Justin Agra

An analysis of mise-en-scene and cinematography within a 7 minute sequence from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

The choices made concerning mise-en-scene and cinematography within a film are an essential element within the generation of meaning for the film’s audience. A sense of historical time, mood, character state of mind and even place within the film’s narrative can all be indicated through cinematography and mise-en-scene. This essay will analyse how these microelements generate meaning and create response in a 7 minute sequence from Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince. 

The Half-Blood Prince is a movie based on the original book with the same name, which is written by J.K Rowling. J.K Rowling novels focus on Harry Potter’s life and his adventure as he grows up and also his two best friends, Ron and Hermione. Davit Yates is the chosen director for this movie. He has also directed the previous movie Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix and the latest movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 and soon to be released Part 2. There are two different distinct times represented within the film: the 21st Century and round about 1920’s.

In my chosen sequence Harry Potter is standing in front of the paparazzi having his pictures taken after having a confrontation with Voldemort. A shot of the Death Eaters flying over the city of London and creating havoc is then shown. This is shortly cut with a scene of Harry sitting inside a Café in one of the London underground station. Dumbledore suddenly appears as Harry stands outside the Café and takes Harry away into a dark house where he meets Professor Slughorn.

In the beginning of the movie as the logo of Warner brothers comes closer to the audience eyes you hear Bellatrix’s last words from the previous move ‘I killed Sirius Black’, which has the sound of thunder playing in the background. This helps to refresh the audiences’ minds on what has happened in the previous movie in order for them to understand the beginning of this movie. This scene then goes into an extreme close up of Harry’s eye. This shows that Harry has seen with his eyes that Bellatrix has killed Sirius Black and this shows that Harry is thinking in his mind what has happened and he’s playing the memory again. The cut then changes to a close up of Harry’s face after a bright flash of light hits his eyes, which turns the whole screen white before his face is shown. The flash of light represents the ghost goes into the “light”. This is usually used in many ghost movies when the ghost is ready to move on into their new life leaving the living world. This flashes of light is then repeated as another thought from Harry’s mind is played along with the sound of flashes going off from the camera. You hear a scream of pain coming from a man. This could represent Sirius Black’s last moment before he dies and that harry is still traumatized from witnessing the death of his godfather. A shot of all the paparazzi holding their cameras is then shown. The amount of paparazzi is significant as it shows how famous Harry Potter and his controversy is and that he will be in a lot of magazines, newspaper and the news the following day.

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A mid shot of Dumbledore standing next to Harry is then shown with Dumbledore reaching towards harry’s left hand shoulder to signal him to start walking while the continuous flashes bleaches out their image. This sets a father figure image towards Dumbledore and that he’s there to lend Harry a helping hand. This shot then turns into a close up shot of Dumbledores hand. This represents safety, as Harry is now in Dumbledore’s hands and nothing can hurt him as long as Dumbledore is with him. The choices of lighting in these scenes are very low as the source of light is coming from the flashes of the cameras and from a light source about their heads. The light above their heads gives an eerie feel to the scene as you can’t fully see their eyes or what they are looking at. This could also represent the darkness inside harry as he just wants to take revenge for the death of his godfather.

Throughout this whole scene angelic background music with Violins playing low notes is playing. This symbolises the death of Harry’s godfather and it’s almost a therapeutic music that neutralizes the sorrow and grief that Harry is feeling inside. This type of song is usually associated to funerals as the family says their last words to their loved ones before they cover the coffin up with soil. In addition all human voices or noises caused by human movements throughout the shots were muted and only the sound of the flashes and the background track can be heard. This represents Harry’s thoughts as he’s blocking everything out at

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that moment as he’s pondering the memory of the death of his godfather and also it could represent that Harry doesn’t want to interact with human beings at that moment in time.

The colours in the scene are all mundane colours. The colours grey, black & white are used in every single character that’s in the shot. This represents the sad moment that they are facing as their moods have been shattered by the death of a person. Furthermore the red shirt that Harry is wearing underneath his grey zip-up hoody represents the blood that has been shed by Voldemort. The choice of having Harry to wear the only thing that’s red in the whole scene shows the blood tie that him and his godfather has and that only harry can fully feel the pain that’s been caused by the death. Furthermore the choice of red is typically used in movies before, during or after an event that contains death or violence.

A couple of seconds after the shots of Harry, a tracking shot of a man in a middle of a meeting standing up to walk towards the window to look at what is happening outside is shown. This shot is also an establishing and pan right shot. This shows that something extraordinary is happening outside as it has managed to draw people’s attention and also to stop the meeting into a halt. The workers are also wearing mundane colours, almost monochromatic. There are no diagetic sound but only the sound of the thunder that is coming from outside. This makes the audiences wonder what is happening outside that has caused everyone to stop what they’re doing .

The move then progresses into the scene where Dumbledore and Harry teleports into a little village where there are no street lights around and only the light coming from the moon is making them visible. The darkness immediately sets an eerie feel to the setting as something bad might happen to them both. An Establishing shot of the village is shown where an obelisk is at the centre of the show and at the right hand side harry and Dumbledore is located. The cross might signify that this village has a religious background and the resident might have superstitious beliefs. In that establishing shot. There is no background music and only the sound of Harry’s footsteps and breathing can be heard. This shot is then followed by an overhead tracking shot of Dumbledore and Harry. The overhead shot could represent that something is watching over them and

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that someone is following them from above such as a Death Eater. This shot then turns into another establishing shot of the house that they are going to enter. In this shot only the conversation between Dumbledore and Harry can be heard. There are no non diagetic music playing. This helps the audience to concentrate on the information that Dumbledore is telling Harry. The camera then zooms into the front of the house where as soon as the camera enters past the gates a long creaking noise starts to play in the background. This suddenly changes the whole atmosphere that makes the audience feel uncertain of their safety and what is about to happen when they step into the house.

They both enter the pitch-black house; Dumbledore illuminates their path by casting magic. This also gives the light from the wand and Dumbledore a safety image as he’s walking in front of harry ready to face anything that may come in the way. As they look around the house looking for anything that might pop out of the shadows to attack them the sound of water dripping onto the floor is present. This shows that there is life in the house, as someone must have turned the taps on in order for something to be leaking. The sound is clarified by Harry seeing what seems to be like blood from the ceiling dripping onto a newspaper where he’s on the front page. The blood dripping onto the paper, which has his face on, gives the feeling that something bad is going to happen to Harry as the blood is dripping near the picture of him on the newspaper or it could be a warning that something bad might happen to them if they don’t leave the house immediately. In the house scene a silent nondiagetic track of a high pitch violin is playing emphasizing the eerie atmosphere that has already been created. The volume of the track increases as the tension increases giving bigger suspense impact onto the audiences.

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The cinematography and mise-en-scene used in this sequence have contributed to the viewer’s increased understanding of the character of Harry Potter. These micro elements have shown the bond between Dumbledore and Harry have with each other. The differences in mise-en-scene between Laura Brown and Virginia Woolf’s scenes have distanced them in terms of chronological years, but the cinematography has clearly shown the connection between the two characters.