Mise-En-Scene

 Multimedia Mise-En-Scene Project

Welcome back friends! Recently I completed group project to explore elements of mise-en-scene. We randomly selected a character description and had to develop an interactive and immersive presentation of this character through physical representations, settings, and audio.

My group and I aimed to make our class feel like they knew our character by making them imagine her life as they if they are a part of it. We wanted to use a unique and interactive method to make this happen.

Who Was Our Character?

Here was the character we picked: "A movie lover who enjoys social get togethers with friends. They write a movie blog on which they post critiques of popular movies."

From this, we created Cameron Lee. She is 21 year-old college student at the University of Southern California majoring in screenwriting. She lives in an apartment and works part-time at Starbucks. As a movie-lover, she spends much of her leisure watching and critiquing films. She enjoys posting her movie reviews on her blog and is even part of her university's movie club. If she isn't watching movies, she is hanging with friends because she loves spontaneous hangouts and sharing movie reviews on Letterboxd, a movie review platform, between her friends.

How Did We Illustrate Our Character?

We created a mood board to develop and idea of what our character is like and what bring the thoughts we have of her onto paper. Through this mood board, we attempted to create a laidback vibe, similar to the one Cameron would give off.

You can learn so much about someone through how their home looks! So we built a 3D model of Cameron's apartment so people can pick up on her coziness and free-spirit.

In order for our classmates to imagine what she looks like, we built a paper doll of Cameron in hopes of getting our peers to really know her. This way they can put a face to the personality.

The diary entry added a deeper glimpse into Cameron's life as it is another personal accessory that shows who a character is. '

 For the interactive and really immersive part of the presentation, we built a tactile board for our peers to touch while listening to everyday sounds in Cameron's life. It was also paired with a soundscape and videos of her everyday life. During the soundscape, an instruction will show on the screen to touch a specific object on the tactile board. This way, our peers hear the sound and what it feels like at the same time. This mimiced living in Cameron's body. You can find this soundscape & video element in the presentation linked later in this post.

 

Presentation

We organized all of our elements into a slides presentation so our class can slowly and thoughtfully get to know Cameron by interacting with the elements of the presentation in an order we felt would best allow our peers to get to know her.

For us, this starts with a with a description of who Cameron is so our peers have a clear background on what inspired our project and choices. We followed with an analysis of her personality to dive deeper into elements only Cameron's friends and family would get to know. We chose to follow with the mood board next as it is a visual representation that reinforces information from the previous slides, such as who Cameron is and what kind of personality she has. Then we made it more complex by adding the soundscape & video element paired with the tactile board. At the end of the presentation, we gave time for our peers to play one of Cameron's favorite songs while exploring her apartment so they can imagine Cameron is in the room with them.

Click here to check out this presentation!

Our character station had 4 computers to display the slides presentation to 4 people at a time and all of the physical and tactile representations were placed at the center of the table.

Analysis

Our selection of what Cameron is surrounded by is focused on movie and blog-specific objects. This includes popcorn, paper, and pens. We used soft, warm colors to reflect her laidback and free spirit. We stereotyped Cameron as what a movie lover looks like to us. That would be a move fanatic that is always watching films and knows all about the film industry. Like all stereotypes, we exaggerated what a movie lover really is. Of course, real life movie afficiandos do not watch films and hang out with friends as their only hobbies. Cameron's life was studied at a micro level. We did this by presenting visual elements of her life, through the model of her apartment living room, her diary, and videos of her watching a movie with friends and attending a college lecture. Audio elements include the soundscape that was paired with the tactile board. By analyzing Cameron at a micro level, our peers were able to get to know her very intimately.

Reflection

My group and I could have managed our time better. However, working them was very fun! We were easily able to build off of each other's ideas to create our character and come up with unique and creative ways to immerse our peers into her life. Because we were all interested in contributing into this project, we reached all of the goals we built in the first place. After visiting the other character stations, I feel we could have improved by incorporating games into our station to engage our audience better.

Comedy Research

What Makes Comedy Comedic?

    Comedy is a very popular and diverse genre explored in film, storytelling, and TV that has entertained audiences since it first debuted. It's been offering commentary on life's low and unexpected moments through comedic relief. Not only does this comedic relief made consumers feel good, it caters to a huge target audience because of it's many sub-genres. Children's comedies, such as Despicable Me, typically target 5-12 year olds. Parody comedies, including Not Another Teen Movie, aim towards 15-30 year olds as they highlight stereotyping and mock other films. Romantic comedies, like the classic When Harry Met Sally, usually target women aged 13-24 years old. However, comedies have have managed to put smiles on faces beyond these ages.

Content

    Comedies feature a protagonist or group of protagonists that face life together. They are like any other person, yet flawed. Common protagonists include the nerd and outsider who does everything usually creates a mess in everything they do as they are either aware or unaware of their flaws. There is usually some sort of status change as the protagonist(s) go from "rags to riches," finds a shift in their perspecitive, or has drama with friends or family.

    This genre features humorous characters and dialouge to intill laughs in its viewers. This includes exaggerating situations beyond reality and using irony and satire to highlight flaws of certain people or groups. Comedic timing allows for perfect delievery of a joke or silly moment to increase its impact on audiences. They also offer social commentary through satire to offer fresh perspectives towards different social norms and values. This was seen in Dr. Strangelove, a movie that used satire to comment on Cold War paranoia and the nuclear arms race.

    The plot usually begins with the main characters living their normal lives, then escalates once an unexpected event happens and only worsens when the characters attempt to fix it. After overcoming the obstacles, the characters return to their normal lives.

Production Techniques

    In order for comedic timing to work, editing is used to create rhythm and pacing that makes the situation more comedic. For example, editors will strategically cut to reactions and pauses to increase the funniness of certain moments. Through editing, editors create visual jokes and juxtapose certain elements. In Groundhog Day, the arrogant protagonist was juxtaposed with the joyful small town atmosphere. Physical comedy is used to exaggerate movements, such as dramatic facial expressions, in order to build humor visually rather than soley through dialogue.

    Comedies can be set in many locations depending on the focus of the film. Comedies about family dynamics are filmed in homes and teen comedies are typically set in small towns and high schools, such as the teen comedy Mean Girls filmed in a high school located in the suburbs. High-key lighting is used to develop a bright and cheerful environment and establish the lighthearted tone most comedies provide. Many establishing shots may be used to show the location of the scene and many mid-shots are used to show characters facial expressions.

                                   Example of high-key lighting in Barbie comedy movie that adds excitement to the moment.

Institutional Conventions- Narrative Image and Marketing

    As part of their narrative image, comedy movie posters are designed to look entertaining. They feature the main characters with very expressive facial expressions that give consumers an idea of their personality. These movie posters are designed to look attention-grabbing though colorful posters with bold hues, like bright blues, yellows, and pinks. The typography is not very uniform to develop a feeling of craze and excitement towards the film. Some comedy posters feature taglines in an attempt to instill laughs in consumers to motivate them to watch the movie.

    A variety of mediums are used to market films, such as trailers, teasers, interviews with the cast, posters, social media, and press releases. It is difficult to market comedies as humor is subjective, so marketing is largley based off understanding the target audience's sense of humor. Comedy films rely on viral marketing on social media. So, the funniest moments of comedies are usually advertised online and in trailers in hopes of becoming viral to attract viewers. Timing of the release matters too as, for example, family comedies usually get more views during the holidays. Many movies in this genre market the movie by collaborating with influencers, celebrities, and popular brands to appeal to and reach bigger audiences. He's All That is a perfect example of this marketing strategy. Viral videos of humorous moments and celebrity appearances spread across social media platforms to attract audiences. A lot of these moments were featured in its trailer too. This film became highly talked about approaching its release date.

Film Samples

    Freaky Friday is a film which embodies many of this genre's conventions as humor develops from the awkward consequences of a mother and daughter swapping lives. Like many comedies, this one addressed the mother and teenage daughter relationship that is commonly stereotyped as not understanding each others perspecitives. This film exaggerated this stereotype by having a teenager girl swap bodies with her mother after driving each other crazy because they did not understand each other. The structure of this film is just like every other comedy, starting with the main characters living their normal lives which was soon disrupted by an obstacle (swapping bodies). Once each character learned their lesson, they returned to their normal lives. In this movie, the status change the characters experience is a new perspective as they were more understanding of what their parent/child is going through. This film also juxtaposed 2 contrasting elements like in many other comedies. This constrast was of a teenage girl in an adult body and an adult in a teenage body. Physical comedy was exhibited when the teen daughter was in the mothers body. Although the mom still physically looked like an adult, mentally she was a teenager. So the actress, Jamie Lee Curtis, playing the mother slouched and exhibited uncoordinated movements similar to that of a teenage girl while physically appearing as a fully grown adult. Lindsay Lohan, the actress playing the teenage daughter, developed humor while physically being a teenager, yet mentally being a grown-up. So, audiences found comedy in watching a free-spirited teen dressing polished and professionally while trying to handle the struggles of adult life.

    The Freaky Friday movie poster features many elements of a narrative image in this genre. This includes the bold colors, main characters with expressive faces hinting that an unexpected and unfortunate event may come, and a tagline (at the top of the poster: "Every teenager nightmare... turning into her mother.") that is used in an attempt to make consumers laugh and become encouraged to watch the movie.

    Ferris Bueller's Day Off is another popular movie that embodies the conventions of the comedy genre. This film features the main character, Ferris Bueller, who decides to skip school because he is "sick." As mentioned earlier, many comedies exaggerate realities. This comedy exaggerates the infamous, and stereotyped, lie children use to get out of school. Ferris' manages to convince not only his family, but his entire town that he is out of school because he is sick. Unlike reality, a rumor of his sickness spread across his entire school in an attempt to add comedic relief to the situation. This film also used comedy to emphasize the stereotyped strict rules of authority figures, such as Principal Rooney who made it his goal to catch Ferris not sick after he ran into him enjoying his day off. Alike all comedies, this one started and ended with Ferris living his ordinary life. Of course, in the middle of the movie it was interrupted with his leisurely activities to celebrate his day off. This comedy also feautred the convention of physcial comedy as Principal Rooney is attacked by Ferris' dog and got  covered in mud when trying to break into the Bueller household.

    The Ferris Bueller's Day Off movie poster exhibits common features of comedy's narrative images, as well. Besides the bold red and black colors, the poster features the main character (Ferris Bueller) with an expressive smirk on his face to illustrate pleasure and hint towards an exciting plot in the movie. The poster even features the taglines "LEISURE RULES" and "One man's struggle to take it easy." in hopes of motivating consumers to watch the movie by instilling an early laugh in them.

Some Comedies to Consider:

Best in Show (2000)

Airplane! (1980)

Modern Times (1936)

School of Rock (2003)

Night at the Museum (2006)

The Sandlot (1993)

Sources:

https://mesnedalmisned.com/2020/04/11/audiences-for-different-genres/

https://robincatling.com/conventions-of-the-comedy-genre

https://fiveable.me/film-history-and-form/unit-2/comedy/study-guide/UAeMZ0mvALkdNH3g

https://prezi.com/44ufbqtezygs/codes-conventions-of-a-comedy/

https://blog.designcrowd.com/article/1004/40-must-see-movie-posters#

https://www.meegle.com/en_us/topics/film-distribution/film-distribution-for-comedy-films

Sound

Hi again!😀 My teacher introduced sound to us recently. My peers and I learned about soundscapes and different types of sound, such as synchronous sound, asynchronous sound, and stings. We also learned different sound techniques, like sound motif and a sound bridge. We were also introduced to foley sound and watched videos on real foley artists sharing a glimpse of their career!

We were assigned 2 sound projects to practice these techniques!

Sound Project #1: We had to make a 1-2 minute soundscape comprised of an action that would occur in a literal 1-2 minute timespan. We could only use 7 words max. during the scene. To collect our sounds we used sound effects databases and were required to incorporate at least 4 foley sounds and submit a video of us collecting them. 

My partner and I wanted to create a soundscape for a fun event with a variety of sounds... so we chose a surprise birthday party! We created an outline of the soundscape from the perspective of the birthday person. While creating the outline, we imagined we were at surprise birthday party to help recall common sounds. Our outline helped us visualize and organize the final result of our soundscape! Here is a picture of the outline:

We used Clipchamp to create our soundscape. My partner and I each chose a scene and looked for sounds from that specific scene. 

Once we completed our final project I felt we could have improved the rain and thunder foley sounds. Also, some viewers may see the events in the soundscape (arrival, birthday cake, gifts) as too fast paced to happen in 1-2 minutes. However, I feel we did a strong job of recreating a surprise birthday party environment and included commonly unnoticed sounds at parties.

Check out the final result here! --> Sound Project #1

Here is how we collected our foley sounds! --> Foley Sound Collection

Sound Project #2: Remember the One Word Film I posted about? In this sound project we circled back to it and added soundscapes to it. We made an outline with our One Word Film partner then we each made a soundscape for the film on Clipchamp. This time, there was no limit on how many foley stages must be used.

My partner and I looked through our One Word Film video and wrote down the scene, then listed the sounds from every movement onto our outline, along with some diegetic sounds. We paused the video after each scene to make sure we took note of all the sounds and then decided on what diegetic sounds to include. Before we finished the brainstorming process we reviewed our outline and video once more to make sure no sounds were missed! Thanks to our outline, we were able to add spotlight to sounds we normally don't focus on. 

I did a good job of matching the synchronous sounds to the movements and my partner and I did well at coming up with sounds heard in a school enviornment people don't focus on. However, I could have played around with the volume more to make the volume of each sound more realistic.

Check out the final result here! --> Sound Project #2

After these projects I can agree that sound is definitely an overlooked side of media!! 

Thank you for your visit and I hope you come back soon!💕🫶