Writing a Mise en Scène Analysis

❶ Let your eyes wander around this frame from Modern Times for a few minutes. Using “The Elements of a Mise en Scène Analysis” handout you received in class, analyze the frame considering the following elements numbered 1, 3, 9, 10, 14, and 15.

❷ Write a 1-2 page typed and double-spaced mise en scène analysis that ultimately describes the frame’s significance to the film as a whole and/or something significant regarding the characters in the frame. 

❸ I suggest this as a structure for your essay: 

❡1 - A brief description of the frame’s context–who is in the frame, what’s their relationship, and what’s happening at this moment in the story. 

❡2 - A breakdown of the elements numbered above (1, 3, 9, etc.) Make sure you explain your responses: how do you know it's Closed Form, for example. And what makes the Dominant the Dominant?

❡3 - An analysis of how those elements contribute to the frame’s overall meaning or significance.

 Look over the model mise en scène analysis provided in class and click on the image above to get a closer look.

 Submit your analysis via Turnitin.com by 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, 4/18.

Key Concepts for Chapter 2

There will be a very brief Reading Reward (quiz) on TUESDAY, 4/10 [NEW DATE] on some of the key concepts from Chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. The best way to prepare is to thoroughly read Chapter 2, completing the fill-in-the-blank handout (on Google Classroom) as you go, and focusing on the following terms and concepts:

• Mise en scène
• Aspect ratio
• The dominant
• Open form vs. closed form
• Proxemic patterns
• Classical composition

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, 3/7

The test will focus on Steven Spielberg's Jaws and the key terms and concepts from chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Also, review everything from the beginning of the course, such as literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects, etc. Look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts.

 Along with the general plot and character developments of Jaws, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Jaws: The conventions of classical cinema; thriller as genre; metonymy; the "Jaws Shot"; triadic composition as motif; long take; visual foreshadowing; DVD special features; continuity errors; cameo; Quint's monologue on the USS Indianapolis. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

• Key Terms and the Effects They Create: framing (shot types), camera angles, lighting (high/low key, neutral); visual rhetoric (the definition of RotMI); deep focus; shallow/soft focus; rack/selective focus; eye-line match; diegetic, non-diegetic, and internal diegetic sound; authorial and subjective points of view--and EVERYTHING FROM CHAPTER ONE of our textbook! 

This is only a general guide and not a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school on Tuesday, 3/6 in room 452 at 2:35 p.m.

UPDATE: Approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini-essay (on classical cinema) / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Key Concepts for Chapter 1

There will be a very brief Reading Reward (QUIZ) on Monday, 2/12 on some of the key concepts from Chapter 1 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. The best way to prepare is to thoroughly read Chapter 1, completing the fill-in-the-blank handout (that you received in class) as you go, and focusing on the following terms and concepts:

• Film style: Realism, formalism & classical cinema
• Shots: Long, medium, close-up and the effects they create
• Angles: Eye-level, high, low, birds-eye view, and oblique (also known as canted or dutch) and the effects they create
• The role of the cinematographer
• Photography: Soft-focus, deep-focus, and rack focusing (selective focusing)

Good luck!

Welcome to the RotMI Blog, SPRING 2018!

Bookmark this site now! It's the place to come for course information and everything you need to keep up with assignments and due dates!

Test on Wednesday, December 13

The test will focus on Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, and the key terms and concepts from Chapter 2 of our textbook, Understanding Movies. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Some Like It Hot: Comic structure (beginning with social upheaval and ending in harmony); comedy as "serious fun"; Sugar's songs' lyrics; Screwball Comedy; curtain line; swish pan and its effect as visual rhetoric; filmed in black and white for a reason; parallel editing (crosscutting); using proxemic patterns to create humor; Kinds of Comedy: parody, sight gags, slapstick, repartee, situational comedy, sexual innuendo, phallic symbols, running gag, dramatic irony, and meta-filmic moments. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Do The Right Thing: title credits; match cut; breaking the fourth wall; litany; episodic story structure vs. the classical paradigm; montage; racial tensions in NYC; and Spike Lee's DVD Special Features. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point. 

• In Chapter 2 - Understanding Movies: Mise en scene ("placing on stage"); aspect ratio (standard vs. widescreen); iris shot; the dominant; subsidiary contrasts; intrinsic interest; tight vs. loose framing; character placement; composition; proxemic patterns; open vs. closed form.

This is only a general guide and not necessarily a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Tuesday, 12/12 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on mise en scene / 20% short answers

Good luck!

Test on Wednesday, November 8

The test will focus on Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and Weijun Chen's Please Vote For Me. Be sure to look over your notes, your homework assignments, and all Viewing Guides and handouts. Also, know how to define "rhetoric" and be able to give an example of "rhetoric of the moving image." Along with the general plot, key quotes, and character developments of our films, be sure to focus on these areas in your review:

• In Run Lola Run: 5 visual aesthetics; the formalistic aspects of the film's style and story structure; epigraphs; birds-eye view shot; split screen; Butterfly Effect; motifs (spirals, clocks, etc.), montage; flash forward; red filter; freeze frame; web of life plot; and Lola as hero. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Psycho: shooting day for night; voyeurism; MacGuffin; parallel editing or crosscutting; director's cameo; motifs of mirrors and birds; the shower scene; the characterization of Norman Bates; the final image; and the groundbreaking features of the film in general. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.
• In Please Vote For Me: Documentary Style Spectrum: What are the qualities of a formalistic documentary vs. a realistic one? Similarities in the 3 candidates’ home lives; candidates’ strengths and weaknesses; who wins the election and what factors help that person? Documentary as genre: what's the purpose of a documentary? What did this film enlighten you about? The effect created by parallel editing or crosscutting. Be able to cite specific examples of these concepts from the film to prove your point.

This is only a general guide and not necessarily a complete list of everything we learned and everything you should study!

Extra help will be offered after school at 2:35 p.m. on Monday, 11/6 in room 452.

The approximate test breakdown: 60% multiple choice / 20% mini essay on documentary style / 20% short answers

Good luck!