Mathey Demonstration

The movie I chose to present my mise en scene on is Equilibrium. This picture is from a fighting scene in the movie. Christian Bale, the actor, just disarmed two guards and is about to fight others. You can find the whole fight scene on youtube, just click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrJOF7jhgAQ

Mise en scene analysis:
Dominant: On this picture, my eye was first attracted to the light behind the character because it makes him good, (in the sense that he emerges as someone better while others still do not have feelings) in such a dark atmosphere while wearing an entirely black outfit. ( note also that the camera was placed at a low angle in order to make him look more appealing and important)

Lighting key: There is a combination of keys in this picture. We can observe some high key in the middle and low keys all around the frame. There is a contrast between the light key and low key from the background with the outfit the character is wearing.

Camera Proxemics: This is a full shot because his whole body fits into the frame but it also let us see part of the locale.

Character Proxemics: There are none since there is only one character in this scene.


This frame illuminates the larger scene by guiding our eyes to what the director wants us to see. In this picture, it starts at the light in the foggy background, then to his hands where he is holding two automatic shotguns. The director wants us next to follow his body line from the knees of his head. Notice how it almost form an arrow pointing to his face in order for us to finally observe the dark contrast reflecting on his skin.