King Of Kong Mise En Scene Analysis

The Pixar animation, Wreck- It Ralph and the documentary film, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters distinctly used specific aesthetics to demonstrate formalism and realism. The meaning offered through the use of various aesthetics shows the audience the statement each film director is trying to portray. The filmmakers of each film used the aesthetics of mise en scene, cinematography and many others to describe and communicate different styles and emotions. One through the use of techniques of lighting, editing, and use of various shots, while the other filmmaker focuses more on the purity of shots and subjects. With formalism and realism being on opposite sides of the spectrum, the audience can immediately distinguish differences between …show more content…
The audience could immediately tell the aesthetics of handheld camera, natural lighting and deep focus cinematography. Similar to Wreck-It Ralph the mise en scene could be established within the very first scene. A guy named Billy Mitchell, gamer of the century, appeared on camera in a kitchen type area. The camera was immediately distinguished as being hand held because the mise en scene was uncontrolled, nothing seemed to be planned out. Throughout the film many different forms of lighting appeared. Some being natural available lighting to other scenes being filmed with high key lighting. For example, during the interview with Steve Wiebe in his classroom, the lighting used would only be the natural lighting from the outside window on his right based on the way the lighting hit his face. Another example would be the interview with Walter Day, world’s video game referee. There was key lighting coming from a source on or next to the camera and also the available natural lighting from above, which could be seen reflecting off his shiny bald head. With the example of the scene where Steve was being filmed at night car in his car, allowed the audience to fully see the low quality of the film because the only lighting they used made the image red and very fuzzy. The filmmakers decision to use a lot of natural lighting allowed the mise en scene to be captured differently than it would be with a high key lighting film. Cinematography used throughout the film consisted of telephoto lens, wide angle lens, close ups and extreme close ups. The telephoto lens was used to keeps background elements out of focus. This allowed for the single element, the person being interviewed, to be emphasized and isolated from objects around. Although many different locations were used when interviewing Billy the telephoto lens never