Saturday 9 November 2013

Mise En Scene in movies-Saving Private Ryan-War/Drama Action



In this post I will be talking about the Mise En Scene in the short clip taken from the movie Saving Private Ryan. I will be taking about how Mise En Scene is used to present the theme and how it is used to show to add detail and effect to a scene.

Throughout the clip I will analyse the setting, costumes, props, how the characters act, hair and make up and colour.
In this scene we can clearly see that the setting used is some sort of beach. The scene is supposed to be a representation of the battle for Omaha beach, this battle occurred in ww2 when America was fighting Germany. So the setting used for the beach had to be well thought out, clearly a wide open beach was used to be able to film the battle scene on. The beach or set used clearly the movie companies needed permission to use especially has they had to make it look like a realistic battlefield so it would of been tampered with.

The costumes used in the scene are mainly US military outfits and obviously for the actors playing the Germans, the military outfits were German. The costume used had to be very accurate and detailed, for example for different ranking soldiers the costume were different. The costume were also tampered with, some had to be ripped and damaged for the scene to look realistic, bullet holes were added to some costumes helmets were dented e.t.c. This is so the scene looked authentic and realistic.

There were a lot of various props used throughout the scene, the props in the scene really add detail and make it seem like a battle field. Firstly all the soldiers were given guns, the guns them selves had to be realistic and an accurate representation. There were variations in the weapons individually, e.g. some soldiers were given rifles some had mounted machine guns. There were props used to make the battle scene look more realistic. Prop Czech Hedgehogs (the large metal structures placed across the beach front to stop the boats) were used to make the scene look more realistic. Then fake body parts were used to make the battle look gruesome and violent, for example we can see fake arms used and various other different limbs. Several different pyrotechnics were used to add effect of explosions, a perfect example of pyrotechnics used is the part of the scene where the flame thrower is shot and him and his fellow soldiers burst into flames.

The way the characters act throughout the scene varied, some of the actors had to make it look like they really were in  pain from the wounds their characters inflicted. Others acted in shock and horror at the events going around them, there was lots of screaming and shouting from the actors to really capture the emotion of the soldiers. There is a scene in particular where actor Tom Hanks puts in a very good performance, right of the beginning of the clip he really portrays shock very well.

The hair and make up is mainly used in the clip to make the soldiers look gritty and worn out, its also used to create fake wounds for the characters like cuts and blood marks. All of this is to make the continuity of the film better, things like dirt marks and cuts are used to make the scene more believable.

The colour throughout the scene is very dark and gloomy this done to capture the gritty tone of the the scene. This is also because of the destruction the smoke and ashes portrays the grey and black tones. Also there is a lot of red from the blood of the fallen soldiers, the sea lapping across the beach in the scene has been purposely stained red in order to make it look like the blood of the soldiers has polluted the sea on the beach front.

From all of this you can see how Mise En Scene is important and how it really changes a scene.
 

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