Mis-en-scene
One of the mis-en-scene I really liked is the ‘daughters of Gaia discussion circle’. It is just like my sorority experience: the camera started with a slowly zoomed-in depiction of a room, with a bunch of girls sitting in a circle. Two dim lights on the wall are lit, creating a mysterious vibe. By depicting a hippie-ish girl sitting and doing gestures, chanting mysterious verses, the moviemaker makes the stage surrounded by mystery. The zoomed in on individuals in the ‘witch group’ make the setting seems very interesting. The costumes in this case are just hippie-ish clothes that are very commonly seen in the 90s. The confused look on the short hair redhead character indicates that her expectations are not met, and the lightly chubby girl is the common stereotype of ‘side-kick’ in a sorority- she has no ideas of her own and seems to be satisfied with whatever decisions other people make. The depictions of ‘normal people’ talking about mysterious things added aesthetics to the movie.
Diegetic Sound
One of the example is around 20:00 when the TV announces the lost of voices and the quarantine of the town. It is an excellent example because when the diegetic sound is being delivered from the TV, the people are all unable to speak and they had to convey their anger and horror through hysteric gestures and bodily motions. Later when the girl is walking on the street and the sound of the fountain/fire comes out, her footsteps seems extra sounding and every single tiny sound such as the broken of glass and kissing is magnified. The comparison between the absolute silence and those diegetic sounds is very impressive and added the aesthetics to the horror scene.
Non- diegetic Sound
At around 13:20, right after when the couple was depicted kissing, the background sound suddenly becomes very spooky and becomes louder and louder. It was not found in any visible instruments so it is a non-diegetic sound. With the mysterious, non-human like hand opening a box that has smoke coming out of it, the scenario becomes extremely sketchy and scary. The increasing volume of the non-diegetic sound makes the viewers think that there is going to be some kind of ghosts coming out of the house. The sense of conspiracy arouse when the secret whispers appear in the background and the camera started to zoom in to people lying on their beds. The white smokes coming out of people’s mouth seem to be part of their souls (or their ability to talk, which is revealed later) and it is very spooky and scary. With the background music goes faster and the monster smiles all of a sudden, the sense of suspense reach to a climax.
I too thought that the scene with the girls in the circle was a great Mise-en-scene in this episode. Just the whole spiritual aspect of it that they were trying to portray really made it seem like some of the girls truly believed in the spirits they were talking about. A big thing with that scene was the music like you touched on, which really adds a descriptive element to the overall visual you are watching. I have always thought that in a scene of a show or movie, the music is by far the most important and descriptive factor as it sets the tone for what your expectations are suppose to be. What do you think? I also thought your diegetic scene was pretty comical as the news describes the loss of voices in the town, yet the town can’t really say anything about it. The contrast between voices talking about the place where sound doesn’t exist must have been horrifying to the people and really adds to the horror in a unique and kind of comical way.
Your examples for each principle are good. In your opinion, which principle has the greater impact on you ? I think for myself the mise-en-scene has the greatest influence on my emotion when watching film. I feel movies are more about aesthetics and the visuals. The more seamless the special effects are and the realistic makeup influences the way you perceive the film. The description you made about the smoke ejecting out of the people’s mouths is a great! The feeling this scene provokes is definitely an eerie and spooky. Music really affects the impact of the scene, and the non-diegetic sound influences the overall feeling of the scene. If you were to envision the scene without music, do you think you would feel the same way about the scene you described? I believe sound is a very key and important component of cinema films. Without sounds I don’t think people would provoke the same kind of ideas and emotions.