1. Mise-en-scene
What does mise-en-scene mean?
It’s French for ‘placed in the scene’ and describes everything you can see in a single
shot.
What are the 6 key areas of mise-en-scene?
-Colour
-Costume
-Props
-Set/location
-Blocking and performance
-Lighting
(there are many more but these are the main 6 you focus on at a-level)
Colour:
How is colour used in the 2 below pictures?
The colours used in scene are mostly symbolic. They can
appear in the set/lighting, clothes and make up.
Cruella De Vil red (inside of
the coat) is symbolic of the
blood of the puppies that she
killed. The split of the black
and white in her hair
symbolizes the split
personalities she has as well
as showing how crazy ad
metal she is.
Cinderella the white symbolizes pureness and innocence and the blue is
stereotypically for sadness which could be foreshadowing to the ‘bad ending’ of that
night. The black background could also be representing how she’s the light in the
darkness.
Costume:
What can we interpret from these costumes?
Costume can be clothes, hair
and make-up. They create an
identity and personality for the
character. Costumes are also
deliberate to keep in with that
character.
EastEnders in this picture the
characters look
stereotypically ‘chav’ or lower
class through the way they are dressed. Such as the way
the hats are placed (slightly off centre), the puffer
jacket/bomber jacket, the jogging bottoms, the trainers and
the unbrushed hair. This is all stereotypical lower class as
it’s a bit messy and what you would expect someone of lower class to wear.
Sherlock in this picture the characters look higher class as they are more together
as well as wearing more expensive looking clothes such as the long trench coat.
Other factors could be how neat the scarf looks around Sherlock’s neck and how
Watson is wearing a shirt and cardigan under his coat.
2. Mise-en-scene
Props:
-Props are any objects used within the frame.
-They may be used to dress the set
-May be there for use for the actors/characters
-They may also have symbolic significance-expressing mood, character traits e.g. in
doctor who the doctor always has his sonic screwdriver or in star wars the jedi have
lightsabers.
Location:
Can be a purpose built set or a real location.
Location is when they film in a real place
Most filming is done in purpose built sets which is also why in tv shows/movies
created and filmed by the same company there may be similar looking sets as they
may have used the same set but redesigned it for the different show/movie.
Sets are man-made mock ups in a studio that have dressed purposefully.
Although sometimes it is cheaper to film on location but change the look slightly for
example for a film set in Philadelphia but the company was British so it was cheaper
to film in Glasgow and change a street into an American style street (American traffic
lights…) rather then send everyone to Philadelphia for filming.
Blocking/Performance:
Blocking refers to the positioning and movement of actors within the frame,
both in relation to each other and in relation to the camera (which represents
us, the audience)
Performance covers all aspects of the actual acting – gesture, expression,
accent etc
Lighting:
How is lighting being used to create mood in the following examples?
High key lighting very high and bright very little shadows.
Low key lighting very little lighting, loads of shadows, dark
Ambient lighting natural looking light- used to make it look more realistic
<low key
Highkey>
