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Staging or

Mise-en-Scene: "putting into scene“

Décor (including setting, costumes, make-up, props (short for property)

Acting (including blocking [where actors are positioned])

Lighting

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Directors arrange the scene based upon aesthetic principles such as

color, line, balance, space and contrast

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Costumes, lighting, setting, and blocking create three dimensional expectations, depth cues

and deep space.

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Décor: Furniture, props, costumes and colors used to design a set.

How does the décor in this scene establish story and reinforce characterization?

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Acting Terms Method-acting: an actor learns a part from the inside out. Attempts to draw upon memories of prior emotions to match the emotions of their character

Blocking: an actor's movement around a set or the notations regarding movement in an actor's script.

Motivation: the emotion an actor is directed to use to form a character’s demeanor.

Monologue : an extended speech by one person

Double-take: a character looks twice to show disbelief

Casting: choosing the actor for the role

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One element of acting that directors manipulate is frontality (subjects facing forward)

because we instinctively want to see the faces of actors. When we can't see the faces, it is called denying frontality.

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What is good acting?

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What is good acting?

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Acting StylesConcepts of realistic acting have changed over film history. What was once seen as realistic is now seen as stylized. Instead of assuming that acting must be realistic, we should try to understand what kind of acting style the film is aiming at.

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Realistic? Good or Bad?

Steve Martin's Performance in All of Me

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Lighting: A director’s lighting choices

are made to create dramatic value

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Lighting from above makes characters look dignified and noble. From below makes them look sinister and menacing. Lighting from behind gives a mysterious outline

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Three Point Light Setupis used to achieve a pleasant, natural look

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Symbolic Lighting: Fight Club

Much of the film was set in dark, gritty environments, and the use of back lights helped the characters "pop" out of the backgrounds, without requiring bright frontal lighting levels

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Symbolic Lighting:

Apocalypse Now

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Symbolic Lighting:

Fatal Attraction

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Blocking: Directors manipulate staging and directional movement for dramatic value, to ensure sight lines, to work with the lighting design and to accommodate the movement of the camera

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Evaluate the effects of the blocking choices

in this opening sequence from

Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train

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Evaluate the use of lighting, wardrobe &

blocking choices in this scene from The Natural