A world of your own

I TYPED THIS ON MY iPAD AND NOW THE SPACING IS OFF, SORRY.
Through any art form, a protagonist is necessary, a leading character of any kind,
to guide you or take you through the story that the artist is presenting. When I say any
art form, I mean "any" art form. Think of classical music, just orchestrated, no opera, just
instruments, there is a protagonist. Music has a key it is written in, certain notes and
chords belong to that key and it follows a structure. So in a way the key signature is
taking you along with whatever story the music is telling, even if some guy wrote it like
"hey this sounds cool!", and did not actually consider a key and just played random
notes. Not to get into theory, but there would still be a key that his random notes still
sound best in, or belong to. So the key signature, which contains the notes which are
considered correct to play, is like the world the key, our protagonist, belongs to. There
are preset notes in this key, rules to follow, years of developed theory that make it the
way it works. Of course a composer can that the key and change and break the rules as
he or she pleases, but there will always be the set boundaries whether the composer
knows it or not. If you really wanted to test that any art has a protagonist, canvas,
painted fully with black paint by someone who thinks they are modern or revolutionary
and people pay so much to see what you could make for 5$, the protagonist is the black
paint. Anyways, that was a big long metaphor to describe that, a character can take
many different paths and can be interpreted in many different ways. But while the
character has many different paths that they could take, the world has still already been
formed for them. Through past knowledge, and through what the audience accepts for
the most part. If you take like Superman for example, he can sort of do whatever he
wants, he cannot rewrite history though, and he cannot reshape the Earth, well maybe
he can, I do not follow the comics much. But he still has a weakness, if not there would
be no point if the world did not come up with challenges. There is a Twilight Zone
episode where this man believes he is in heaven after he starts getting everything that
he could ever want, once realizing there was nothing unexpected left in his existence,
he got very bored only to realize he was never in heaven, but rather the other place.
The point of the story is characters who get around or are in the world they have been
created for, and that is their experience, not just a world that they have created
themselves.

Double Indemnity Mise-en-Scene

What impression does the setting of this shot create for the viewer?

This image is the first introduction to Phyllis Dietrichson, the clear Femme Fatale in this movie. This is not just an introduction, but in this first time that you see her, it is also an understanding.The reason why this image is interesting is the way she is captured. Within this still, you see her and what she represents captured, but you also have a relatively flat background, which she stands in the middle of. There's a few things that draw your eye, the railing keeping her apart from Neff, the light fixture, a sign of her wealth, and the "mysterious" room she came out of. All these things in the frame with her though, are all much darker, her skin, hair, and towel, all have this pale and bright tone to them. It makes you focus on her and literally brings light to her. There is also what looks like a rug hanging over the railing. Rugs are always a sign of wealth. There is so much effort put into making them, that in the end the are very expensive. To just have a rug hanging over the railing like that, though it's possible that they were cleaning it, but since that is never seen, there is literally just a rug hanging over their railing. Showing all the luxury in her house, telling you more about where she lives, and clearly that her husband is rich and this is where she lives. 

Part of what is interesting about this still image is that there are two subjects in this frame. They grab your attention, because they are contrasting while being similar. The two subjects are looking in opposite directions, while they both look concerned or worried. The way their faces are lit, and the shadows that creates makes it so that you can see their emotion better. In a way it is interesting that both of their faces are lit, though they are facing opposite directions, giving you a feeling that the space is lit from every direction, and the cause of the shadows is actually each other. The back of their heads are shadowed because they are so close and touching, which intrigues you into wondering what exactly the relationship between these two is. This image is very flat, shows a good example of flat space, in the foreground you have an emphasis on the two characters, but in the background there is not anything to see. In a way, the background being so flat is important, to help hold your attention only to the two subjects. The type of shot is a full-close up, drawing you to their face, but also showing you their posture, giving you a little more insight to their situation. This entire shot is around the emotion of the characters, out of context, as a still image, you do not understand the situation, but through this one image, you can tell so much about how they are feeling and who they are to each other.