Mise-en-scene refers to everything within the frame of a shot that can be used to tell the story or provide context. This includes elements like color, costumes, props, location, blocking/performance, and lighting. The document provides examples of how each of these elements can be symbolic and help establish mood, character, and cultural context. Lighting specifically is discussed as either high-key, which provides even lighting, or low-key, which creates more dramatic shadows and contrast through targeted lighting.

1. Mise-en-scene
Mise-en-scenemeans ‘placed in the scene’.
Semiotics is the study of signs.
Type of things to look for in Mise-en-scene:
1. Colour
2. Costume
3. Props
4. Set/location
5. Blocking and performance
6. Lighting
Colour
 Colour is symbolic as it can appear in several places e.g. Set, Lighting,
Costumes
 Colour on a person, placeor set can tell/show us the mood of the place
or the type of person they could be
Costume
 Includes clothes, hair and make-up
 Itcreates identity and personality for the characters
 Itcan forma cultural code- the audience understands how costume
provides clues/codes about people and situations
 Once wearing a costume it will mean keeping in their character so
showing who they are how the costume presents them
Props
 Are any object used within a frame
 They might be used to dress the set or be used by the actors
 They may be symbolic or have significance
Set/location
 A set will be built for filming and is usually part of a studio complex

2.  Location shooting-involves leaving the studio and shooting in an existing
location that has be ‘scouted’ as suitable
 Whatever setting has been used it has been dressed purposefully
Blocking and performance
 Blocking is referred to the positioning and movement of the actors
within the frame, both in relation to one another and the camera (us the
audience)
 Performancecovers all the aspects of the actual acting- gesture,
expression
Lighting
 In a scene the two main approaches are; high-key lighting and low-key
lighting
 High-key lighting makes sure there is even light across the frame with
little or no shadow or dark areas- it has little dramatic effect
 Low-key lighting allows high contrastbetween light and dark, with
shadow often being used for dramatic effect
 A USEFUL TERM IS AMBIENTLIGHTING- this means that a scene has
been lit using available light (to look like natural light)