Preliminary Exercise 4: Analyzing Setting for National Lampoon's European Vacation

 09/27

Analyzing of Setting

Setting in film pertains to the scene in which the film or shot takes place. For a film to be an established film, some key components would be an established plot that could include some form of conflict, a main character, side character, antagonist or background character which plays to give the MC a chance for character development. The most important characteristic would be the framing of the camera and composition of the shot, the least important object to a film producer would be the face shape of an actor. Setting is important to Mise En Scene as setting with Mise En Scene can create a mood or develop an important part of the plot/theme.

  

  The exercise is to help break down the key components of setting to better understand what's needed to create a good setting for a short film of our own. The plot of the movie we analyzed was lighthearted; the main character was on vacation with his family who end up interacting with other characters who provide comedic relief. These are connotated with scenes showing their responses and reactions as a whole to the encounters with the family. The film is comedy, and the director shows this by having bright lighting and a lighthearted mood between the characters in frame.

  The media text engages the audience by keeping your visual and auditory attention with sudden sounds, visually the director would make people or cars appear out of nowhere or running into the family creating a satirical interaction of an American and a British person. The assignment asks for us to break down elements of setting in the movie and how the director creates a mood with visual and audio cues. The assignment taught me the importance of the establishment of the environment, character background, and items in frame. I worked with Nikayla she aided in the analysis and decoration of the presentation. My partner and I decided to split the work and the finding of clips to shorten the time needed to finish the assignment.