#MediaMonday: The Screen Still

Good Morning Everyone,

In the 1950s, there was a group of film nerds in Paris called the Cahier Group that wanted to elevate cinema as a high-art, equal to theatre, opera and ballet. This revolutionary group of directors, critics, and writers launched a movement called French New Wave that would forever change the future of film. 

A major component of their theoretical approach was a careful, thorough analysis of how images were arranged within movies. They would focus on every element of the scene and how those elements worked together to create meaning to the audience. This analytical decoding of scenes, called Mise-en-scène (MEEZ-ON-SIN), is potentially one of the most elemental starts to film criticism for students of film. 

Mine-en-scène is a theoretical concept that literally means "in the scene". It is everything inside the frame that is constructing meaning for the audience. 

So here is THE SCREEN STILL/MISE-EN-SCÈNE WARMUP:

Show students a "screen still". This is just a screen capture of a film.

You can get screen stills on the website https://film-grab.com, but do not give this resource to students; some of the content is inappropriate for them. 

Give them 5 minutes to respond to the image in writing. I tend to ask students what they notice about: 

• Color? 

• What is dominant? 

• Lighting? 

• Costuming? 

• Framing? 

• Depth? 

• Setting? 

• Director's Purpose?

Then, have a discussion aloud about the screen still. You will be amazed at connections made by the students. I always learn from my students during this time. 

When I started teaching this method, I started to see students change in how they approached film analysis. When you spend 10-20 minutes talking about 1/24th of a second of film, students really start to see all of the moving parts and how truly intentional film is.

Give it a shot and let me know what you think!

Talk to you soon,

Josh Cantrell