Color Psychology

 Color Psychology

By: Sharmeen Shivji

    For this assignment I have to talk about the use of color and color grading on a tv show or movie. Unsurprisingly, I have chosen to analyze the tv show "Vampire Diaries". What can I say, I'm addicted to it.

    To begin with, I think that most of season 1 of the Vampire Diaries had a red hue to it. The filter of the camera gives importance to many grey tones and washed out colors which allows the red to specifically stand out. Throughout the season there is the use of the reds in the outfits of the characters to many objects in the background. For example, the main character Elena, most commonly wears a leather jacket with jeans and a red top. Additionally, the use of reds is prominent in the walls of the high school, the cheerleading uniforms, and letterman jackets. I think the director used this variety of red to connect and foreshadow the blood that will be constantly spilled in the future episodes. In this scene, the grey tones and washed out colors allowed the blood on Elena and Vicki to pop which allows the audience to really pay attention to it. 

    Additionally, I think that Season 2 has a more dreadful and anxious theme which is why that the colors are mainly grey hues. I think this is because the characters are anticipating the arrival of Klaus who is the oldest vampire. There are also scenes that occur at the Lockwood cellar which has old stone features. In this season the audience is introduces to werewolves for the first time which I think also contributes to the directors choice of grey hues. There are many scenes in this season that are full of sadness and dread including Damon walking past the tombstones after Jenna's death, knowing he is about to die. Because of the general structure of this season, I feel like its overall color was based on greys.

    Lastly, jumping to season 4, I feel like the main colors in this season were blues. The reason for this is because this season has a colder vibe to it due to the ending of season 3 which the audience sees Elena's body lying in the morgue before she comes back to life, the addition of the blue hues adds sadness to this scene. Additionally, a couple of this seasons' episodes take place in Nova Scotia Cure Island, which because of its stark climate and the blues and blacks worn by the characters allow the feel and environment to get across to the audience. In this scene, at the Miss Mystic Party, most of the characters are wearing blue suits and the there is a huge lake by the party that Klaus and Caroline walk next to. The blues and cool hues that come out during this scene give a the audience of reducing tension between them, as most of them hate Klaus.

    In the end, the Vampire Diaries used many different color gradings and hues to really get the audience to feel what the characters were feeling and to do this the director used colors like blues, grays, and reds. There are many more examples of the different colors throughout the whole show, however I chose the ones I felt had the biggest impact.

Mis-En-Scene Blog Analysis

Mis-En-Scene Blog Analysis

By: Sharmeen Shivji

    This week's assignment is to watch a movie or TV show and to describe the 4 general mise-en-scene areas. These areas include scene lighting, costume and staging. For this assignment I decided to chose the next best show-Grey's Anatomy. This show follows Meredith Grey and the team of doctors at Grey-Sloan Memorial hospital who are faced with life-or-death decisions on a daily basis. These doctors experience insane cases and they are also managing their personal lives at the same time, which sometimes interferes with their jobs. 

    This assignment was a little difficult for me to encounter because I was absent the day it was taught. I tried my best to understand the different areas of mise-en-scene and how they can contribute to a film, however it was still a little tricky. 

    To begin with, the setting of Grey's Anatomy occurs mainly at Grey-Sloan hospital, but sometimes it occurs at one of the many doctors homes. In season 7 episode 2 the setting opens at the conference room of the hospital where Meredith Grey is being talked to by a therapist. She has to get cleared before being able to go back work due to the hospital shooting that happened days before. The setting then moves to Doctor Yang's home where she is nervous to get back to work as she had stopped for a while due to trauma from the shooting. The setting change throughout the episode create a sense of reality and realness for the audience because it lets them experience the doctors' lives with its ups and downs.

    Next, the lighting in the hospital is a low-key lighting with high-contrast including deep shadows with a few bright highlights. With the use of this lighting it lets the audience focus on the mood of the characters and their surrounding without distracting them. For example, at the beginning of the episode when Dr. Grey is being talked to by a therapist, the lighting lets the audience experience the gravity of the situation without adding extra performances. It also gives the audience the reality of actually being in a hospital. To add on, the opening scene of this episode had lighting and thunder, which because of the low-key lighting lets the audience know that the weather was like that throughout the episode. 

        To add on, the costumes of these characters is pretty self-explanatory and constant which includes medical scrubs. Small additions like a long-sleeve tee under the scrubs adds again, a sense of reality and realness to the show. Some characters like the therapist and the Chief of Surgery wear suits to give these characters a sense of importance as they are dressed professionally. Additionally, the makeup of these actors is a very natural and a no-makeup look. This makes the characters seem normal without making them too un-natural. 

    Lastly, the staging at the beginning of the episode uses offscreen space which means that there is someone or something that is not physically present in the frame. As Meredith fake cries to try to get the therapist to clear her, he is not in frame, however with the offscreen spacing, the audience already knows who it is. The staging in this episode also has blocking, in which Dr. Grey and Dr. Karev are up in a gallery watching surgery, in the background there are many other doctors that are being blocked. This gives Dr. Grey and Dr. Karev dominance over the other characters. The characters use method acting which is shown through their mannerisms, dressing, performance, etc. This way of acting gives them a very naturalistic vibe which makes the actor no longer distinguishable from the character.

    In the end, this episode of Grey's Anatomy uses many settings, lightings, costumes, and staging. I chose to focus mainly on the beginning of the episode because I felt that it highlighted the main areas of mise-en-scene of the episode. 

 

Narrative Sound Project

 Narrative Sound Project

By: Sharmeen Shivji

    This weeks project was an interesting one, as we had to make a film but with no visuals, and only sound. This project was relatively easy for me and my partner as we thought of an idea really quickly. We actually both thought of doing the same idea which was really cool. For our narrative sound project we decided to show someone who got into car accident because they were texting. We both felt like this topic was perfect to show because it is a very common thing that happens in today's generation. Everyone is so infatuated with their cell phones they can't even seem to put them down even while being responsible for other people's lives. 

    For this project not only did we only have to use only sound but we could've only used 7 words. Also, we had to make at least 4 sounds by ourselves through a process called foley.

    The first thing we did was make an outline for our project, which was super easy to do. I actually think this was the easiest project we have done so far. Anyways, after doing our outline we planned which sounds we would make ourselves and which we would produce. We obviously couldn't have produced the car getting into an accident or the siren, so we decided to use ones we found online. We chose to produce the footsteps, getting into and starting the car, the texting sounds, and the typing sounds. We also chose to include two dialogues to ensure that the audience can understand what is happening. 

    Making the sounds was relatively easy as we just had to record someone walking, which we did at school. We did text notifications, by recording notifications and just clicking on the sounds in the notification section. The sound for getting in and starting the car, my partner recorded at home. Lastly, the typing noises we recorded by my partner just tapping on her cellphone screen with her nails. For the dialogue we chose to say "Get off your phone" and "Watch out!". I recorded these dialogues after putting together all the other clips. 

    The sounds we didn't produce included the background noise that occurs when someone is driving a car, which we screen recorded off of Youtube. We also used this method for the sound of the car accident and the ambulance sirens.

    Lastly, we then put it together. I think our video turned out very well and that the audience is able to tell what the storyline is very easily. As I said before, this project was the easiest on yet and I enjoyed doing it. I think the most challenging part was producing the sounds by ourselves, because I think it was hard to get the sounds to sound how we wanted it to. However, I am proud of how our project turned out and I hope you enjoy it!

Making the Sounds