab the audience. While in the church, during the baptism the camera constantly keeps cutting from the church to different people outside the church. These people are doing different things, like getting shaved, and putting ammunition in a gun. This makes the audience wonder who the people are, and why is the camera constantly cutting to them. When the priest asks the man if he rejects Satan, the camera cuts to those same people but, this time they are either being murdered or they are murdering people. This cross cutting to the people can impact the audience emotionally because, they had just seen these people doing other things, and they most likely did not expect that they were going to be killed, or killing people. It also may impact the audience emotionally because, the cuts keep going back to a church baptism, and with the cross cutting technique it makes it seem as if the different shots are happening all at the same time. When at a baptism, people usually do not think about murder, it is usually a very solemn ceremony, and when the director keeps cutting back and forth from murder to the baptism, it can really impact the audience on an emotional level. The “baptism scene” in “The God Father” utilizes sound as a great form of mis-en-scene to describe the mood and emotions, and also, the use of cross cutting really impacts the audience emotionally and ties them deeper into the

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