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1. Analyzing Mise-En-Scene
Darnell Boyle

2. Location
Clip 3 of The Descent begins with a vast empty
darkness in which a young girl is blowing the
candles out on her birthday cake. We aren’t
meant to know where she is as the focus is on
the cake and the candles being blown out. The
rest of the scene is set in a hospital, the
audience knows this because the main
character is laying in a bed with a hospital
connected to a heartbeat monitor which can
be heard in the background. Later in the scene
she wonders into an empty corridor which
further shows us she is in a hospital although
something seems off. Then as the scene begins
to become more intense with the lights turning
off the scene suddenly changes into the same
corridor but this time with nurses and doctors
walking down as the main character breaks
down. We realize the first hallway scene was a
figment of her imagination.

3. Body Movement
The candle scene has limited movement other
than the girl leaning over to blow the candles out.
During the hospital scene as the character
awakens she seems very slow at first as she has
awoken after maybe a long time asleep. But as
she realizes where she begins to become stressed
and begins to shakily remove the wires she’s
connected to. As she steps in to the corridor she
begins to panic as she experiences PTSD as she
has lost her daughter and husband and this is
seen through her frantic running through the
corridors until she snaps back into reality and
bursts into tears which shows the mental state of
this character to the audience. The characters
friend embraces her to try and comfort her which
shows us she is trying to help.

4. Costumes
The costume the young girl is wearing is a
very typical young girls clothing as it is just a
white long sleeve t-shirt. As the hospital
scene starts, we can see the main character
is wearing hospital robes which are given to
patients which shows us she is in a hospital
and has been involved in some kind of
accident. This can also be seen from the
scars on her face. The fact she is wearing a
hospital gown also represents vulnerability.
Her friend is wearing normal clothes as she
has not been involved in her accident.

5. Props
During the start of the scene the first
prop we see is a birthday cake with lit
candles. This cake has significance as
it represents happiness and as the
candles blow out it shows that
happiness disappearing. It also shows
us that the daughter has died as she is
fading away into darkness as well as
already being in a dark room. The IV
line she is connected to represents
death as she takes it out the heart
monitor flat lines which foreshadows
the fact her daughter has died.

6. Lighting
The cake scene is very dark and turns
into complete darkness which signifies
the loss of her life. As the setting
changes to the hospital there is a green
tint up until she comes back into reality
where the tint is removed. The green
tint is to signify her disconnect from
reality. When the tint is removed it
makes the audience feel safer and
gives a sense of relief.