12. I am Jack's wasted life

Right I'm up on Saturday night doing homework, I'm cool, I know. And be warned this post is going to be a marathon.

Now to the point. As I mentioned earlier, we plan mise-en-scène to be a big part of our production, with the aim of creating (or arranging) our own set and lighting it well to maximise the end quality of our media coursework.

In light of this, coupled with the fact that we plan to set our music video in an American style diner/café, I began to think of cases in which bars, cafés and diners have featured in film; with a view to analysing how they were presented and what the mise-en-scène in said scenes was like (and what we can draw from this anlaysis). Almost immediately I had two scenes that I wished to analyse, both of which appear below. The first is from Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999), one of my favourite films and one of favourite scenes in it (it'll be explained in great depth below). The second is, again, from one of my favourite films and is, again, one of my favourite scenes. This time the scene in question being from Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990).

Then, as I settled down to write this blog post, my mental wanderings came upon another scene from another film. This time it is from Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992). A film that, while not adoring, I like. However I think I'm duty-bound to point out that Jake has immoral dreams about the man who directed it.

Bar Scene - Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999




While I'm mainly concerned with the the bar-orientated section of this clip, the section outside the bar is also of use as we are considering ending our music video with the central character walking outside into the car park of the diner/café. Thus I'll split the analysis into two.

Inside

What immediately strikes you about the scene is the muted palette of colours used by Fincher. The blue-grey of the upper walls and concrete pillars, black of the leather seats and sober brown of the tables and bar makes for a cold, dark and dingy bar atmosphere. Yet more than this it makes for a seedy atmosphere that nicely introduces and represents the seediness that is later to be revealed as a central part of Tyler's character.

This seediness is heightened by the director's use of focus and lighting in the scene. The sight of the various patrons of the bar moving around the behind the two characters out of focus and in the shadow cast by the hanging, partially-covered fluorescent lights creates a furtive atmosphere, in which people's faces and physical distinctions are hazy and unclear. This clandestine atmosphere is furthered by the presence of a group of pool players that can be seen behind the narrator's head. These subjects are lit by a smokey neon-blue light that only lights the (still out of focus) lower section of their bodies. The lighting used in the rest of the bar is quite low-key, with dim, covered wall-lamps that cast light up the wall they're attached too (which means that the bar patrons are dimly lit, adding to the atmosphere). Contrasted with this is the lighting and focus used for the two central characters: well lit, with their faces being fully lit and in clear focus.

One obvious effect of all this is that the audience's attention is focused upon the two central characters and what they say (it is a pretty important dialogue, it reveals most of what Tyler acts upon later), mainly because there's not a lot else that's clear enough to look at.

However it could also be said that an effect of this lighting and use of focus is that the audience is provided with a source of mystery, they cannot draw any solid conclusions from the character's location as they cannot see it or it's patrons clear enough, this can only leave them with a sense of mystery. Another closely related effect of the director's use of mise-en-scène is that the audience's attention is mainly focused upon the two main characters, yet their eyes will wander over the background in an attempt to discern details (in vain). This builds the secretive, mysterious nature of the two characters; they are sitting in a furtive bar filled with shady individuals that only interact with their immediate group. The audience are left to ponder what sort of character Tyler is to have taken the Narrator to this type of bar for their first meeting.

This sense of mystery and seediness created through use of focus, lighting and colour is something that I'd like to replicate in our own production. We want to introduce the character that is going to miming along to Last Night and we want to introduce a superficial "character", but we don't really want to divulge too much information about what kind of person they are or their nature, something (I feel) we can reinforce through similar use of mise-en-scène.

Outside

Now I've chosen to analyse the outside section of the bar scene in Fight Club because we ourselves may also have an scene in which the central character walks outside the front door (see my reasoning lol)

Anyway, the mise-en-scène is very similar outside. The fact that the scene takes place at night time already establishes a bleak atmosphere. Yet the colour, lighting and props that Fincher uses only reinforces this. Again the grey-blue appears, being used for the entire outside wall of the bar; as with inside of the bar, this creates a cold, dingy feeling.

Fincher again bolsters this dingy feeling through the use of cold, flourescant lighting (actually a lot of this reminds me of some of Jonathan Glazer's work, i.e. Richard Ashcroft - Song For The Lovers) and hazy sodium street lights. This low-key lighting creates an a very atmospheric mood for the scene, with the fluorescent lighting casting long shadows up the wall of the bar and creating a soure of back-lighting for the two main characters, the sodium street lamps then create deep shadows on the two character's faces and clothes.

Fincher also uses props to great effect in the outside portion of the bar scene. The rubbish bags, wheelie bin, wet and puddled tarmac and discarded empty beer bottles create a decrepit feel for the area outside the bar (how many bars have you been to that keep rubbish bags outside the front door next to the payphone?). This subtley links in well with what Tyler was saying in the bar ("stop being perfect") and what his "life" is later revealed to consist of: a dilapidated abandoned house and a business that consists of "selling rich women their own fat asses back to them".

This all works to generate a very strange mood for the scene that I can only describe as a "late-night with no-one about" mood, except it is exaggerated to an almost surreal level (or maybe I just lead a sheltered life) by the Fincher's use of mise-en-scène. Something that I feel we'd like to emulate entirely for our closing sequence of shots as it fits the morning-after-the-night-before mood we're trying to match to the song.

"Billy Batts" Scene - Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)



The next scene I'm analysing is a bit more simple, in that I will mainly be concentrating upon set design and props, with a little bit extra added from the other aspects. Anyway, it's a classic scene from Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990) in which the three guys murder a "made-man" in a diner/café. It's mainly that last bit that intriques me.

Now Scorsese created the set of this scene as a small American diner. There's a well-stocked bar with small black leather, steel legged bar stools lining the counter. Lino covers the floor and every other space is filled by black leather corner chairs and tables covered by white tablecloths. This is a style that I feel works for it's realism, and it is a type of set that I hope we can emulate for our own production. However I don't think we'll be putting a jukebox in ours.

Again, as with the Fight Club clip, low-key lighting goes a long way to creating an almost foreboding atmosphere. However the major difference between the two is that Scorsese (I'm of course believing purposefully) has had the main characters smoke, this has filled the room with smoke and heightens the low-key lighting by making the light seem lazy, as it struggles to penetrate the smoke. While I feel that achieving this effect would be hard (partly because of the smoking ban in public buildings, partly because of smoke alarm problems and partly because I'm not going to force our actors to smoke), I feel it is a very effective effect, and is one that we could look into mimicing through other means.

Intro Scene - Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992)

Unless you're Abi, ignore the Spanish subtitles in this clip!



The final scene that I'm going to analyse is the introductionary café scene of Reservoir Dogs (Quentin Tarantino, 1992).

Now this scene is probably more relevant to ours in that it is set in the morning. This shows through with the lighting, with each of the characters being lit with that fresh morning light, with a weak light coming in from the side and mainly illuminating one side of a character's face (this could be interesting to use in our film, a faint shadow across one side of the character's body). This light works to make a fairly "crisp" atmosphere to the scene, something that is heightened by the white tablecloths, whitewashed walls and pillars and the black and white (bar one) nature of the clothes of the characters sitting around the table.

While this crisp, clean look is good for what Tarantino is trying to achieve - reinforcing his presentation of the group of characters as a group professionals (they're wearing suits for Chrissake) - it isn't entirely suitable for how we want to portray our central character. Mainly as a rough feeling (and looking) man who's recovering on the morning after the pretty wild night before. This is why I feel that we shouldn't use white everything prop-wise in our film (and generally decorate it like a tearoom), as this could make the character either look out of place, or take something away from the vulgar, shabby portrayal of the central character.

However one aspect of Tarantino's mise-en-scène that I feel does fit the fact that he's designed his set to make it appear "busy" visually. Behind the characters there is usually a large jumble of chairs, tables and pot plants laid out, as well as patrons and waitresses wandering around. It is this sort of crowded visual style that I think we should use for our music video (especially the people moving around bit, this is pretty integral to our video really) as it gives the frame more interest other than rows upon rows of lined up tables.

Fin

So just to sum up. we'd like to steal Fincher's lighting and colour, Scorsese's set and smoke and Tarantino's prop placement and framing. Hmm, maybe I should stick to saying we'd like to "emulate" them...

So this is the end of that marathon post. If you read it all, thank you, you're my new hero. Only two questions:

Which of the clips/set designs did you prefer? The bar, diner or café?

and...

Any particular aspect of mise-en-scène in any of the clips that you particually liked?


Sibley

P.s Now fixed the videos so there embedded now James...