The film we have chosen for this project is Goodfellas, the reason for this is because we feel that this is a very exciting film for the audience to watch as well the different aspects covered within the film such as the Mise-en-scène, Editing, Sound, Narrative and the Cinematography.

•By Saif Mahmood

Mise-en-scène is French for “putting into the scene”.

This was first applied to the practice of directing plays.

This means what appears in front of the camera:

Setting

Props

Costume

Lighting

Staging

What you place in a shot, and where in the frame you place it.

Setting

Lighting

Props

Costumes

Staging

Lighting is a key part of establishing a good theme within the film, it allows to identify key moments of the characters mood within Goodfellas.

Scorsese used lighting to reflect on the characters mood within Goodfellas, an example of this is used within the opening scene.

Through out the opening scene, the back of the car’s light reflects on the mood of the characters, for example this red light gives the feeling of blood and death to the audience’s attention without any blood being shown. As this is the opening scene of the movie the lighting is very important in terms of establishing the theme used within the film.

The second picture has dark red lights shining towards the two characters faces, they look forward to something, they look to be the most dangerous characters within the film.

The 3rd image presents Henry looking terrified, the light reflects on his mood in terms of his facial expressions showing him being anxious and worried of what is going to happen next.

Staging is a crucial element of Mise en scene, the reason for this is because it shows to the audience how actors are used within a scene. This is linked to facial expression’s and body language of the character.

Scorsese skill to frame characters and express their actions in momentous way was great to watch.

One of the most interesting scene’s where staging reflects the characters meanings are when ‘Tommy’ and ‘Henry’ are positioned in the centre of both shots.

Setting portrays a significant visual

component of a film, it consist of all that the

viewer sees which notifies time and place

apart from costume.

The way how meaning is created by ‘setting’

is Scorsese combines the “Documentary

style” into the setting of his film as he

references key elements of actual events

that occurred within Henry Hill life.

For example The Bamboo Lounge which was used in Goodfellas was an actual real life bar where Henry Hill and his gang used to hang out in the late 70’s-80’s.

The film’s documentary atmosphere is strongly generated within the film, for example when highlighting these places.

Scorsese makes full use of voice over narration and inter-titles to indicate place and date. This was a constant theme that was used when it came to different locations used within the film, they used Ray Liottavoice as narration in order to engage the audience with the storyline more.