The clip that I chose to analyze for Mise-en-Scene, or all the things that are “put into a scene: the setting, the decor, the lighting, the costumes, the performance etc.” (Yale Film Studies, 2002), is from The Lord of the Rings: The fellowship of the ring: The fall of Gandalf. (Jackson, P., 2001). The movie itself is shot in cinemascope screen (Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. 2014), which is a 2.4:1 aspect ratio, or the side masking pulled out. In this clip, the setting begins in the interior of a dark mountain made up of caverns and tunnels and deep gorge-like crevices that reach into what appears to be the very belly of the earth. The walls are slate, and there are hints of man-made structures, long abandoned, like a stone carved bridge, and pillars of once great hallways, and a stone stairwell carved right into the walls, leading out of the mountain. The lighting is primarily low-key (Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. 2014), which is dark and throws shadows, to add to the suspense of the clip, but there are times of back-lighting and flat-lighting to establish the mood of the characters, as is visible in their emotional facial expressions. There is ambient light from the fire creature, flashing oranges and reds, giving off a sense of genuine heat. All the characters looks sweaty and soiled, bringing to life their hurried race to safety within the dark, dank belly of the mountain while being pursued by the enemy. The suspense surrounding the standoff between the creature and Gandalf is intense, and the sequence of events led everyone to believe that Gandalf had succeeded in killing off the creature when you saw it falling to its death while Gandalf, safely atop the bridge, sigied a sigh of relief. However, the creature had a fire-whip that it snapped up toward Gandalf, grabbing his ankle, and pulling him over the edge as well. The shocked response of the characters is very powerful and brings them to the exit into the daylight, where the look of the film takes on quite another dynamic, one of paled, shocked mourning. The colors outside the mountain are all desaturated (Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. 2014), and not very vivid or deep. The desaturation of the sky and the mountain, and any grass or water takes on a very dull look, matching the very dull sense of pain that everyone is enduring in that moment, at the loss of their Wizard.
References:
Goodykoontz, B., & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From watching to seeing (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. This text is a Constellation™ course digital materials (CDM) title.
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring Movie. The fall of Gandalf. Peter Jackson, 2001. Retrieved from YouTube 09/18/2014, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKGQFkWI_bM
Yale Film Studies (2002), http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the ring 