What Dreams May Come Analysis

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Final Film Essay The 1998 fantasy and drama movie, What Dreams May Come incorporates many specialized film features throughout the entire film. The mise-en-scene was one notable element that caught the audience’s eye the most with its significance to the film’s story. In connection with the mise-en-scene, the element of lighting was used frequently during the movie and the various types of lighting used played an important role in the story and has expressed a lot about the overall environment and feeling of the story in the movie. Additionally, props were another element of mise-en-scene which had magical powers, and were used as metaphorical props to indicate the power behind them. One element of mise-en-scene, also known as the lighting, was one of the elements of mise-en-scene that stood out to the audience and was also relevant to the narrative structure of the film. Ward’s use of lighting, whether it was high-key lighting or low-key lighting, sets the mood …show more content…

Out of the many technical features in the film, the mise-en-scene strikes the audience the most and has relevance with the plot and story of the film. The lighting styles are an element of mise-en-scene that have been featured constantly throughout the entire duration of the movie and they accurately express the overall sense of the different scenes. Specifically, high-key lighting shows the happiness of the past and the peacefulness of Heaven, and low-key lighting expresses the danger and spookiness of Hell and the tragic car accidents. Annie’s brilliant artistic ability is also pointed out by the audience with her painting coming to life, meaning that her painting is used as a metaphorical prop, which is another element of mise-en-scene fascinating the viewers. This film also displays the various perspectives of Heaven, Hell, and the past and that all of them have completely different atmospheres from one

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