Short Answer Questions

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1. Describe the characteristics of expressive mise-en-scène and provide an example.
In an expressive mise-en-scène, settings, sets, props, and other physical dimensions of the mise-en-scène take on lives of their own to illustrate emotional or spiritual elements permeating the material world. This technique is employed in many horror films—such as in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), where the birds become antagonists—but is also present in other genres, such as the independent film Lars and the Real Girl (2007), where a blow-up doll becomes the main character’s companion and love interest.

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2. The three-point lighting system is the standard method for lighting a scene. Describe the components of this system.
The three-point system is a lighting style that uses three sources: a key light to illuminate the object, backlighting to pick out the object from the background, and fill lighting to minimize shadows.

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3. Describe the four ways that costumes and make-up function within films.
When costumes and make-up support scenic realism, they reproduce the clothing and features of people living in a specific setting and time period. When make-up and costumes function as character highlights, they point out important parts of a character’s personality, such as the starched collars of high society gentlemen or the hairy warts of witches. When costumes and make-up act as narrative markers, their change or lack of change helps viewers understand the progression of the story, the development of the characters, and the passage of time. Finally, when make-up and costuming are used as a part of overall production design to signify genre, they can be surreal in nature—as in horror or fantasy films—and involve prosthetics and elaborate designs that evoke the themes of the specific genre.

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4. What is naturalistic acting? Provide an example.
Naturalistic acting requires an actor to deeply immerse him or herself in a role in order to portray that character’s essential self onscreen. One of the most famous examples of this is Marlon Brando’s performance as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role in which the actor and character seem almost indistinguishable.

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5. What are McGuffins?
Made famous by Alfred Hitchcock, McGuffins are props—such as the stolen money in Psycho (1960) and the uranium in Notorious (1946)—that appear at first to be important but that are actually just props used to help move the plot forward to the primary drama of love, danger, and/or desire.