Think about the film's mise-en-scene. Choose one scene in the film and discuss all aspects of the mise-en-scene (costumes, set, lighting, props, framing) and its relation to the scene and the film as a whole. Use at least 2 hearty paragraphs for your discussion. Your discussion should include insights into the intent of the filmmaker as well as copious evidence from within the frame.
And please post your favorite line from the film.
The mise-en-scene in Bringing Up Baby provides copious insight into the world of the characters created by director, Howard Hawk, while enhancing the audience’s viewing experience of the film. In the scene when David firsts meets Baby, the costumes, lighting, props, and framing to aid in defining the characters, David as an intellectual yet scatterbrained paleontologist and Susan as an extravagant and impulsive woman.
ReplyDeleteDavid wears a drab dark suit and studious glasses, signifying his uptight personality, one with no desire to get caught up in the frivolous affairs of the eccentric Susan. His devotion to his work is signified in the package he has in hand, containing the last bone he needs for his dinosaur, while he talks to Susan over the phone. His attitude and apparel is greatly contrasted by the frilly and extravagant dress Susan is sporting, covered in fun polka-dots. The room that David is in is dark and drab like his suit, filled with antique looking furniture, maps, and a globe. In contrast, the room from which Susan is calling is all bright and white, representing the pure and childlike nature of Susan. Her room is full of light streaming in through her open windows with the added three point lighting on Susan to create a halo-like effect, therefore making her look angelic. This, however, is ironic considering she’s such a manipulative schemer. In contrast, David's blinds are shut and there is significantly less light which gives the environment a more serious and down to earth feel, further contrasting the screw-ball comedy genre of the film, yet adding its own humor. When the frantic David arrives at her house, we find that Susan has changed into a striped dress which could almost represent love encaging Susan as she spends more and more time with David. Hawk mainly keeps the two in the frame at the same time to imply their impending love, always keeping the space between the two very close and intimate, even when they’re arguing.
During the whole phone conversation, Baby walks around Susan's apartment, butting its head against her. Baby's spots clearly contrast the decor of the apartment, meaning that it does not belong there, just as Susan doesn't. She is not the little girl the dollhouse-like residence suggests. When David does arrive, all three of them no longer match with the bright environment and they leave in search of satisfying the quest of self-descovery. The story continues until they realize who they truly are and how much they all mean to each other.
Bringing Up Baby’s Mise-En-Scene has a comedic feel for the audience and the characters within the movie as well. The Mise-En-Scene also bring the character's personality and development into the director’s POV and intention. One scene i choose is when the main character David, and Susan are temporarily staying at Susan’s house for a family reunion with her aunt and a couple of other people. This whole scene’s Mise-En-Scene, is that the costumes that director Howard Hawks decides to go with,is that the main characters are dressed in lavish,white, and almost a type of lounge wear clothing throughout most of the scene while Susan’s aunt is dressed in a more darker attire. This Mise-en-scene for half of the scene explains the character’s lost of thought and clueless, which explains why David is shown thinking on what to say to Susan and her aunt while Susan herself is arguing with her aunt. The set design in this scene is composed of Susan’s house which has a rich and vintage feel to it. The director’s insight on the set design is to explain about the character’s lifestyle and how they are dealing with the situation they are in. The lighting within this scene has a bright and high-contrast around the main character’s face which can have a meaning of security and that both David and Susan have their dilemma solved and well planned out. However, just before and after they have found out that Susan’s Dog had taken the bone David needed, the light around the main character’s faces has a low key lighting, lit with some bright contrast around the sides of their faces. This sudden change in lighting is Howard Hawk’s insight about the character’s face of uncertainty and insecurity about this new dilemma they are now facing.The framing in this scene has the subjects for the most part, in the center of the frame. This is because the relationship in between the two main characters in David’s perspective is slowly drifting away due to Susan’s constant annoyance to him. However, as the two search Susan’s dog for the bone he took, the two are notably closer together, which is a foreshadow about their relationship later on in the movie such as when they both develop feelings for each other. And lastly the props that are in this scene are composed of mainly small glass vases, lamps, and flower pots and small pictures scattered throughout the house. The director’s intention of doing this is to give the feeling to other characters that everything is okay in their point of view,while in reality it isn't to the main characters. The white painted walls around the house also gives that feeling of insecurity as well.
ReplyDeleteHoward Hawk’s intention overall, was to give the feeling of the character’s personality to the audience.Especially when most of the props that are shown within the house, are scattered throughout the house which can mean the character’s personality and what they are capable of doing. For example for Susan, the lack of props all in one area means that she is a free-spirited person but is sometimes a scatterbrain. In David’s POV he is a mild-mannered and just like Susan, he is also a little scatterbrained.
David: You don't understand: this is my car!
ReplyDeleteSusan: You mean this is your car? Your golf ball? Your car? Is there anything in the world that doesn't belong to you?
David: Yes, thank heaven, YOU!
The scene during which Susan mistakes David's car for hers is a miniature summary of the pair's adventure as a whole. Its mise-en-scene is comprised of a multitude of details that parallel those used in the entirety of the film.
The scene opens with an establishing shot showing Susan in what is presumably her car, boxed in on all sides. the automobiles on either side are placed quite close, and the tree behind leans in and looms over her car. In a broader context, this could symbolize Susan's indecision with regards as to how to handle her newly-acquired leopard. And, as in that struggle, Susan takes the car's entrapment with the whimsicality that is par for the course (no pun intended) for the whole movie. The best solution for her is the simplest one: ramming into the car in front of her. By bumping into it lightly at first, Susan shows she doesn't mean to cause trouble for others in any case, but gets carried away in her efforts.
We then see David with a golf caddy standing on the course. The obvious lack of other figures, save the trees in the far background, symbolizes the uneventful life he has somehow managed to live thus far. Yet unaware of Susan's destructive actions, he contents himself to reunite with Mr. Peabody.
Once David enters the same shot as Susan, we can more easily compare the merits of the two's outfits. David's, a bland collared shirt and sweater combination, befits his standard, boring, serious life, as do his glasses. Susan's bright dress evokes her light-hearted and free spirit.
An important prop in the scene is the car Susan finds herself in. It can easily be seen to represent the force of her misadventure, powerful and, more importantly, unstoppable to David. He tries backing away from the car, distancing himself from Susan, to no avail. He attempts to convince her otherwise but, in the end, goes along for the ride (quite literally).
Two images pop up here that are later repeated during other important segments. Cars are used again later for comedic effect when Susan parks in front of a fire hydrant. The viewer then can appreciate the different approach to "car humor" while also remembering previous scenes with the same prop. The same goes for the tree to the back of the car, present in abundance during the forest-set search for Baby.
Finally, the last shot of this scene does a great job of summarizing the film. Susan drives the car into the horizon, down an open road past which neither character can see. David turns and waves to an invisible Mr. Peabody, obviously attempting to return to his normal life with which he was so happy. Susan, on the other hand, doesn't know or care where the road leads, and will plan for it once she gets there.
In Bringing Up Baby, the mise-en-scene lets us know a lot about each character, and in general informs us a whole bunch about each scene. Consider the scene in which we see David after he has gotten out of the shower, and he is forced to wear a frilly bathrobe, for example. Here, the camera work fits in well with the rest of the movie; extremely frenetic and keeps the pace of the movie going at a rapid rate. The costume design is extremely ironic in the scene – David, the normally dour and drab paleontologist, wearing the most antithetic to his personality thing possible – a large frilly bathrobe that appears to be Susan’s (Susan wears a large frilly dress as well, and the scene uses this to highlight her talkative, eager, buoyant personality). The bathrobe stands in direct contrast to his frantic demeanor during the scene, and as a result is played off for large comic effect. The scene also makes use of its lighting extremely well – the scene feels light, playful, emphasized by the seemingly open layout of the house and fast-paced, witty dialogue that is particularly heavy in this scene. The dialogue, once again, gives us much of what we know about David and Susan’s respective personalities: David is serious, neurotic, and scatterbrained, and as such talks in a frantic but terse way (like when he tells Susan to get out of his room) whereas Susan is just as talkative as David in this scene, but her dialogue carries a much bouncier, much more playful feel to it (such as when she tells David to simply stay put and calm down as she gets into the shower).
ReplyDeleteThe props also add much to the feel of the scene. For example, the wooden box and the bone look extremely out of space in David’s sparse white bedroom, which lends to the feel of David as a frustrated outsider as well. The old-ish appearance of the household objects in David’s room also nods back to David’s profession as a paleontologist. Much of the house is very flowing in its floor plan, and in general the whole movie sort of relies on this ability to rapidly move and close space between these two characters, and the floor plan allows the camera to move freely and keep up with the movement of the characters and the rapid-fire dialogue, but many of the hallways and areas are cluttered with various things that give us clues into the personality of Susan – flowers, vases, other things that echo her sort of cluttered, scatterbrained, carefree ways. The light also heavily contrast between the two – Susan is often depicted surrounded by light, adding to her general overall shine and buoyancy, where as David’s scenes are normally much darker (except when he is wearing the bathrobe), indicating his sort of dark, drab, bookishness. When Ms. Random arrives, the plaid she is wearing echoes the, plaid in David’s room, indicating her importance to David and status as Susan’s aunt. Overall the general mise-en-scene of the scene indicates much about each characters personality, their roles, and how the film functions.
Favorite Line: “I just went gay, all of a sudden” - David
This scene begins with David answering Susan’s phone call. This is an eyelevel medium shot, where David is in the center of the frame, so we are aware of his significance in this exchange. When the shot switches, Susan is in the exact same orientation as David, however instead of an eyelevel medium shot, it is a low angle medium shot, paralleling with Susan’s superiority over David that is unspoken but very relevant throughout the entire film. A few more exchanges take place as Susan asks David about seeing her leopard, until finally when David’s own skepticism is at its height just as the audience’s is, we cut to a shot of Susan in which she is now further away from the camera, and more to the right of the frame, allowing the leopard to walk in on the left of the frame, and furthermore create suspense with what is about to occur in future by foreshadowing calamity, even in the instance the terrible event is not truthful. Soon the camera dollies backward, and we see Susan move from the foreground to the background as she is losing David’s interest and becoming less important, she follows Baby back to the bathroom of which he chambers. As she shuts the bathroom door, we move to an eyelevel medium shot of Susan where she is in the left of the frame, until she asks David, “The point is I have a leopard, the question is, what am I gonna do with it?” to which we switch back to that same familiar shot of David where he replies, that it is In fact her problem and not his. Frantically the shot cuts back to Susan as we last saw her in distress, then we cut to a wider shot where she is but a small part of the shot in the background of the seemingly vast room, unbalanced in the frame to correlate with her dismay. She runs from the background to the foreground and trips over a lamp, to which David is cut to standing up now wondering what has happened, and if it was the leopard. Susan’s moving from the background to the foreground now is in direct sync with her growing importance to David. Then we cut to an eyelevel shot of Susan laying on the ground as she moves to make a mess of her room, and trick David in to thinking the leopard is now attacking her. As Susan destroys her room more and more, the mis en scene parallels with the growing chaos she is causing in Susan’s life, yet his irrevocable care for her subconsciously grows steadily. We then cut to a medium shot of David where he is smaller in the frame now, at eye level, he is in the middle of the frame and is frantically responding to Susan that he will be right there. He then falls on the way out, just as Susan had, mending them together cinematically.
ReplyDeleteWe then cut to a wide angle, eyelevel shot of David entering frame right, and moving to frame left banging and kicking Susan’s door for her to open it. Susan enters frame left, and moves to frame right to meet him in the middle, the camera following her the whole time, thus to again emulate their unspoken bond to one another. When David enters and sees that Susan is alright, they are facing each other, in the background in the middle of them is a stone piece of artwork depicting an angel with a Baby on his back, not only does this allude to the title of the work, “Bringing Up Baby,” this hints at the supportive relationship of David to Susan even in the instance he is extremely furious with her. The camera then follows them from the left to the right until they move toward the background as David goes to look and see if there really is a leopard in the bathroom. We then cut to a medium shot from inside the bathroom of David opening the door in the middle ground, and seeing the Leopard with its back to the camera in the foreground, and reacting. Cut back to a medium shot of David against the door, petrified of the leopard within. We cut to a shot of Susan, who then turns around to face David with the light from the windows glowing gloriously on her, she says, “That’ll teach you to go around saying things about people.”
Fav line: "That'll teach you to go around saying things about people."
ReplyDeleteBringing Up Baby is a fast moving screwball comedy that has many interesting elements in each scene that contribute to the overall intent of the scene/film as a whole. The movies mise-en-scene is quite interesting and simple yet different and has significant impact. Even though I disliked the movie as a whole, my favorite scene is at the party/ fancy gathering where her purse gets mixed up with another woman and they run into each other again. The first elements that really stood out to me in this scene are the costumes and set. It takes place in a fancy restaurant with many rich well dressed people of high importance and class who are very elegant, proper and sophisticated. This setting serves well to juxtapose how slightly chaotic, informal and unprofessional they are. To me, the fancy setting and costumes in this scene are used primarily to highlight their characters and how they fit together in the world of seriousness around them. In this scene is my favorite line “ Let's play a game, watch ill put my hand over my eyes and when I count to ten and take my hand away you will be gone.” This line is followed by him accidentally ripping the back of her dress off. Just previously, she accidentally ripped his coat. The fact that both characters rip both of their clothes in succession may infer further that they are right for each other even if they do not see that now. Another costume element I found interesting is her vale that she is wearing. It could signify the current wall that is between them or the fact that she likes him and he is blind to it. Almost like she is hiding her feelings for him by hiding behind a vale. There are many other elements that can further the idea of isolation/ differentiation from the crowd around them and how they don't fit in.
ReplyDeleteOther elements of mise-en-scene are lighting and framing. The lighting remains bright and relatively constant throughout the entire shot. It illuminates the entire setting allowing the viewer to notice and focus on all of the area and action equally. This may mean that instead of just the characters being important, it's the background and what is around them that is most important as it defines them and their personalities in a stronger light. The framing in this scene is all focused and centered on the two characters' interactions. Their quick dialogue and movements make it a fast paced and fast changing scene framing wise. The framing when he is trying to cover her up is most effective I believe. It's in a position so that you can see the action occurring between them two but also the other restaurants customers moving about, talking, socializing and interacting. To me this is what makes framing most effective and interesting. To capture the action between the two characters but also the action behind them as well. The elements of mise-en-scene can give you great clues as to what the film makers intent overall is and why he chose that method to express a certain idea.
In Bringing Up Baby we can determine director Howard Hawks' intent through mise-en-scene. In this particular scene we have main characters Susan and David in her aunt's garden trying to coax her dog to reveal the spot in which he hid an important dinosaur bone. The lighting is bright with minimal shadows indicating the upbeat, comical tone of this scene. The vast expanse of the yard in the background shows the futility of their search which is ultimately confirmed when they follow George as he enters a shadowy area blanketed under the shade of trees serving as a figurative dead end.
ReplyDeleteOne important thing to notice is the use of long shots, which shows the duo taking up most of the frame, depicting their size compared to the small George. This combined with shots of them following and looming over George eagerly highlights the absurdity of the situation and the two human characters putting their hopes in a dog. Another important thing to take note of is Hawk's conveyance of the characters' emotions through the costume choice. David's attire is gaudy and clearly uncomfortable. reflecting his desperation, frustration, and his exiting of his own comfort zone. Meanwhile Susan is comfortably dressed in casual outdoor attire, reflecting her calmness and enjoyment toward the situation.
My favorite line: "Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but - well, there haven't been any quiet moments."
There are many elements of mise-en-scene which aid to the overall image of the screwball comedy, “Bringing Up Baby”. Shortly after David and Susan are done with their shenanigans with the purse, David takes off wanting nothing to do with Susan any longer. David is wearing a suit, with a white bow-tie, and a black over coat. While alongside the men with the purse, we can see that they have black bow-ties. This infers that David is more light-hearted through this lighter color of bow-tie, being the “victim” in this case. The purse is also dark, meaning that this could be the center of his problems. After running along, when Susan catches up, we see her in a very eloquent dress far more elegant than anyone in the foreground and background. This infers that she is to be the center of focus in not only the frame, but in the movie as a whole. This dress represents a break from normality as well, signaling her bubbly and silly personality which contrasts to the simple dresses of the other women in the scene. Susan then rips David’s suit, and when he tells her that when he counts to ten she should be gone, his foot gets caught on her dress and her lesser clothing is revealed. Her being unaware that her dress just ripped, after hearing it rip loudly from the diegetic sound, we can infer that she is oblivious to her surroundings. She begins walking away when David tries stopping her, and when she won’t listen to him, he has to put his hat over the rip. Again, the hat is very dark, which represents a form of something bad. This dark hat shows that this rip is another problem that they have in their given situation. She realizes her dilemma and retreating outside is welcomed by laughs of the people in the frame. There is a large amount of people that see the rip and begin laughing mostly all of which are wearing dark clothing. The chairs and tables are white, however their clothes represent another problem they face. Overall in this scene, when darkness is represented through both clothing and props, it means it is the direction of something bad that will, or already has occurred. This scene’s mise-en-scene is a great opportunity to get to know both Susan and David through their whacky adventure throughout the film.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line would either be, “Because I just went gay all of a sudden!” or “There is a leopard on your roof and it's my leopard and I have to get it and to get it I have to sing!”
"Bringing Up Baby" is a screw-ball comedy that uses mise-en-scene to create hilarious situations that are so outrageous they're unbelievably funny to most audiences.The scene begins with David, Susan, her aunt, and Major Applegate having dinner together. The set, costumes and props all contribute to the scene.
ReplyDeleteThe set is Susan's aunt's dining room, which is very well decorated and rich looking. The walls inside of the house are made of stone, giving it a... More home-like feeling? On the table seems to be very fine china-ware, as well as a cupboard full of china(is it supposed to be capitalized?) plates right behind Susan's aunt, giving a sense of wealth, since the plates seem to be very expensive. There is also a shelf full of china right behind Major Applegate. It also reminds the audience of how different Susan and George's backgrounds really are, while also being funny. Their costumes were another big part of the scene. All of the characters seated at the table were dressed very well, seeing as Susan's aunt is very wealthy and expects everyone else to dress as she does for dinner. Even David, who the audience doesn’t really see dressed up most of the movie, is dressed very well.
The camera seems to linger longer on Major Applegate than the other characters, perhaps to give a sense of irony as he denies that there is a leopard in the city, even when David insists that there is.
My favorite line would either be "It was probably just an echo" or "I just went gay all of a sudden!"
Favorite Line: As David discovers the leopard in Susan's room, he yells saying she must leave her apartment immediately. Susan replies with "I can't, I have a lease."
ReplyDeleteBringing Up Baby: The Second Meeting Scene
David and Susan, our protagonists, meet accidentally for the second time in a restaurant where David is supposed to meet Mr. Peabody. Both are seen to be wearing very fancy outfits. Our setting is a high class restaurant where everyone is well dressed, signifying the importance of this restaurant in local life. David is seen wearing a jet black tuxedo. Earlier in the film, his outfits contrasted with this tuxedo, displaying how in the midst of all the wealthy people around him, David is out of place. Unbeknownst to David, Susan is sitting near a bartender learning tricks from him. Since Susan is surrounded by the wealth around her yet chooses to learn simple bar tricks instead expresses how she is tired of the snobby rich lifestyle. As David walks in, he slips on an Olive which Susan mistakenly dropped crushing his top hat which he was just worrying about what to do with. The worrying directly relates to how out of place David is on such formal occasions.
Near the end of the scene, Susan accidentally rips David's jacket and her own dress on accident. Both characters are on the stone stairs in a medium closeup. This gives the audience absolutely no notion that David is standing on Susan's dress. Eventually, they both commit to helping each other leave the restaurant without embarrassment. Susan's dress is unconventional, flashy, and quirky. These very descriptive details can also be used to describe Susan's character. On the other hand, David wears rather formal attire which blends in with the surroundings to represent his own character.
Favorite line: Im sitting on 42nd street waiting for a bus.
ReplyDeleteIn the scene of meeting baby we jump back and forth between a medium shot of david on the phone with Susan and to a shot of Susan on the phone with David. The mise en scene within this scene helps develop[ the characters as whole. It shows us the typ of person that David is and the type of person that Susan is. David is centered in his shot surrounded by solid color walls with just a plain suit. His costume design tells us how he starts out as the boring “average joe” yet sophisticated man. The simple props surrounding him do the same as well. The one decoration he has on his table holding his phone is a simple knick knack. The lamp in his scene is also only partially in the shot while the lamp in Susan’s shot is completely visible. This represents how David only has the partial idea of what was going on about the leopard and Susan was the only one with the full idea. The mise en scene in Susan’s shot is completely different. The things surrounding her are bright. Her costume design is way brighter and more outgoing. The things on the table with her phone are many things such as a fan and a place mat and the windows in her part of the house are open while the windows in Davids are covered up and shady. This represents the open ness to the world that Susan has and the close minded and even trapped state of David in the world of archaeology. The mise en scene within both of these shots are used to juxtapose the characters and show how they are from two different worlds that are soon to collide.
Scene: After the Shower
ReplyDeleteThe Scene begins with Cary Grant (David) pleading with Katharine Hepburn (Susan) to return his clothes which she has taken. The scene is set in a lavish bedroom that belongs to Susan’s upper class family. The four post bed fill up most of the frame expressing the importance of their wealth as many films of the era would do the same. Even the lamps in the background seem to express high class living. Susan and David are mostly centered to put the viewer’s attention on their actions. Centering the two allow the viewer to take in the surrounding area of props that send the message of the high class. The robe that Susan wears in the beginning of the scene seems to be well made and professional. The lighting of the room is high key as it should with a light comedic scene. After Susan moves into her room it is seen that the décor and design of her room is almost identical to that of David’s. The rooms are set up with mirrors, pictures, desks and are kept clean. When David begins to put on his robe a shadow is cast over to the wall to let the viewer know he’s changing into something. The shadow is also used for comedic build up as the viewer is fooled into thinking that the robe is a men’s robe instead of what it turns out being.
When David leaves the bathroom in the woman’s robe it is comedic genius because of the surprise of the entrance but also because the character does not really acknowledge anything has changed and instead goes to talk to Susan. The robe David wears is frilly and designed to further express the humor by making the dress into such a “woman’s” dress. The rings around the arms exaggerate the meaning of the dress and express the feeling of discomfort in David. When Cary Grant has the conversation with the woman at the door it turns into a hilarious back and forth. The robe starts the conversation as David tries to explain himself but is angry with his situation. This is where Grant’s comedic timing played into the humor. Grant adlibbed the famous line that he “just turned gay all of a sudden” with perfect timing and added more comedy to the film’s already genius script.
The mise-en-scene used in Bringing Up Baby is seen as unique because it gives an extensive viewpoint toward the characters in the film. The first time David and Susan are in a shot together, you really get a feel for the actors in knowing what they’re going to be like due to the set design and the clothing they were wearing. The way David’s dressed gives the audience knowledge on knowing that he’s a bit of a birdbrained but at the same time, smart character, but Susan’s clothes define her as a pretentious/abrupt character. David’s demeanor is heavily distinguished by the costume Susan was put in, giving a complicated look by covering the dress with spots. While David’s clothes are dull and bleak, the reason for this is so that the audience can see how his outfit matches the feel of the room, a dark dull room. The room itself is filled with old time props, like the furniture and pictures on the wall. The reason for the dark room is to counter with the better lighted room Susan is talking from. Susan’s room is more of a brighter environment and David’s room is more of a darker environment, there’s a strong contrast between the two rooms to show that David is more of a serious character while Susan is more laid back and has a youthful description.The audience is shown Susan as a virtuous woman even though she’s more of a devious character. Between the two rooms there are small factors that mirror each other in an opposite way. For example in David’s room the blinds in the set are closed, allowing less light than Susan’s room, where the blinds are open allowing light into the room. As the agitated David shows up at her house, Susan has changed into a different dress that is designed with stripes this time instead of polka dots. Her change in dresses might personify how she feels toward David. Susan’s love enticing her and bring her closer to David emotionally.
ReplyDeleteAs the two talk back and forth, Baby continues to walk around and tour the apartment. Hawk like to keep Baby and Susan next to each other because he wants to see the matching designs on Baby and Susan’s dress. The similar design is to connect them both in the fact that they’re not welcome in the apartment. When the doll-house residence were mentioning a little girl earlier, it wasn’t Susan. When David enters the scene it’s revealed to the audience that David, Susan, and Baby don’t match the scene’s environment which would explain why they all leave going there own way. They soon discover that the only thing keeping them up is each other so they get closer and closer to each other.
The mise-en-scene used in Bringing Up Baby is seen as unique because it gives an extensive viewpoint toward the characters in the film. The first time David and Susan are in a shot together, you really get a feel for the actors in knowing what they’re going to be like due to the set design and the clothing they were wearing. The way David’s dressed gives the audience knowledge on knowing that he’s a bit of a birdbrained but at the same time, smart character, but Susan’s clothes define her as a pretentious/abrupt character. David’s demeanor is heavily distinguished by the costume Susan was put in, giving a complicated look by covering the dress with spots. While David’s clothes are dull and bleak, the reason for this is so that the audience can see how his outfit matches the feel of the room, a dark dull room. The room itself is filled with old time props, like the furniture and pictures on the wall. The reason for the dark room is to counter with the better lighted room Susan is talking from. Susan’s room is more of a brighter environment and David’s room is more of a darker environment, there’s a strong contrast between the two rooms to show that David is more of a serious character while Susan is more laid back and has a youthful description.The audience is shown Susan as a virtuous woman even though she’s more of a devious character. Between the two rooms there are small factors that mirror each other in an opposite way. For example in David’s room the blinds in the set are closed, allowing less light than Susan’s room, where the blinds are open allowing light into the room. As the agitated David shows up at her house, Susan has changed into a different dress that is designed with stripes this time instead of polka dots. Her change in dresses might personify how she feels toward David. Susan’s love enticing her and bring her closer to David emotionally.
ReplyDeleteAs the two talk back and forth, Baby continues to walk around and tour the apartment. Hawk like to keep Baby and Susan next to each other because he wants to see the matching designs on Baby and Susan’s dress. The similar design is to connect them both in the fact that they’re not welcome in the apartment. When the doll-house residence were mentioning a little girl earlier, it wasn’t Susan. When David enters the scene it’s revealed to the audience that David, Susan, and Baby don’t match the scene’s environment which would explain why they all leave going there own way. They soon discover that the only thing keeping them up is each other so they get closer and closer to each other.