A Pocket Guide to Analyzing Films by Spadoni Robert

Author:Spadoni, Robert
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520280694
Publisher: University of California Press

Shifting Patterns on the Screen

Staging also refers to the actors’ positions and movements in front of the camera. Again, three dimensions resolve onto two, so moving figures will disappear behind other ones and behind objects in the setting and grow larger or smaller as they get closer to or farther from the camera. Staging is a delicate and underappreciated cinematic art. Tracing it as it unfolds from one moment to the next can lead you to discoveries of virtuoso orchestrations of figural movements and cinematic effects.

Figures can be arranged shallowly, strung laterally across the frame, or they can be set into the depth. When staging unfolds in a setting that has significant depth, and utilizes this depth, this is deep-space staging. We haven’t covered editing yet, but in general, a film that relies less heavily on editing will rely more on staging to control its narrational flow and aesthetic appearance. Editing provides a means to guide viewers, but staging, whether or not a film minimizes editing, does this as well.

Figures can draw attention to themselves by moving or, conversely, by holding still in a shot in which other elements are in motion. Or the eye can be drawn to a figure when it turns to face us or when it comes closer to the camera so that it fills more of the frame. A figure turning its back to the camera can encourage us to look elsewhere, including at something we shouldn’t miss—or we might become riveted to the rear-facing figure as we wonder what this person, whose face we can’t see, is thinking. Another way to focus attention is through a device called aperture framing, in which windows, doors, and other enclosing shapes embedded in the mise-en-scène section off portions of the frame. Placing or moving a figure into one of these visual pockets will draw the eye to it, and the device can be set to other purposes as well (3.16–3.18). Last, staging can be more or less stylized. The image from Careful (3.5) provides a hint of the stiffly artificial staging in that film.

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