Mise-en-scène Case Study

During this movie still from Jurassic Park (2015), the actors are hiding from the massive t-rex in a car. The main focus is to show the framing and blocking are done this way to show the strength the t-rex has. The director chose the background to be raining and used the broken electricity lines to show the destruction the dinosaur caused. The camera focus is to show the t-rex examining the car with the survivors inside. Also, the music is tense to demonstrate how nervous they are. Moreover, though the movie overall is theatrical, the scene seems realistic overall. The lenses on this shot are wide, and demonstrates a shallow focus.

This still from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), three actors are shown on the screen. The shot shows a deep focus. Then, the characters costumes fit the ideal of adventure, and they are staring at the massive crashed ship. The music and sounds are fearful and tense. The placement of the ship makes it look way bigger, with the center of attention being that. The strong winds in the scene demonstrate a sense of fear and panic towards detecting what was in front of them. The frame rate is very slow, to demonstrate and give the viewer a large demonstration of what they see. This is also a theatrical movie.

This shot from Interstellar (2014), gives the viewers a glimpse of what seems an extremely cold planet in space. The characters are placed in a way that they are part of the set though not the main focus, also called a shallow focus. The bright white color of the mountains show a cold lonely place, with the astronauts confused face confirming this. The tense music adds to the fact of how alone they are. Moreover, the frame rate is slow to show all of the new world they found. Just like the other two, it is a theatrical scene.