My absolute favorite movie, "Maleficent," is my go-to. "Maleficent" is a Walt Disney Pictures film that was released in 2014. This movie is one of the most beautiful films I have seen in a really long time. Now that I had a chance to analyze the lighting and camera angles, I saw the film is a completely different light. "Malefic"t has lines that are so crisp that it looks like a 3D painting, and the camera angles tend to be telling a story that's parallel to the plot.
One of the first things that the director wants you to see is the land and how the hills rise and fall. Throughout the entire film, there a helicopter shots just randomly thrown into different scenes. It really shows you how incredible The Moors is. Another cool thing about the helicopter shots is that it gives the audience a chance to see from Maleficent's point of view. Although this distance shot isn't the most prominent throughout the film, it is really meaningful to the plot. To counteract with the helicopter shots, the cameraman also has just as much, if not more, of the extreme close-up shots. Whenever the camera is on Maleficent, it has to show an extreme close-up shot of her. It really brings out the details in her face, such as her really high cheekbones, and gives her every emotion that extra little pop that they need. Going in with the extreme close-up is the low angle shots that push her over the edge. A really good example of both of these in action is towards the beginning of the film, when the king and his army are trying to take down The Moors. Maleficent speaks to the king, and her emotions are terrifying because of the extreme close-up shots, but the thing that makes her powerful is the low angle shot. She stands tall and when the camera hits the low angle, it looks as if she is looking over the entire kingdom. I found it really incredible that the camera could do this with both distance and angles.
The lighting and focus in the film is really important to the plot and how the audience is visualizing everything. It's really important to pay attention to the lighting in this film, because, when it is different, it's for a very good reason. One of the things that I think is brilliant is the fact that Maleficent always has her own personal light. Her key lighting follows her around from the beginning of the film until she turns dark. When she loses her wings, Maleficent turns dark and vengeful. As soon as this happens, all of this key lighting is replaced with shadows. From that point on, every time Maleficent is seen in the film, a shadow appears in the camera before Maleficent does. A really good example of this change would be when Maleficent walks in Aurora's christening. Her shadow appears on the wall of the castle before she enters the building. It's a really good effect. I really wanted to talk about her green lighting in her magic. While the natural key lighting is always shining on her, the green lighting from her magic powers makes everything stand out so much more. Her eyes become a little brighter, and her cheekbones stand out; it's crazy how much these two lighting effects make her seem more than what she really is.
For my wild card, I couldn't decide what I wanted my topic to be. I finally decided to dedicate this entire paragraph to a rule of thirds example. Yes, this is a part of mise en scene, but I found a really good example that deserves to be discussed and talked about. At the beginning of the film, when Maleficent is really young, she finds Stephan in The Moors trying to steal. She is standing in the middle and there are two guardians on the left and right. It is a really powerful, yet soft scene. She plays judge and friend at the same time. I really have to show a picture of this, because how can something be really powerful and soft at the same time. As I said before, the key lighting that shines off Maleficent the entire time shows how radiant she is, and then the more natural lights shine on the trees which make them seem real, even though they are holding spears and have legs. Another really powerful rule of thirds example is at the end of the film when Maleficent is presenting Aurora to The Moors. Maleficent is standing in the center and Diaval is standing on the left. They both seem to have that dark shadow hanging over them. Aurora is on the right and the same key lighting is shining on her just like it was on Maleficent with she was young. Whenever they have a rule of thirds thrown into the film, it's very powerful.
Lastly, mise en scene in this film is very important. The scene that I have chosen to analyze for this is probably the best scene in the entire film. It's towards the beginning when Aurora is a baby. Her parents are throwing a christening ceremony for her and Maleficent shows up uninvited. The celebration is supposed to be all about the baby, however, as soon as Maleficent walks in, the crowd is parted and she stands in the center. Even the king and queen feel inferior to her. The characters in the background are all in the perfect position they should be. While all of the focus is on Maleficent, the camera will sometimes shoot back to the townspeople and capture their reactions. I love that Maleficent parts the crowd, the king and queen are basically bowing before her, and baby Aurora is off to the side, which is also important. This makes her very vulnerable and Maleficent takes advantage of that. Everything during this scene is in perfect balance. Maleficent is almost always in the center of the screen and always in focus. She's very dominant, and, when she starts working with her magic, the camera backs up a little bit and shoots her from a medium-wide shot to show how her magic is surrounding everything. Everything in this film really does look like a painting, and the lines are so linear that it's almost 3D. There is never any type of negative space in the film, because there is always something close-up that needs to be seen. Continuing on with mise en scene, in this specific scene Maleficent is at a public distance from everyone else in the room. The rest of the characters are so huddled together there is no space between any of them. Maleficent is weighted very heavily because she is the most powerful person in the room. Angelina Jolie was the perfect choice for this character; she played it beautifully. She's always full front towards the camera, and never has her back turned. Lastly, this particular scene was really interesting because it had both open and closed forms. Whenever Maleficent was talking, it was always closed; when she started using her magic, the camera switched to open form.
"Maleficent" is a really powerful movie in terms of lighting, distance, focus, and mise en scene. It's incredible how much more you notice after learning about the different terms. Obviously there are loads of other examples for each of these categories, but these are the most meaningful and most obvious.
