Lord of the Rings, December 10 2001, Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson uses composition throughout Lord of the Rings as every time the ring is on screen it focuses on either Frodo with it or by itself. This was used for the general audience who will not know the importance of the ring, this just shows how importance of both Frodo and the ring is to the plot. Its even used in the Hobbit when its insignificant to the plot.

The good, The Bad, and The Ugly, December 3 1966, Sergio Leone

In this movie Leone uses a range of characters such as priests, mercenary’s, Confederate and Union soldiers, bandits, storekeepers, bounty hunters and wealthy lawmen making up some of the cast though these roles are what takes a majority of scenes. However Leone is able to separate these roles from small changes to the outfits with the drunk Captain Clinton who wears his uniform differently to other Union soldiers showing his type of character or comparing Tuco who dresses messy compared to Angel Eyes who dresses in smart dark clothes. This is done to make it clearer to the audience who these characters are compared to something like Star Trek where everyone wears the same costume and at first its hard to distinguish who is who in their roles. The costume of Clint Eastwood worn has become iconic in both movies in general and the western genre. Boba Fett’s character from Star Wars was based of the Man with no name in mannerisms and his look is slightly based off his signature poncho look what has the same colour scheme as his armor.

Alien, May 25 1979, Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott’s uses the elements of the Alien to create horror as he focuses in on certain scenes where the the monster itself isn’t in to create both tension and build up to the monsters reveal. Some examples of this is with the saliva of the alien what occurs throughout the the franchise and with the chest bursting scene where the small alien becomes apart of the foreground as the focus is on it. This is again used throughout the franchise such as in Alien 3 where the monster and Ripley become the main focus when the monster is approaching her. However it works better in this movie as you don’t know what’s coming unlike the sequels where you know what the monster is and what its like.

Alien 3

Spider-man 3 is one of the messiest and most inconstant movies i have ever seen yet at the same time one of the most enjoyable. While i do think that the movie is overcrowded with to many plot lines like the symbiot infecting peter and the 3 antagonists over-crowding the movie. However i think it does have some of the best scenes and moments out of any of the spider-man movies. For example the scene where sandman forms into his original form perfectly demonstrates has struggle and acceptance of what he has become without the use of words. Overall Spider-man 3 is a really good movie because how it incorporates and ends its characters story arcs

Pulp Fiction, September 10 1994, Quentin Tarantino

The scenes in the film are different throughout in lighting as this movie is cut into different short stories throughout the main film what is connected by one character. However lighting differs throughout the film to do with characters as you can have the colorful and brightly lit up restaurant for Uma Thurman’s character or the dull lit scenes for Samuel L Jackson’s character or Bruce Willis character has dark scenes what is used to show the nature of these roles. Lighting was also used instead of the object in the suitcase so that to not take away from the plot point as well as to show the significance of it.

The Hateful 8, December 7 2015, Quentin Tarantino

The film being in one room for most of the movie helps make the plot more original and different to any other film while making the movie smaller in scale. However Tarantino uses every object in that room to make the film bigger in size in plot and stage. This allows the style of Tarantino who splits his movies into chapters to be more spread out while allowing the characters themselves and their surroundings become more realistic as there interactions aren’t seen as deliberately acted out but just following a story. The use of the stage is shown as the main part of its selling point as each bit of the plot requires one of its surroundings to make the plot flow. This can be seen by the poisoned soup bowl to reveal the ambitions of certain characters or the bloody chair what opened up a secondary plot to the movie. The use of this smaller stage of setting brings realism what has been cleverly done by the use of props and a large cast of characters to increase the size of the end product.

What does the top 2018 movie list tell us about the formula for a successful film. Firstly, one should explain that since this list is “international” there are many different film industries from different countries however Hollywood is by far the largest film industry on this list.  The top eight out of the top 10 films are Hollywood films. This tells us that film is a a huge part of western culture. The last two on the list are both from the Chinese industry so one can infer that film is also very popular in the eastern culture, partially because of the sheer amount of people living in china.

Additionally, looking at the genre of film can help determine the formula for a successful film. Many films such as “Avengers: Infinity War”, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Black Panther”. This implies that the action genre is very popular in the film industry, especially in western culture. Therefore using a popular genre is a key part in making a film successful.

Not only that, but bankable stars are very important. having your favourite actor in a film can attract you to it before you have even seen the trailer. People are more likely to see a film with a good/popular actor as they will assume the film is going to be good just because of that actor/actress

Finally, occupying the bottom of the list are two Chinese films, this reveals that China has a very large population and a very large cinematic audience and therefore can make this list whilst only being viewed in one country.

One amazing example of mise-en-scene in a film is in “Titanic” (James Cameron, 1997) the set design was incredible. This is because a full size replica was created just for this one film. Although initially the replica was full size, some parts were removed since they did not contribute to the scene e.g could not be seen at all.

This film was incredibly well made and has left audiences in awe even watching it today due to the intricate plot and terrific set design.