my example of good use of hair and makeup comes from the 1982 film ‘The Thing’. At this time cgi was not a developed asset and was still in its very early stages, so the producers if this film opted for a more practical approach and where able to create a shocking believable transformation. The way gore was still able to be implemented in such a good way form its time allowed the film to be scarier and more shocking for the audiance.

Spike Lee the director of Blackkklansman. States that you can’t make a movie on a cultural issue if you are not part of the culture yourself.

In my opinion I think this depends on the movie your making. An example of what I mean come from the 2 movies he has criticised. Detroit and Django Unchained.

An example of the lack of experience with a cultural issue causing issues with a movie is Detroit. The focus on Detroit is the riot in Detroit. However, the overall problem with the movie is that it focusses of Detroit is showing how bad the riots were without much narrative of characterising surrounding it. This makes the message its trying to portray feel forced because of the lack of a connection the audience has to the character going through this situation.

However I think Django Unchained is an example of a movie that covers a cultural issue well by making the slavery and racism in the movie not the main focus. In making the movie focus on the character of Django and his narrative of getting back his wife shows the issues of racism and how it negatively affected Django a character the audience cares about. Showing them the importance of treating everyone with respect, without feeling forced.

Mise-en-scene in Bladerunner 

The scene I believe represents a lot of mise-en-scene elements is the scene Towards the end of the film where Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is in the building and is trying to find and kill Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) and Pris (Daryl Hannah).

In the scene there are lots of examples of mise-en-scene such as set design. As you can see in this part of the scene there are a lot of random and weird objects such as dolls and mannequins which fill the room and give an even stranger impression of Pris and Roys character. It also gives Pris a place to hide which is amusing to the viewer as she is hiding in plain sight and adds suspense because we don’t know when she will reveal herself but we know she is there and Rick doesn’t.

Another obvious feature in this scene is costume. Pris’ costume is representing that of a bride, she also has a skin-tight white suit on the help with her disguise as a mannequin. This costume gives her an inhumane personality.

Hair and Makeup: my favorite use of hair and makeup in this film is Pris’ because it makes her look crazy and deranged, the viewer sees this by her short frizzy hair and pale skin with splodges of colour and eye shadow.

When Rick shoots Pris she lets out a horrifying sound of screaming, This links to my next mise-en-scene feature: sound. The screaming sounds as though it is in the background and Pris isn’t making the noises which give the viewer a sense of her soul leaving her body and it alienates her even more.Another example of sound in this scene is where Roy is howling whilst running around the building, this feature is used because Roy sounds like a werewolf and werewolves are partially human just like the replicants, the howling allows the viewer to differentiate Roy from Rick even more.

The lighting in this scene is very dark, this creates a sense of unease for the viewer as there is lots of shadows and for the most part of the fight scene you never know where Roy is going to appear from. The shadows give this an even more unknowing feel. Although it is dark there are shimmers of light from outside, this allows the camera to pick up the action so that it isn’t too dark for us to see, the rays of light from the outside of the building have a natural sense of light rather than the more obvious choice of having lamps dotted around the rooms.When Rick first walks into the room with Pris and all the dolls it is quite light which gives a safer feel for the viewer, as soon as rick discovers one of the mannequins is actually Pris he gets kicked backwards into a much darker room, this was no coincidence, the director had this done so that the darker room is where the fight happens and this makes the audience more scared.As a part of set design, the whole building seems to be leaking with water, this makes it seem like it is raining, rain is a negative weather and directors use rain to add a sense of unease to their scenes.

Finally, the use of special effects in the final scene create a more brutal feel like when Roy takes the nail out the floor board and puts it straight through his hand to pry it open. Of course, the nail didn’t really go through Rutger Hauer’s hand, in the final cut (2007) the nail going through the hand was edited out because it was too brutal, this shows how good the special effects were in 1982 without CGI. This also adds to the brutality of the scene and makes the viewer even more scared of Rutger because of the lengths he will go to so that he can kill Rick.

What makes a Film a “good” Film ?

A film I believe to be a good film is “Shutter Island” (directed by Martin Scorsese). Shutter island is a dark thriller and has a very elaborate plot that requires concentration, I believe the plot itself makes it a great film as you must pay your full attention to the film rather than doing something else whilst watching an “easy watch” film like Jurassic Park. In conclusion to my first point I think a good thriller film should mean the audience has to give there full attention.

Shutter island is more famously known for its unbelievable twist towards the end of the film where U.S. Marshall Teddy West (Leonardo DiCaprio) is told he is a prisoner at the mental institution and has been for a long time, This twist could never be expected by anyone watching the film as there was so much attention on the girl who had gone missing to distract the audience from suspecting anything. To sum up my point I think films with an elaborate twist are usually great films.

Cinematography is used in shutter island to present Leonardo’s character as firstly being an important and special character compared to the rest because of the close up shots. Later on in the film when the characters mental problems begin to be unfolded, the camera angle changes to a wider shot of Leo signifying he isn’t any different from the surrounding patients or people. Some shots of Leo’s character are filmed from a higher angle and in a circling motion around the character which shows his insanity.

Sound is very important in a film, this can be any noise such as: speech, music or natural noises. In shutter island the use of sound is crucial in the storm scene. The scene is a very loud scene and this is used to unsettle the audience and take there attention away from the fact that the storm isn’t a real storm and that Leo’s character is actually imagining in. Another example of sound in this film is that whenever there is water eg: rain or a tap, the sound of the water is distinctively loud. This links to back to the plot of the film and how the marshals kids were drowned and this memory is embedded in his subconscious mind.