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Shot Design Analysis
Introduction
Mise-en-Sene comprises of elements of a movie scene put in position before the commencement of the filming session. These elements are employed in particular ways once filming does start; they include lighting, actors, sets, and setting, make-up, props, and costumes. The elements may also include other image features that possess an independent existence besides the camera, filming, and editing processes. This paper purposes of analyzing the short design aspect present in the film Do the Right Thing by Spike Lee with a specific focus on the Mise-en-Sene elements, their sequence, and why they are essential in the movie.
Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing is a drama with substantial racial issues; it depicts tough decisions that are faced while living in an urban environment. Lee is the main character in the film; he reconstructs a Bed-Stuy neighborhood inhabited by many of the different characters in the film. Being a Mookey, Lee crosses both the public and private spaces within the neighborhood to deliver pizzas. Mookey stands tall as the center of attention within the war and tear and the energy of the urban mise-en-scene.
Lee is surrounded by distinctive characters sharing the available tight spaces with him. The effect is a cohesive but troubled community. His neighbors include Buggin Out and Radio Raheem. According to the film, the private homes behind hedges and front doors and the public streets are separated by sidewalks. Thes streets undergo constant construction as a result of street protests, individual personalities, and personal comments. In some instances, Mookie deliberates with her sister Jade against a wall graffiti with the inscription “Tawana told the truth,” which has a racial connotation from the 1980s. Lee applies various shooting techniques to heighten tension and to depict superiority and among characters. These include low- angle, high angle, and low-high angle shots.
Costumes and Props
The primary purpose of costumes in a film is character identification. Do the right thing identifies and distinguished using this strategy, for instance, Da Mayor sports a crumpled suit painting a picture of a beaten-down dignity of an elderly alcoholic. Contrarily, the Pino’s white sleeveless T-shirt pictures him as having a working-class background. The costumes in this fill possess an additional role. They can be used to portray a more significant theme. Taking, for example, the shirt that belongs to Brookly Dodger had an inscription of an African American basketball player who broke the racial barrier.
Secondly, the boom box belonging to Radio Raheem and the photograph that he always carried is a means not only to assert identity but also represented the power of sound to break geographical barriers. This is demonstrated by the Mister Senor Love Daddy’s radio voice. On another hand, Smiley’s photo of Malcolm X and Luther King represented the loved and hated among the races. Another dimension is that the photo acts as a counterpoint to Sal’s photo possessing Italian celebrities on the fame wall on the pizzeria. The photos depict a respective calm of both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X regarding the respective claims to particular racial identities.
Blocking
In the filming process, blocking refers to the physical arrangement of characters in a mise-and-scene. The arrangement is either in relation to other characters or other objects within the mise-and-scene. In the play, the aspect of blocking is useful in advancing themes as it becomes about the politics surrounding the block and how the personal situation of the characters in the neighborhood. Taking, for example, the position of Mother sister at the window high up to assess the occurrences within the neighborhoods, her blocking is a depiction of her elevated and respectful status in the community.
The Mother Sister certainly believes she is in a higher moral plane than the lowly Mayou, as seen through a low-angle shot in her widow as she preaches down casting criticism on the purses she almost imagines possessing Godly characteristics. On the other hand, the high angle shot from her view gives the others on the street, and the mayor is feeling of subjection.
Blocking also takes place at the conversation between Pio, Vito, and Mookey. The conversation pit these individuals against each other. The blocking, therefore, in this context, is a portrayal of the fact that the tenseness and conversation become more physical when the actors move closer. These two are at the same eye level depicting moral equality.
Actors and Performance
The performance of an actor is responsible for holding together mise-en-scene within a film. In the play Do the Right Thing, Mookie is unmistakably the main character. Even though all actors are performers, in the play, Mookey is revealed as the more self -conscious performer most of the other fellow actors. His attraction and power emanate from his unique ability to identify with other characters across the neighborhood and generations. Mookey is depicted to be like a mirror to display to the other characters’ true selves. In this sense, he acts as the film truth-teller.
The climate Sequence
This element is useful in drawing many of the key elements and strategies of mise-en-scene together at the end of the play Do the Right Thing: the differences and dynamics between private and public spaces, the blocking of the different groups within the neighborhood, and the performance within those spaces The sequence starts with the demand from Buggin Out, Radio Raheem, and Smiley that the African American Photos be added to the wall within the Sal’s Pizzeria. They receive support from the crowds heightening the emotional tension. After the destruction of the boombox destruction by Sal and the eruption of the brawl, Sal and his sons are on one side, and a line of angry neighbors on the other. The play seems ambiguous, controversial, but important actions take place, Mookey makes a decision to separate the fighting factions. This occurance seem lke a wake-up call for him as he heads home, maybe to the responsibility of his son.
At this section, Lee uses high and low angle shots to exemplify the conflict in the two encounters between Sal and Radio Raheem. Through film, Radio is shown using a low angle shot, giving him a larger and threatening life appearance. On the appearance of Radio Raheem in the room, the camera shifts back and forth between the low angle shots of Rahim and the high angle shots of Close-ups of Sal. The climax of this battle, Lee uses high and low angle point of view shots to heighten tension and to give the characters a feeling of having the edge over the other. This type of shot is meant to motivate the brawl.
Conclusion
Spike Lee’s work, Do the Right Thing, is fascinating and exciting to watch. He has successfully used his directorial standpoint to create high angle shots, low angle shots, and in some cases, a combination of both. He does this to draw bright contrasts between the characters, for instance, the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent. The climax of this battle, Lee uses high and low angle point of view shots to heighten tension and to give the characters a feeling of having the edge over the other.
Work Cited