Mouse In The House: Staging

Staging is an important aspect to my film, since Chris Ware uses it as a major device in his work. He offers multiple viewpoints and perspectives at any one time, he is also known for framing his work in boxes and blowing up small details. I took this technique from him and experimented with boxes appearing from out of the window in an almost ‘informational’ way to show you what’s going on behind the glass.


This proved to be very effective and interesting, so I developed it further. At any one time there might be three or four boxes on screen which will offer multiple viewpoints of the chase e.g. from the mouse’s and the man’s perspective.

Whilst researching into his unusual staging I came across Richard McGuire who worked alongside Chris ware on the New York Times. They shared very similar style in terms of using boxes as a framing devices, and it was beneficial to see how he exploited them.


Perhaps one of my regrets for this project which I could have improved on, is pushing the staging even further. I could have got really experimental, showing really strange perspectives for example a birds eye view of the room with the mouse the man running around. I could have also played around with the size of the boxes, making some fill the entire screen at times.