My favorite part of last class was watching a contemporary music video based on Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon before watching the original. Although we didn't discuss in detail a comparison of the two films, I couldn't help but wonder how a short film made in 1902 could be so iconic as to still appear in references more than a hundred years later. Wikipedia.Com says the short film's been alluded to in episodes of both Futurama and The Simpsons, and I know I've seen that moon/face shot before. At first, I found Barsam's definition of mise en scène, "the sum of everything the audience sees, hears, and experiences" while viewing a movie (82), a little ambiguous. It wasn't until class on Wednesday that I got an idea of what Barsam meant: as far as I can gather, mise en scène is the big picture and overall feel of a film, the impression it makes on our minds as well as the experiences we have upon viewing. It made all the difference when we watched the music video with Georges Méliès short. All the aspects of each came together respectively to create two very unique works, despite their identical plots. Tom Gunning wrote in his essay that A Trip to the Moon "embodies the high spirits that marked early cinema, the excitement of discovery and innovation that marked the new medium." Although the designs and compositions purposely echo the 1902 reel, I found the Smashing Pumpkins' music video was much more recognizably contemporary in that it abandoned these "high spirits" in favor of a more nostalgic effect (formed, perhaps, by the aged-photograph coloring of the actors as much as the marriage of old-fashioned costumes and sets with modern music).