Form

 

Is the form open or closed? Does the image suggest a window that arbitrarily isolates a fragment of the scene? Or a proscenium arch, in which the visual elements are carefully arranged and held in balance?

The most nebulous of all the categories of mise en scene, the type of form is determined by how consciously structured the mise en scene is. Open forms stress apparently simple techniques, because with these unself-conscious methods the filmmaker is able to emphasize the immediate, the familiar, the intimate aspects of reality. In open-form images, the frame tends to be deemphasized. In closed form images, all the necessary information is carefully structured within the confines of the frame. Space seems enclosed and self-contained rather than continuous.

 

 

Ghost World (2001)

 

The form of this shot is open. The shot doesn't seem highly composed. The shot is natural, simple, and unstructured, as if it's a window arbitrarily cutting off a portion of the scene. All the necessary information is not contained in the one shot, as we see by the third character cut off by the right edge of the frame.

 

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