Stereoscopic 3D and Mise en Scene:

Borrowing directly from Wikipedia, Mise-en-scène (“placing on stage”) is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means “telling a story”. Recently, the term has come to represent a style of conveying the information of a scene primarily through a single shot—often accompanied by camera movement. It is in contrast to montage-style film-making, i.e. multiple angles pieced together through editing.

So in essence, Mise-en-scene has been around for a long time, well entrenched in conventional movie making. What does Stereoscopic 3D then add to this style or technique of storytelling?

A scene when shot and presented in 3D, (via real or virtual stereoscopic cameras) provides Spatial information in a scene. In 2D movie-making, without the ability to record spatial information directly, Cinematographers have to rely on cues such as shadow, texture, movement and manipulation of camera framing, focus (and depth of field) to convey the ‘depth’ of a scene.

With the arrival of advanced and easily accessible High Definition Stereo 3D Cameras and projection systems, a lot of what was taught in conventional movie-making has to be un-learnt, mostly because 2D techniques and styles of movie making, including camera framing and visual narratives… conflict with the sheer volume of “visual richness” that is present when spatial information *in* a scene is recorded.

A new Visual Grammar for 3D Cinematography:

Directors communicating with Stereographers on their next 3D epic, can learn a few 3D catch words such as Floating Windows, Convergence, Divergence and H.I.T.

The brain takes a while to “take in” a scene, and although still an optical illusion, contains such rich visual information – that if it were to be combined with for example, 2D cinematographic techniques such as fast cuts and pans, rack focus,  or depth of field manipulation… would lead to visual overload for the audiences, who may end up getting a headache as they struggle to make sense of all the visual stimuli being presented.

This, we feel, is one of the premises, why Cinematic styles will change with story telling in stereoscopic 3D. More information and visual narrative can be presented by exploring what is within the scene, and via subtle camera movement rather than a montage like style made up of rapid cuts, frequently changing camera angles, or fast camera motion that is normally used to convey anticipation, excitement or other emotions in 2D movies.

Mise en Scene + 3D = Boring Action movies?

If a new visual grammar is to be developed for 3D Storytelling, would this then lead to boring action movies that present an almost “Locked down Camera” POV? (point of view) on a scene? Not necessarily. The premise of this discussion is to use Mise en Scene in a Cinema Verite style, and to use it creatively to present a story in Stereo 3D. There is no reason not to use multiple “view ports” or camera framing to present a battle scene in 3D. The technique would be to not cause audience dis-orientation that may occur by a follow-the-action technique as used in a 2D filming style.

On a 35 foot wide screen or larger (Imax?) the establishing shot of a Battle-field captured by a stereo 3D camera at eye level, and presented on today’s high brightness Digital Projectors, will have the effect of converting the Cinema screen into a window onto a virtual battle-field, with the audiences sitting as spectators in an arena like setting. The texture of the sandy terrain and dust could almost be tasted by the senses – if the audience is given enough time for their brains to “register” the environment.

To put this thought into perspective: In the 3D movie trend-setter, Avatar.. How many people can seriously remember the foliage, the soil or the surroundings during the battle scenes or chases in the movie?

Directors have less control with Stereo 3D?

Mise-en-Scene would mean extra preparation and choreography of action and movement on the set, with less cheating as is possible with 2D “filming” styles. This is a trade off that should be expected, and should not be seen as a shortcoming but as an opportunity to “immerse” the audiences into the story.

With the ability of the audiences to visually “wander” around the rich vista unfolding before them, will this make the Director feel he/she has a less important role as the story teller? It does not have to be that way. Stereo 3D presents the Director with the opportunity to truly suspend the feeling of disbelief…the very holy grail of moving picture story telling.

The video can only be seen in 3D directly on Youtube.com Click here. Select HD for better quality.

Mise en Scene and Cinema Verite in 3D:

Borrowed from Parlez-Vous.com: Cinema verite is part of the broader artistic tradition of realism and the cinematic tradition of documentary film making. These realistic traditions are aimed at showing man’s real situation in life rather than at providing him with an escapist fantasy experience which an audience will enjoy watching and will pay for by coming out to the movies in very large numbers.

So in essence it’s a little like Documentary film making, but not exactly. To make it a bit easier to understand and borrowing from Wikipedia,

” Pierre Perrault sets situations up, and then films it, for example in Pour la suite du monde where he asked old people to fish for whale. The result is not a documentary about whale fishing; it is about memory and lineage. In this sense cinéma vérité is concerned with anthropological cinema, and with the social and political implications of what is captured on film.”

Some popular movies that demonstrate a Cinema Verite technique (if not the spirit) are: The BlairWitch Project, Cloverfield, District 9. TV shows include NYPD blues, Lost and The Office.

What is the relevance to Stereoscopic 3D?. In the Youtube video above, the scene is captured in 3D, and while it could look like a documentary on Birds, it is in-fact about life in a valley and the beauty of bio-diversity living. The sense of immersion is high when such scenes are viewed at the almost life-like size of a Cinema screen.

The Video uses a little bit of both, Mise en scene, and Cinema Verite. While the camera work is not true cinema verite, and indeed it would cause extreme audience nausea if it were filmed “Blair witch” style, it does show that themes such as realism…a centerpoint of Cinema Verite, when combined with stereoscopic 3D, can make for compelling story telling.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE would have been perfect for 3D Cinema Vérité….

The movie SlumDog Millionaire would have been a poster movie for a 3D Cinema Verite movement. It had everything from good use of Mise en scene, to cinema verite style handheld high resolution camera capture of urban reality. The pace and framing of the movie would have had to be changed no doubt for 3D, but under the guidance of a good stereographer, every scene could have been a masterpiece, re-defining the medium of story telling through movies.

Rather than resorting to gimmick like usage of 2D movie conversion to 3D, (which has a place as a VFX technology to correct for errors such as un-wanted lens flares as in the screen grab above), Directors and Cinematographers should experiment and investigate Stereo3D as a new medium of storytelling and not just use it as a “tool” to draw an audience’s attention to a certain part of a scene.