Weekly Journal Blog Update Movie Review 1: Super 8

Mise-en-scene, mise-en-scene is basically the arrangement of actors and scenery on a stage for a theatrical production or the physical setting of an action in a motion picture ("Mise-en-scene," 2017).

Super 8, a movie about several youngsters are making a zombie movie with a Super-8 camera. In the midst of filming, the youngsters witnessed a horrendous train derailment and survived the whole accident. They soon discover that the crash was no accident, as a series of unexplained events and disappearances soon follow.

This movie started off with Elizabeth Lamb has been killed in an accident at a steel plant in Lillian, Ohio. A mourning session for Elizabeth Lamb were held in The Lamb's house where families and friends gathered together in the house. They all felt pity and sad for Elizabeth's husband, Deputy Jackson Lamb, but mostly they were more concern for Elizabeth's son, Joe Lamb who was more attached to his mother rather than his father as he was never really there for his son.

After some time, a guy named Louis Dainard stepped in the Lamb's house, Jackson Lamb moved towards to Louis and blamed him for Elizabeth's death. Jackson dragged Louis out of the house and forced him in to his police squad car. As Joe watched his father took Louis away from his house, his gaze shifted down to his hand where he was holding on to a silver locket.

Four months have passed on, the local Middle School of Lillian lets out for the summer, Charles Kaznyk, Joe's friend has been shooting a Super 8 film for a film festival in Cleveland. Charles have started to change the story of the film in terms of the detective now has a wife. After Joe heard the change of story, he was first unsure about the last-minute rewrite, but Charles then revealed that Alice Dainard will take up the part to be the wife, Joe's doubt for the story soon subsided. The two boys then made a promise to each other to rendezvous later at night to film their scene, along with the plans that Alice will drive them there.

Upon arriving home, Joe meets up with his dad who takes him out for dinner. Jackson wanted his son to join the baseball camp for the summer, Joe indirectly declined the request by explaining that he already made plans for the summer by helping out Charles on the film. Both father and son reached a deadlock, having the silence to be filled in the air.

As dusk settles in, Joe meets up with Charles and the gang: Preston, Cary, and Martin. A yellow vintage car, accompanied with black stripes that is drove by Alice showed up in front of them. Alice was shocked to see Joe as he is the "Deputy's Son", concerning that he knows that she is driving a car without a license. Joe reassures her that he would not tell anything, and Alice reluctantly allows him to tag along in the ride.

Upon reaching the Lillian Train Station, the crew proceeded with their filming. In the middle of shooting the film, a lose control truck drove in to the train track, causing the incoming train to collide with the truck. After the crew survived from the debris crashes, Joe and the crew began to question and ponder about the incident, little did they know they would encounter an extra terrestrial being along the way while solving the mystery of the train and car crash accident, involving the authorities of military, local police and the citizens of Lillian.

A movie scene that I picked from this movie that apply the theory of mise-en-scene is Alice's confession about the death of  Elizabeth to Joe. The scene started out night time where Joe is in his room. Out of the blue, Alice appears outside of the window. Joe invites her in to the room to sit down and talk. Alice asks Joe about the locket that she's seen him carrying around. He replied saying that the locket actually belongs to his mother. They retrieved it for Joe after the accident. Alice noticed that Joe has set up a projector and sees that he has been watching home videos of his mom when he was younger. Alice tells Joe that she is extremely sorry for the pain that her father caused, further explaining saying that her father is actually not an all bad person. Joe replied Alice that he does not feel any ill will to her father as accident happens.

For this particular scene, the director wants to bring out feelings of sadness, loss and reminiscence. The director uses a dark closeted setting like Joe's room with dim lighting, indicating the quietness and not-so-positive ambiance in the room. The director proceeds to use props like the projector and played the video of happiness between Joe and Elizabeth having a fun time but accompanied with melancholic background music, showing Joe's happy memories of the past compared to Joe's current loss situation. The director also directed Alice's movement to sob up while telling the truth of what happened to Joe's mother, portraying that it is a hard decision for Alice to tell the truth to Joe as in fear that Joe would not befriend her because of this truth.

This movie got my attention in terms of the way it uses it's mise-en-scene. For an example, the actress that is playing as Alice has to put on "zombie" makeup for some scenes to show that she is reanimated from the dead. With the help of mise-en-scene, the story becomes more lively and easier for people to relate and understand what the movie wants to convey its message to the audience.

In conclusion, Super 8 is a movie of mixed genre where the director plays it's background music to control the different flow and pace of how the movie goes, leading it's audience to always expect something the unexpected where it will leave the audience guessing the next scene.

Reference Links:

1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1650062/synopsis

2) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mise-en-scene