El Orfanato

Describes the setting of a scene in a play or a film. It refers to everything placed on the stage or in front of the camera—including people. In other words, mise en scène is a catch-all for everything that contributes to the visual presentation and overall “look” of a production. When translated from French, it means “placing on stage.”

Setting

Setting

Studio

Explanation

The movie "El Orfanato" used a combination of both studios and locations. For example, they used the "Palacio de Partarríu" in Llanes, which offered the perfect exterior atmosphere for the movie. They also recorded some scenes in the "Playa de Andrín." I believe that the movie directors decided to use a combination of locations and studios because the palace mentioned is a protected historical building and recording every scene in here could of been risky for the infrastructure. My favorite location in the movie is the beach scenes where the movie director is able to break the idea that scary scenes only happen in dark and scary places. The first scene at the beach shows Laura (the mother) and Simon (the son) walking around, and the son explaining that he made a friend called Tomas, but then a wave erases the kid's footsteps making the scene scary and mysterious. The second scene at the beach is Laura looking for his now missing son. Here, the waves also take an act. In this scene the waves are strong and violent, knowing this Laura blindly decides to go into the waves looking for her son inside a cave. Then, her husband arrives after her to save her from these waves because their son is not in there. Knowing about these two scenes, the location of the beach is a genius idea by the film director. I say this because the beach location becomes a secondary character where hope of finding Laura's son is devoured by the monster of the waves. The duality of the location is interesting, the only beautiful and open space of the movie, and instead of conveying freedom and tranquility, it conveys a profound idea of helplessness. Moreover, the ocean itself erases the child's footsteps, it hides and the entrance to the cave. The water functions as a symbol of "el olvido" where Laura's desperation of finding her son reflects the useless fight against things we can't control just like nature and her son's destiny. My biggest question here was, "Why use such a beautiful place to convey horrific scenes?" I think the answer to this is pure film techniques; breaking with the audience's sense of security and to portray that the movie is not only a scary movie but also a movie about a mother losing a son, where the beautiful beach echoes the beautiful life they could of had together in this new house. The contrast of a scary movie with a beautiful location makes the movie more scary.

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Props

Prop

Scarecrow Mask

Explanation

I think the scarecrow mask is a prop and not a part of the costume because of it's resemblance throughout the movie. It is made of rough sackcloth with button eyes and a crooked, stitched mouth. I think the use of this prop is interesting because it's a prop that seems to be a handmade child's object and turning it into something ghostly and threatening. I think throughout the movie the mask also serves a narrative purpose. It hides what the audience supposes if the face of Tomas, a child who suffered facial deformities. Therefore, the prop represents both monstrosity and intense vulnerability. When Laura encounters the child wearing it, she is terrified, however when the truth is revealed the mask becomes a tragic symbol of a hidden child that just wanted to be accepted. I also think that this child symbolizes the feeling of loneliness which mirrors Laura's internal conflict throughout the movie. Finally, I found the prop to be a good representation of Laura's guilt where the mask bridges the past and the present, it forces Laura to confront the dark history of the orphanage and her own faint memories of her childhood there. I also think it symbolizes all the things Laura has to "unmask" before fidning the truth about her son and the orphanage.

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Lighting

Lighting

Kicker

Explanation

The light of the lighthouse lights up the kids and Laura's face at the end of the movie. The light cuts through pitch-black rooms in the orphanage, and it's biggest use is at the end of the movie when Laura is 'reunited' with her son and the dead kids of the orphanage after consuming pills. I think the motif behind this lighting is that as the sweeping beam shifts from a source of tension to a gentle guiding light, as it washes over the room, it literally "bring to light" the lost children, waking them up like a beacon guiding ships safely home. I also think it symbolizes the preservation of innocence because when the lighting illuminates each child's face for a brief second, the lighting transitions into a soft, glowing kicker and front-fill highlight. Crucially, they do not look like scary horror movie ghosts, but instead the light reveals them as ordinary, beautiful and completely innocent children. It visually strips away the "monster" aspect of the dead children.

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Costume

Costume

Traditional Uniforms

Explanation

During the final sequence, the other ghost children are dressed in traditional, matching 1970s orphanage uniform shirt-dresses with stark white collars and cuffs. In my opinion, this uniform strips them of individuality and visually tying them to the collective history of the orphanage. Moreover, the pristine condition in which their uniforms are suggest their death, as if they were stuck in time, and victims of the orphanage (since they die there, it's interesting that even after their death they are wearing the institution's uniforms.) I think in this case, the uniforms evoke innocence rather than malice, it connotes the children as respectful and well-educated, making them seem even more innocent and good, to contrast better with the fatality of their murder. I also think it's so interesting that Laura's costume changes throughout the movie, by the end she is wearing a long dress with also white cuffs and a stark white collar, making her seem like a victim of the Orphanage's fatality as well (since she also ended up dying in the Orphanage when she took the pills)

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Hair and Makeup

Example

Laura's psychological deterioration

Explanation

Laura's makeup and hair serves as a physical timeline of her descent into grief. She starts the film looking polished, healthy and warm. Her makeup is minimalist but clean and her hair is neatly styled. But, as the months pass by after Simon's disappearance, her makeup dynamically changes. They progressively added heavy, dark under eye circles, hollowed out her cheekbones with very subtle shading and gave her skin a sickly pale color. Then, her hair becomes progressively dry and brittle. By the final act, she looks physically wasted and ghostly herself which visually references the deathly energy of the orphanage and the dead kids. Lastly, I think it's interesting that her hair is up in more scenes after Simon's disappearance. I think this represents that she is almost in survival mode as if she was "getting to work" since that's when we tend to put our hair up in many occasions. I also think this shows more of her vulnerability since having her hair up exposes most of her face.

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Figure Behavior

Example

The Husband, Carlos

Explanation

In a lot of the scenes, the husband tends to be really expressive with his facial expressions. Every time Laura suggests something supernatural, Carlos reacts with intense, visible frustration, narrowing his eyes, furrowing his brows, and tightening his jaw. I think Carlos and his behaviors are the representation of the audience's rational mindset. Because he cannot see what Laura sees, his expressions convey a mix of exasperation, fear of his wife's mental health, and the practical stress of trying to hold their lives together. Throughout the movie Carlos constantly clings to reality. Finally, I think Carlos' figure behavior when frequently getting into discussions, portraying behaviors such as standing in doorways, sitting at tables, running after Laura, highlights his role as the traditional, practical patriarchal trying to manage a crisis since his facial expressions are defensive most of the time.

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This is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. Cinematography comprises all on-screen visual elements, including lighting, framing, composition, camera motion, camera angles, film selection, lens choices, depth of field, zoom, focus, color, exposure, and filtration. Cinematography sets and supports the overall look and mood of a film’s visual narrative. Each visual element that appears on screen, a.k.a. the mise-en-scène of a film, can serve and enhance the story—so it is the cinematographer’s responsibility to ensure that every element is cohesive and support the story. Filmmakers often choose to spend the majority of their budget on high-quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look incredible on the big screen.

Editing is the process of putting a film together–the selection and arrangement of shots and scenes. Editing can condense space and time, emphasize separate elements and bring them together, and organize material in such a way that patterns of meaning become apparent. In addition, editing can determine how a film is perceived: for instance, quick, rapid cuts can create a feeling of tension, while a long take can create a more dramatic effect. The first photoplays generally had no cutting, owing to the fact that they were single-reel films; once filming began, you could not stop until the film ran out. (https://filmglossary.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/term/editing/)

Sound is an integral part in a film. It refers to everything that the audience hears including sound effects, words and music. Sound is used in films for various purposes, including: providing the information to the viewer about the location of the scene, heightening the mood, telling the audience about the characters and advancing the plot. Every person who watches a film realizes that the choice of voices, soundtrack and music present in a film affect the way that the viewer perceives a particular film. As a result, the sound is an important and integral element of the film, one that determines the way that the viewer experiences and understands a film as a visual experience.

Narrative analysis is an examination of the story elements, including narrative structure, character, and plot. A narrative can be considered to be the chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in time and space. In order to analyze the narrative of a film, we need to first make the distinction between the plot of the film and the story of the film. This is sometimes referred to as the discourse and story of a film. Narrative may also be called the story thought story mainly refers to the events that describe the narrative.

Film genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups of films. (Genre comes from the French word meaning "kind," "category," or "type"). These provide a convenient way for scriptwriters and film-makers to produce, cast and structure their narratives within a manageable, well-defined framework. Genres also offer the studios an easily 'marketable' product, and give audiences satisfying, expected and predictable choices. Genres refers to recurring, repeating and similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, styles, themes, syntax, templates, paradigms, motifs, rules or generic conventions.