LO3: Production Techniques

Mise-en-scene

Costumes - binary opposition
Props - binary opposition
Location/iconography - When and where we are
Lighting (high/low key)
Acting gesture - propp (1928)

Binary Opposition - Levi Strauss

The main characters in Django Unchained (Django and Dr. Schultz) often use weapons or equipment that someone of their profession would use in the time period the film was set (1870's).

Django Unchained features lots of props and costumes that link it to the time it is set; such as horses, old weaponry and fancy clothes. This is shown in the film during the scene where Django, Dr Schultz, Clavin Candie and his men are riding back to the candy land plantation on horseback wearing extravagant suits and carrying old fashioned weaponry such as Cobra "Big Bore" Derringer or the Colt 1851 Navy. This links to Tim O'Sullivan's theory (1998) that states "all media texts tell some kind of story".

The difference between the protagonists and antagonists in Django Unchained is shown by the use of acting gesture and costume. The protagonists wear expensive suits whereas the antagonists will dress scruffily. For example the difference in dress between Django and the brittle brothers during the scene where he shoots two of them; Django is dressed in a bright blue suit with a ruffled shirt whereas the Brittle brothers are all dressed in grubby, half-buttoned shirts and slacks. This links to Levi Strauss' Binary oppositions theory. Another example of binary opposition in Django Unchained is black vs white, when Django is fighting the plantation workers.