Write 6 pages thesis on the topic mise-en-scene in classical hollywood narratives.

Write 6 pages thesis on the topic mise-en-scene in classical hollywood narratives. During the golden age of the studio system in Hollywood, actors were rarely seen addressing the camera, and historical accuracy in terms of costuming and props often been pursued to an obsessive degree. The classic narrative style has been characterized as a cinema of the obvious where the ultimate sin lies in making the narrative incomprehensible. And yet, most of this conventional wisdom that pigeonholes a homogenized approach to mise-en-scene in the classic Hollywood movies don’t apply to one of the most commercially and critically viable of the film genres of the period that instituted contemporary perspectives on the methodology of Hollywood mise-en-scene.

Casablanca and Singin' in the Rain may be the ultimate examples of how the idea that only one approach to mise-en-scene is representative of classic Hollywood narrative ideology. Both films are iconic examples of a traditional Hollywood studio production from the era when everybody involved in filmmaking was under contract to just one company. The studio executives, and not the director, determined the final result, which had to be created while facing obstacles such as star demands, daily rewrites, and an eye toward the bottom line of profits. As a result, both movies possess such typical Hollywood narrative elements as a protagonist, an antagonist, and a clearly defined plot that utilizes such narrative concepts as rising and falling action. The opening sequence follows the cinematographical template that marks most Hollywood films by commencing with a series of establishing shots and signals intended to promptly inform the audience of such necessary elements in mainstream storytelling as setting and time, pointedly eschewing irony and non-diegetic distancing devices. The opening sequence of Casablanca also serves the more subtle means of establishing ideology and lends credence to the suggestion that setting can "dynamically enter into the narrative action". The exotic locale of the city of Casablanca with which the majority of filmgoers are doubtlessly unfamiliar is effortlessly exploited to heighten the sense of chaos and disorder that will shortly become vital to both the narrative and message that the movie is meant to convey.