Briefly explain how settings are used in the best films and stage plays and the differences between settings in film and those in the live theater

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: The ideal answer should include:
1. In the best movies and stage productions, settings are not merely backdrops for the action, but symbolic extensions of the theme and characterization. Settings can convey an immense amount of information, especially in the cinema. Stage sets are generally less detailed than film sets, for the audience is too distant from the stage to perceive many small details.
2. Spatial considerations force stage directors to make constant compromises with their sets. If they use too much of the upstage (rear) area, the audience won’t be able to see or hear well. If they use high platforms to give an actor dominance, they then have the problem of getting the actor back on the main level quickly and plausibly. Stage directors must also use a constant-sized space: Settings are usually confined to “long shots.”
3. Stage directors can stage an action in such a way as to suggest that the playing area is only a small corner of the field. Or they can stylize the set with the aid of a cyclorama, which gives the illusion of a vast sky in the background. If they want to suggest a confined area, they can do so only for short periods, for an audience grows restless when actors are restricted to a small playing area for long periods. Stage directors can use vertical, horizontal, and oblique lines in a set to suggest psychological states; but these lines (or colors or objects) cannot be cut out from scenes where they are inappropriate, as they could be in a movie.
4. The film director has far more freedom in the use of settings. Most important, of course, the cinema permits a director to shoot outdoors—an enormous advantage. The major works of a number of great directors would have been impossible without this freedom.
5. Epic films would be virtually impossible without the extreme long shots of vast expanses of land. Other genres, particularly those requiring a degree of stylization or deliberate unreality, have been associated with the studio: musicals, horror films, and many period films. Such genres often stress a kind of magical, sealed-off universe, and images taken from real life tend to clash with these essentially claustrophobic qualities.