2. What is it?
• Mise en Scene is an expression used to describe the design
aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially
means "visual theme" or "telling a story" both in visually
artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and
stage design, and in poetically artful ways through
direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's
"grand undefined term".
•
• Mise en Scene is used in nearly every soap opera, stage
play and TV sitcom and is not noticeable unless anyone
knows what it is, in laments terms it basically means how
everything is set out on set/stage it expresses the colours,
characters and themes of the soap opera.
3. What's it made up of?
• Mise en Scene is made up of 5 elements
Settings & Props, Costume, Hair & Make up,
Facial Expressions & Body Language, Lighting
& Colour and Positioning of characters/objects
within the frame.
4. What’s it made up of? (Cont.)
• Settings & Locations play an important part in film-making and are
not just “backgrounds”, sets are either built from scratch or a great
deal of time is spent to find a setting which already exists, settings
can manipulate an audience by building certain expectations and
then taking a different turn.
• Costume, Hair & Make Up act as an instant indicator to us of a
characters personality, status & job, it tells us immediately whether
the film is set in the present and what society or culture it will
centre around, certain costumes can signify certain individuals.
• The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting can influence an
audience’s understanding of characters, actions, themes and mood.
Light (and shade) can emphasize texture, shape, distance, mood,
time of day or night, season, glamour; it affects the way colors are
rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention
on particular elements of the composition.
