Looking at Movies Chapter 5: Mise-en-Scène – Study Guide, Review Questions,
and Answers
Composition - ✔✔The organization, distribution, balance, and general relationship of objects
and figures, as well as of light, shade, line, color, and movement within the frame.
What is makes composition important? - ✔✔1. Unity throughout the film
2. Guide's viewers eye throughout the frame
3. Minimizes or enhances the appearance of depth
4. Arrangement can help viewers understand character's state of mind
Previsualization - ✔✔Ensuring that each shot's composition serves the movie's narrative, tone,
and overall style requires a great deal of planning. to aid in visualizing each individual shot and
to help achieve a unified approach to shot compositions.
Previsualization can include: - ✔✔storyboards, diagrams of sets including actor and camera
positions called overheads, and software that creates 3D models of sets and scenarios.
Rule of Thirds - ✔✔A composition rule that divides the screen into thirds horizontally and
vertically, like a tic-tac toe grid placed over the picture on a television set. Almost all of the
important information included in every shot is located at one of the four intersections of the
horizontal and vertical lines
By breaking rule of thirds, filmmakers create: - ✔✔Compositional stress. The intentional
imbalance can communicate many levels of meaning, as always depending on context in which
it is used.
Eye Room - ✔✔Space placed on the side of the frame in which the subject is looking. The
implied significance of the character's gaze helps stabilize what would otherwise be an
imbalanced composition
, Head Room - ✔✔the space above the subjects head in the composition of a frame
Lead Room - ✔✔Open space on the other side of the frame that of a character whose lateral
screen movement is being tracked by the camera.
Why is the method of Lead Room necessary? - ✔✔To balance the composition because the
implied lateral movement of the character carries compositional weight.
Negative Space - ✔✔creates an expectation that something will arrive in this empty space and
restore compositional balance. Used to generate suspense in narratives.
How was the third dimension of depth introduced into film in the 1930s? - ✔✔As new lenses
and lights made it possible to capture depth when photographing images, cinematographers
began using depth as a component of composition.
Deep Space Composition - ✔✔emphasizes depth by placing significant visual and narrative
information on two or more of three planes of depth- foreground, middle, and bg, in a way that
not only emphasizes depth but conveys information, mood and meaning.
The way a camera frames the shots in a film can... - ✔✔... convey meaning in ways that are
related to but go beyond mise en scene and composition.
Kinesis - ✔✔The aspect of composition that takes into account everything that moves on the
screen.
Figure Movement - ✔✔the movement of a character, animal or object used as an element of
mise-en-scene.
and Answers
Composition - ✔✔The organization, distribution, balance, and general relationship of objects
and figures, as well as of light, shade, line, color, and movement within the frame.
What is makes composition important? - ✔✔1. Unity throughout the film
2. Guide's viewers eye throughout the frame
3. Minimizes or enhances the appearance of depth
4. Arrangement can help viewers understand character's state of mind
Previsualization - ✔✔Ensuring that each shot's composition serves the movie's narrative, tone,
and overall style requires a great deal of planning. to aid in visualizing each individual shot and
to help achieve a unified approach to shot compositions.
Previsualization can include: - ✔✔storyboards, diagrams of sets including actor and camera
positions called overheads, and software that creates 3D models of sets and scenarios.
Rule of Thirds - ✔✔A composition rule that divides the screen into thirds horizontally and
vertically, like a tic-tac toe grid placed over the picture on a television set. Almost all of the
important information included in every shot is located at one of the four intersections of the
horizontal and vertical lines
By breaking rule of thirds, filmmakers create: - ✔✔Compositional stress. The intentional
imbalance can communicate many levels of meaning, as always depending on context in which
it is used.
Eye Room - ✔✔Space placed on the side of the frame in which the subject is looking. The
implied significance of the character's gaze helps stabilize what would otherwise be an
imbalanced composition
, Head Room - ✔✔the space above the subjects head in the composition of a frame
Lead Room - ✔✔Open space on the other side of the frame that of a character whose lateral
screen movement is being tracked by the camera.
Why is the method of Lead Room necessary? - ✔✔To balance the composition because the
implied lateral movement of the character carries compositional weight.
Negative Space - ✔✔creates an expectation that something will arrive in this empty space and
restore compositional balance. Used to generate suspense in narratives.
How was the third dimension of depth introduced into film in the 1930s? - ✔✔As new lenses
and lights made it possible to capture depth when photographing images, cinematographers
began using depth as a component of composition.
Deep Space Composition - ✔✔emphasizes depth by placing significant visual and narrative
information on two or more of three planes of depth- foreground, middle, and bg, in a way that
not only emphasizes depth but conveys information, mood and meaning.
The way a camera frames the shots in a film can... - ✔✔... convey meaning in ways that are
related to but go beyond mise en scene and composition.
Kinesis - ✔✔The aspect of composition that takes into account everything that moves on the
screen.
Figure Movement - ✔✔the movement of a character, animal or object used as an element of
mise-en-scene.
