Mise-en-Scène

Research Activity 1

Settings & Props:

This is a stop-motion animation and the story is set in a chemical laboratory and there are two groups of characters in the laboratory and doing experiments. There are for animals which is three foxes and one guinea pig. In front of the scene, there are much chemical equipment and the periodic table of elements can also be seen behind the characters because the director wants to tell the audience the filming location

Costume, Hair & Makeup:

Because normally it’s hard to tell the gender of animals, so costume and dress can clearly express the gender of the character. So in the video, one fox wears a white shawl, and his assistant wears a brown skirt, and though the voice can clearly let the audience notice that she is a girl. On the other group, there is one fox who wears a white shirt and a guinea pig wears a yellow t-shirt so they are males.

Facial Expressions & Body Language:

Though their facial expressions and body language can easily show the audience each character’s mental activity. In the video, the girl fox is doing experiments absentmindedly and looking at the fox from the other group, it tells us that she likes him. And the guinea pig in the other group is very fond of pranks so that he caused a little explosion.

Lighting and Colour:

Because the setting of the story is in a chemical laboratory, so there are not many special lights just some lights on the top of the laboratory. And the color of the light is using warm-toned which is very soft and warm.

Positioning of characters/objects within the frame:

There are two groups on the two different sides, a girl fox on the right who is looking at the boy fox in the other group, the director wants to set this position of each character because he wants to show the audience that she is not loyal to the group or the fox which she is assistant with.

Research Activity 2:

Anomalisa. Charlie Kaufman 2016

From this frame, I can see these two characters are not happy, they lie on the bed and look at the ceiling. Normally, when we lie on the bed, we will feel comfortable or calm, but from this frame. Their facial expressions look very disappointed and depressed. They look like they’ve been through a storm and it didn’t turn out as well.

Through the movie, I can tell that Rebecca on the left is a very noble character such as a princess, because the dress she wears, the necklace, and the hair she dresses in is very sophisticated and detailed. And also, on the other side, should be her housekeeper or someone that the princesses are afraid of, because though the eyes and the posture that she stands is very majestic.   

The main character dress like a mysterious person in the scene, because though the clothes she is wearing and the eyes she is looking at can show us that she doesn’t anyone to recognize her. This is a medium shot because we can see most of the character’s body and this frame just want to let the main character look different from the others.