We watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer this week and were looking for diagetic, non-diagetic and mise-en-scene examples. At the beginning of the clip we see almost immediate mise-en-scene. The scene starts as her in a college classroom and the teacher ask her to come to the front and lay on the desk. Next, a man comes to her and says don’t worry; if I kiss you the sun will go down. The camera zooms in slowly to their faces, and the room is silent except for their kisses. As the camera zooms out, the classroom is empty and dark and no longer a classroom, it is a church seen. This is eerie because being in an empty dark, cob web filled room that has transformed from you full classroom into a church is creepy.
Secondly, there is an example of diagetic almost immediately after the classroom/church seen. Buffy walks out of the room hearing a little girl singing. Coming from the set change right before, this add creepy effect. The little girl is singing softly, standing all alone in a dark, quiet hallway, dimly lit, also creepy. She is singing about someone coming to take people and then says “you’re gunna die screaming but you won’t be heard”. That is creepy within itself.
There was also some diagetic sound following this scene. When Buffy was daydreaming in the previous scene, she was kissing a guy. It is implied in the next scene she is into that guy. I can infer this based on the non-diagetic sound. She is discussing weather or not he had been a person in her dream. The music in the background is light and airy, almost fluffy, with violins, harps, guitars and triangles. The tinging of the triangle makes the scene seem lighthearted. The combination of his and her actions mixed with the flirtatious does not contribute to the aesthetic horror of the video.
After reading your post about enjoying horror I realized that we choose the same examples for both mise-en-scene and diagetic sound. I felt like these where good examples to choose from because they did show all of the qualities that describe them. The beginning scene showed mise-en-scene by having a change of scene, lighting difference, and actor performance. The diagetic sound with the little girl singing was also a good example because at first we had no idea where that sound was coming from. I don’t agree with the example you used for non-diagetic sound. I feel like there was a better example later on in the episode that show a better example of non-diagetic sound. I didn’t notice the music in the background and I felt like it didn’t have a big effect on the scene. Another thing that I want to mention was that you never explained how these scenes contributed to the aesthetic of horror, Over all you i agree with most of your examples and the way you portrayed them in your discussion.
I found it interesting how a lot of people chose the same scene for the mis-en-scene example. Personally I think that scene was a very good example of mixture of art and also a good example showing the characteristics of the film. How do you think that the the scenes that you chose contribute to the horror aspect of the film? What kind of feeling do you think it gives to the audience? What aspect of the sound do you think gives that feeling?