Running head: Mise-en-scène

Elements of Design: Mise-en-scène

I chose the movie Titanic, and the movie clip I choose was I’m Flying. Titanic is a 1997 American classic romantic tragedy film directed, written, co-produced, co-edited and partly financed by James Cameron. Of course you have the production designer who is Peter Lamont, and the art directors who are Martin Laing and Charles Lee. In this movie each artist had their own roles in the production of the film. I will explain each role.
First there is the Director James Cameron and his role is the dynamic creative force in a film's production. His role acts as the critical link between the production, technical and creative teams. James Cameron was responsible for artistically translating the film's written script into real images and sounds on the screen. He had to visualize the style and structure of the film, and then act as both a narrator and team leader to bring his vision to reality. His main responsibility is script editing, casting, shot composition, shot selection and editing.
Peter Lamont is the production designer and his responsibility is the whole Art Department. Mr. Lamont role in helping the director was also to achieve the film's visual requirements, and in providing producers with carefully designed schedules which offer feasible ways of making films within agreed budgets and specific periods of time. The look of a set or location is fundamental in drawing the audience into the story. This location is an critical element in making a film believable and suggestive. A lot of hard work and imagination goes into constructing an suitable setting to any story, and into selecting or constructing appropriate locations or sets. The art directors who are Martin Laing and Charles Lee also have a very important role in any movie. As art directors they delegate tasks to production, set, electrical and lighting designers, unifying those roles in their attempt to bring a director’s aesthetic vision to life. Set design is a vital characteristic of film production that executes on a director's vision. A team of talented individuals, including set designers, prop masters, graphic designers, costume designers and other artists, performs research that is vital to the correct interpretation of a director’s visual ideas. The artist utilized lightening in the scene by implementing a golden lighting which seemed to come unsurprisingly from the evening sky. The way the sun played a very important role in helping the light from its rays to bounce off the used camera creating a sunset. Also, the lights allowed it to create a romantic mood which was appropriate with the film. The lightening also gives us the image of what era it was. It also gave way for the romance that was shown throughout the entire film. The setting of this story takes place in the middle of an ocean on the ship, back in 1912. The two are in love and Jack takes her to a place where she can imagine how it feels to fly. The culture of this film is one that is separated by a higher class. They had to keep their love affair a secret because she was soon to be wed and he was not acceptable in her family. In the clip they are on the edge of the boat and she felt relaxed and free. I think for a moment she escaped from her current situation to another dimension of Jacks world. Costumes can tell us a lot about a film character. The costumes does this by showing these the characters social status and the class they belong to. Thus, like in the movie Jack an were from two extremely different social classes and that was clearly brought out in costume. Moreover, they can also give us a clue of the general individuality of a person. A character's alteration in the course of a film is commonly shown in a change of costume. It can also designate a character's emotional position. Hairstyle and make-up has the same effect as costumes because it helps to tell a better story of what the director has visualized for his film. These two features can tell you what era the director is trying to reach for and what class of people they are. For instance in Titanic, Rose was a well dressed, clean hair, clothes, and very nice make-up. The other girls in the film looked lower class because they weren’t as fresh as Rose. Even when she is on the top of the ship with Jack you can tell in their style of clothes that he had nothing but she had it all. Mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera down to its arrangements, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. My opinion of the mise-en-scène was that everything from the props to the setting had a significant role in the director’s ideas. The film made you believe that you were back in 1912 and you could feel the passion of their love for each other regardless of class. The overall idea was in chronological order and worked together. The costumes, hair, make-up, music, romance, and scenery captured James Cameron’s feel for an actual event that happened in 1912.

Reference
Goodykoontz, B. & Jacobs, C. P. (2011), Film From watching to seeing. San Diego, CA:
Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Skillset, Focus Point, 21 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9GB. Film Director http://www.creativeskillset.org/film/jobs/direction/article_3880_1.asp Skillset, Focus Point, 21 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9GB. Production Design
http://www.creativeskillset.org/film/jobs/productiondesign/article_4645_1.asp