This week our class focus was on discussing Mise-en-Scene, as I already have a BA in Film Studies this served more as a refresher for me though for a few others I’m certain it was their first interaction with film theory. For practice we analyzed a scene from High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952). What I got from my analysis was this:
The shots of the railway make use of one point perspective to create a feeling of dread as our eyes are forced by the sightlines to the inevitable train approaching the town carrying the bandit ready to kill our protagonist. It also uses the soundtrack of the film to cut to the beat of the loud swells to help build tension. Along with that cutting comes a consistent motif of shots that started out as mediums becoming closer and closer shots ending in extreme close ups. This too works to build tension as it works as a visual metaphor of the impending dread our characters feel as the clock, being shot closer and closer as well, strikes high noon and the train arrives. These elements all come together to create an overwhelming sense of dreaded anticipation.
I’ve also begun to look into my topic which with my current understanding and research I have settled on it being:
The Ludic Nucleus is the idea that the city is a contradictory playground that is imbued with the ability to liberate. With this in mind I will examine how BBB use’s its Urban Fantasy setting of New York as expressed through its use of crowds and crowd shots to convey this idea.
Keywords: City Symphony, Urban Fantasy, Cities, Crowds, Urbanization
Works:
Webb, L 2014, The Cinema of Urban Crisis : Seventies Film and the Reinvention of the City, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam.
The city symphony phenomenon : cinema, art, and urban modernity between the wars / edited by Steven Jacobs, Eva Hielscher, Anthony Kinik.
Mannolini-Winwood, Sarai (2016) Urban fantasy: Theorising an emergent literary subgenre. Masters by Research thesis, Murdoch University.