Mise-en-scene.

Mise-en-scene is a french term meaning 'what is in the scene'. It refers to everything you see within the frame. 

There are 5 elements of mise-en-scene:

• Settings and props.
• Costume, hair and make-up. 
• Facial expressions and body language.
• Position of characters/objects in frame.
• Lighting and colour.

Settings and props:
-settings and locations play an important part in film-making.
-sets can be built from scratch or be an actual location.
-they can manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and then taking a different turn.


Costume, hair and make-up.
-costume, Hair & Make Up act as an instant indicator to us of a character’s personality, status and job.
-it tells us whether the film is set in the present and what society/or culture it will centre around.
-certain costumes can signify certain individuals (i.e. black cloak of a vampire).


Facial expressions and body language.
-facial expressions provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling.
-if someone is smiling broadly, we assume they are happy but we may get a different feeling if this is accompanied by scary music.
-body language may also indicate how a character feels towards another character or may reflect the state of their relationship.

•  TASK:What meanings/emotions do the following images convey:

this image conveys an emotion of love and passion. this emotion is visible from the girl's facial expressions.

 this image conveys danger and anger as the man's facial expressions show this. his head is tilted down while his eyes look up makes it seem scary.

Positioning of characters/objects within a frame:

-positioning within a frame can draw our attention to an important character/object.

-a film maker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people.

•    TASK: what does the positioning in the following images reveal about the characters/film:

the positioning of the man and the woman shows that there is some tension between them because they are both sitting on the opposite ends of the couch far away from each other. the womans body language shows she is annoyed because her arms are crossed.

from the positioning of these characters you can tell this is a spy movie where these characters may be partners.

Lighting & Colour

lighting & Colour can be used to achieve a variety of effects:

-to highlight important characters or objects within the frame.

-to make characters look mysterious by shading sections of the face & body.

-to reflect a characters mental state/hidden emotions (i.e. bright=happy, dark=disturbed, strobe effect=confused.)

types of Lighting:

-low key lighting: created by using only the key and produces sharp contrasts of light and dark areas. deep, distinct shadows/silhouettes are formed.

    -example: horror films.

-high key lighting: more filler lights are used. lighting is natural and realistic to our eyes. produces brightly lit sets or a sunny day.

    -example: rom-coms.

Analysis of three images explaining how mise-en-scene works in 

them:

the use of lowkey lighting produces shadows which create a myterious atmosphere in this cage/prison setting.

the costumes of the characters show a pirate theme which is supported by all the treasure as it relates to pirates.

the costumes here are pirate costumes. the facial expressions of the pirates look confused.