Mise En Scene

The film Hugo, produced by Brian Selznick, tells the story of a young boy named Hugo who lives in a train station with his uncle. When his uncle goes missing Hugo secretly continues to wind the clocks and live in the walls of the station, while continuing with his dream to fix an automaton that he and his dad started before he died. In order to do this Hugo steals from George Méliès where he soon finds where he belongs with his new family, changing his life forever. Hugo positions audiences to see that a person should never give up on their dreams in order for them to come true.
The first technique use is mise-en-scene. Through the use of mise-en-scene the film positions viewers to see, not to give up on dreams in they are to come true. This

This is evident through the use of special effects, in the scene where Hugo and Isabel find a box of illustrations out of Papa George’s movies. Specifically, at one point in the scene, special effects are used to make the illustrations fly around the room highlighting pictures of all Papa George’s movies, showing how powerful dreams can be when releasing and acknowledged. By doing this it emphasises the number of movies Papa Georges has made and the dreams he had. This positions viewers to see that Papa George had so many dreams that he gave up on his dreams and locked them away because it got too hard. A second aspect of post-production that is effectively used in this scene is sound, specifically at one point when the paper is flying around the room and you can hear music. The use of the music playing in the background starts of heavy and paced out when they are uncertain of what has been found and gradually gets lighter with a higher pitch when the illustrations start to fly round the room, connotes ‘happy’ and ‘magical’. This positions viewers to see that Papa Georges dreams are magical if he just believed in