Mise En Scene In a Movie Opening: The Change Up

The Change Up

When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement.

The 'Change up' is a well known american Hollywood style comedy starring highly renowned professional actors, such as Jason Bateman (Dave) who starred in movies like 'Horrible Bosses' and Ryan Reynolds (Mitch), known for films such as 'The Proposal'. These actors are highly associated in the comedy genre which makes viewers simply predict they are going to see a successful comedy movie and laughter will almost definitely be on the menu. In 'The Change Up' Dave is a married man with two kids and a loving wife , and Mitch is a single man who is at the prime of his sexual life. One fateful night while Mitch and Dave are peeing in a fountain when lightning strikes and they switch bodies. I will be looking at mise en scene in the opening to this film and commenting on costume, lighting, sound, make-up, lighting, Props and sets.

At the beginning of the scene we are met with the classic American Hollywood opening of a night time scene, which usually links to something negative may happen in the scene to come. Already in this establishing shot of the room we can see examples of costumes, props and setting. We see a man in bed with what seems quite disturbed bed covers. This usually represents a restless sleep or connotations to nightmares. We see Dave in bed asleep and then we begin to hear a baby cry on a baby monitor which is quite a popular thing to include in these types of parent comedies. There are high amounts of comedy in the beginning of this scene for example ' its your turn' creates a funny mental image for the viewer that they take it in turns every night to go care for their children, and when he rubs his face against the bed provides the viewer with the idea he really cannot be bothered. The scene seems to take place in the middle of the night as the only light sources seems to come from only small sources such as street lights.

  

The décor seems very effective and adds highly to the realism of the scene. With elegant bed sheets, throws and curtains this presents links to the semantic field of common parent rooms, always clean, always presented perfectly and comfortable. The furniture seems very feminine so this may inform the viewer that the male character is less in control and is more of a family man, quite mature. To me the fact he is wearing full pyjamas also gives me the idea that he is quite mature and vulnerable as stereotypically men are known to sleep in just a shirt or maybe even underwear when quite young. In the child's room there are numerous props and also the décor in this room adds to the realism with the use of all the child toys, cots and children wallpaper, the setting seems very well thought through and has been executed successfully by providing this very clean comfortable house scene which is stereotypical as new parents are known to keep everything clean and in order for the safety and health of their kids. As the man gets out of bed he seems quite frustrated but this is funny to the viewer. 

The scene runs very smoothly and effectively. As he reaches the children's room it becomes a classic nappy changing scene but its quite non stereotypical for the male to be getting into the dirty side of caring or a child like changing nappies etc.. as normally the woman is seen to be doing these things, this also adds to the comedy of the scene. The scene is very relate-able and funny and would be grasping to the viewer as it reaches out as a 'we've all been there' situation to parents watching the movie. The popular use of poo and muck when caring for a child is another well known technique in comedy films as they cause large amounts of mess and disturbance but at the same time stay happy and don't actually understand what they have done which adds humour. We can see yet again that Dave is a family man when he decides to sacrifice what seems precious sleeping time to stay up and feed his children. The make-up in this scene is very subtle and as the scene is in the night time exaggerated make-up would make the scene unrealistic and would create a negative impact. The subtle approach to make up is effective and isn't used to portray a certain mood, characteristic or to foreshadow a coming event.

The sound in this scene starts with a non diegetic happy mellow tune, mainly seems to be played using a piano. We then hear the start of the baby cry which continues throughout most of the scene. With one of the first words being a swear word this is common in comedy movies and grasps the viewer in as they would find this quite funny. The melody seems almost like a child's chime from something such as a kids programme, this works well with the light footed half asleep presence of Dave and how the scene is generally set in the middle of the night. As action increases such as when the baby is just lying on the work shelf and also when he is reaching for the nappy we can hear an introduction of more instruments such as the flute playing quite high pitch tunes suggesting tension for something just about to come. As the poo section approaches a drum roll is introduced whilst tells the audience either something bad or important is going to happen an we can also sense a change in speed of the background tune as it gets faster when action is faster. When he is sat with the children it returns to the mellow piano tune which may represent that everything is ok again and the situation is finally under control.

 In my opinion mise en scene is very effective in the opening to this movie and provides a high amount of comedy and keeps the viewer interested throughout with the use of high amounts of realism and classical situations in day to day life.