thesis response four

The fourth thesis I read is by Eric Davey called The Effects of Mise en Scene on Motion Graphics. Elements of mise en scene include "costume and makeup, setting, lighting, and point of view." These elements may also apply to motion graphics, which is what Eric decided to base his paper on. My initial problem with this thesis is that it didn't IMMEDIATELY give a non-dictionary definition of mise en scene. After googling to find out what it meant I suppose I could have figured it out know what a mise en place is, however, it would have been nice to get a person to person verbalized definition. Mise en scene basically covers what is scene on the screen at a given time including set, characters (in costumes and makeup), etc.

Being a picky designer, I found it humorous and ironic that when the author was discussing how important setting is and how an overwhelming set can cause confusion or lack of interest in the main object Eric's paper was presented in a way that was confusing. The fusion of images spread throughout the text caused my eyes to drift and created hierarchical difficulty in reading. But, back to the writing. I did like his examples of set design and how they did or did not affect the viewer negatively. His points about how important color usage is really rang true to me as a designer. It is so important to know the meanings of colors and hues and to be able to use them in a way that create a feeling without being overtly obvious to the viewer. I felt like the color could have been tied in with the lighting since they really work together. However, I did find his examples about key lights and fill lights to be very interesting.

Point of view is very important, not only in motion graphics but in all graphic design. I do believe that this was potentially one of the most important areas to describe mise en scene. I feel like Eric appropriately discussed it's use in movies however I feel like he fell short on examples of motion graphics.

In conclusion, I enjoyed Eric's thesis. I do feel like it left something to be desired as far utilizing motion graphics as examples. I found most examples to be strictly movie examples and that made me pull away from the subject of the paper. I also think that it would have been beneficial to incorporate videos into the paper like Corina did to really nail down what a motion graphic is for the reader.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1683194/ais_classes/portfolio_pres/13wi/thesis/Davey%20Thesis.pdf