Theory

1. Evaluation – Sherlock Holmes
How does mise-en-scene, sound and cinematography match the clip we watched?
Firstly, mise-en-scene is presented in various ways in the film clip we watched. The set
location opens in an old fashioned town/city with horse carriages running downthe old
cobbled roads. The opening scene shows the dark streets so as an audience we understand
where the film is set and what kind of film it’s going to show. We see an establishing shot in
the opening scene to enhance the unease feel of the town to the audience because of the low-
key lighting. This done to make the audience feel distressed and aware that the town or city
is from the olden days from the old-fashioned location. We see that it is old fashioned by the
lanterns the people carry and what kind of costumes they wear.
Mise-en-scene also shows the old and dark costumes used in the film. The costumes are
smart looking, as back in the olden times all costumes were smart with a long jacket, suit,
and tie, and, men wore hats. The costumes look like work clothes as the time-period was
different, so clothes looked smarter and darker than casual clothes wornnow. The costumes
used are long and old looking to present the earlier time- period and the jobs available in the
older times. With older film genres you’d usually expect genres like action, drama or comedy.
In this Sherlock Holmes clip, the genre is action and adventure because it involves action like
fighting and dark scenes.
The colour of the film is dark so we get an impression of the olden time feel. We also as an
audience understand, from the low key lighting, the genre is mysterious and adventure
which pulls the audience in to continue watching. Also, the use of low key lighting makes it
hard for the audience to see what’s going on during the film so the use of fast pace speech
makes it harder for the audience to follow was is going on. The use of the fast action also
presents Sherlock Holmes as an unusual character because he is hard to keep up with
sometimes. Moreover, the dark lighting also presents the action fighting scenes as dangerous
because we can’t see what is going on very much and so we also must hear the sounds to
figure out what is going on. This is the same for other films, other than Sherlock Holmes,
because the darker scenes need that danger feel as an audience’s perspective so tension can
rise.
There are many props used to signify the mysteries genre of the film. Firstly, the use of a
horse carriage moves very quickly which signifies something is going to happen as the
audience feel tension as the speed is very quick. The use of guns and weapons also creates
tension as the cinematography shots, for example the close ups and medium shots with the
characters shows the detail of the weapons. The close ups create a sense of unease as swords
and guns are dangerous and perhaps something bad is going to occur. The film also includes
fire lanterns to emphasise the low key lighting and dark atmosphere. The bright orange fire
also sets the mysterious anhd adventurous genre as fire suggests action fighting. The fire is
used in the fight scene of the film so this enhances the sense of unease and worry for what
will happen next.
The lighting used is very low key and dark to enhance the mysterious genre of the film. The
dingy lighting also reminds the audience of the time-period and that in the olden days
lanterns were used in the dark, as outside when it got dark there weren’t many street lamps
like today. In the film, the time of day is in the evening so the lighting is originally drab. This
means that the use of fire had to be used to show the dark lit evening and this enhanced the
action genre of the film, and it engaged the audience to be interested and pay attention.
Moreover, the use of a close-up of the character ensured that his whole face was in the shot.
The lighting on his face was dark to present that perhaps he was about to do something bad
or that he was a bad character. To the audience, we feel tension and a sense of unease as we

2. Evaluation – Sherlock Holmes
don’t know if this character is bad or what he is about to do may cause a twist or climatic
point in the plot.
Mise-en-scene also presented the performance with fast pace. The horse carriage was moving
at a face pace to create a sense of urgency so perhaps it was implying something was going to
happen abruptly. This sense of urgency creates unease for the audience as it was moving very
quickly and we may get a vision of a crash or the idea that the carriage needs to get
somewhere quickly. In addition to the horse carriage being fast, the pace of speech is also
very speedy. This rapid pace of speech may be to create a sense of bafflement and that the
audience are having to follow and listen to every word said in the clip to understand what is
going on. The producer has done this to relate the film to the character, Sherlock, who is an
unusual character and speaks fast so it’s usually hard to keep up with what he is saying.
Lastly, the clip includes low and high angles on the characters. The low angle to show
vulnerability and low status from the observer compared to the high angle on the observer
which shows high status and more dominant power. The use of low and high angles
enhances the contrast between the characters’ different status positions. The use of lighting
assists this because a dark light or silhouette on the character’s face suggests darkness and
danger and bright lighting suggests a more vulnerable or nicer character in comparison. This
helps because then as well as understanding the character’s background information (status
position) by the angle shots, we also learn what their character is like compared to others in
the film. Also, there is a close-up of Watson with a glass weapon going into his head. This
shows the audience what is going on and that the close-up of the glass signifies its
importance and purpose of hurting Watson. Also with a close-up shot we don’t just see the
glass going into his head, we also see Watson’s facial expressions as a close-up shot is able to
clearly view what the character’s face is doing. This is important because we also see a
reaction shot of Watson when we as an audience, see he is hurt by gasping and looking
worried.