1. Mise-en-scene
• Identify elements of mise-en-scene
• Apply knowledge to a variety of still images
• Demonstrate an understanding of how mise-
en-scene creates an overall impression.

2. Activity
Draw a house and make it look nice and inviting.
Now draw a different house and make it look
scary and threatening.
What techniques did you use to make you
houses look different?

4. Changing Perspective
It’s easy to change the audience’s perspective on
something by changing:
• Camera angle
• Location
• Colour
• Lighting
Some of these elements are called ‘mise-en-scene’.

5. A new term for your glossary
Mise-en-scene
It means ‘everything in the frame’ and refers to
lighting, props, costume, location and make-up.

6. Settings & Props
• 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

7. Costume, Hair & Make Up
• Costume, Hair & Make Up act as an instant indicator to us of
a character’s 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 costumescan signify certain individuals (i.e. black
cloak of a vampire, Spidey’s Spiderman suit)
• Task How would you dress the following types of characters
1. A Geek
2. A ‘barbie girl’
3. An goth

8. This stereotypical image of a ______ illustrates
how important mise-en-scene is. It especially
demonstrates how audiences judge people
based on their costume, make-up and props.

9. Facial Expressions & 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:

10. IMAGE 1

11. IMAGE 2

12. IMAGE 3

13. 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
relationshipsbetween people
• TASK: What does the positioning in the
following images reveal about the
characters/film:

14. IMAGE 1

15. IMAGE 2

16. IMAGE 3

17. 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

18. Unconventional mise-en-scene
It’s easy to see how important mise-en-scene is to a
media text by swapping it for something else.
For example…
• Someone trying to stab someone…with a sandwich
(props)
• A dog sitting in an armchair like a human (location)
• An old man wearing a tutu (costume)

19. Carousel
Each pair has a number. In pairs, visit the different stills
around the room and label it with things you notice about
each picture.
You need to write:
• what the denotation is
• what the connotation is
• what the audience might think about your part of the
image
1’s location & props
2’s costume, hair & make-up
3’s facial expressions & body language
4’s positioning in the frame (plus camera angles)
5’s lighting & colour

20. An example
What could you say about this image?

29. Use the spider and what you have learnt from this lesson to
write 2 paragraphs on the following image…
Firstly when looking at the mise-en-sceneof this
image I notice the… (pick an element). It gives the
audience an idea about… (who/what/where/when)

30. Use the spider and what you have learnt from this lesson to
write 2 paragraphs on the following image…
Firstly when looking at the mise-en-sceneof this
image I notice the… (pick an element). It gives the
audience an idea about… (who/what/where/when)

31. Use the spider and what you have learnt from this lesson to
write 2 paragraphs on the following image…
Firstly when looking at the mise-en-sceneof this
image I notice the… (pick an element). It gives the
audience an idea about… (who/what/where/when)