Mise-en-scene refers to everything presented to the viewer within a single shot, including color, costume, props, set/location, blocking/performance, and lighting. These six elements are deliberately composed by the director to convey meaning and influence the audience's interpretation. For example, the color red may symbolize danger or evil, while white can portray purity. Costumes also provide clues to a character's personality and social class. Blocking determines the positioning of actors, and lighting is manipulated to set mood through high-key, low-key, or ambient techniques. Together, these components of mise-en-scene aim to create a sense of realism or verisimilitude for the audience.

1. Mise-en-scene
What does mise-en-scene mean?
French word, translated literally to “placed in the scene”. It was referred to how the
director organised the stage.
Used to describe everything in a single shot.
What are the 6 key areas of mise-en-scene?
COLOUR
COSTUME
PROPS
SET/ LOCATION
BLOCKINGANDPERFORMANCE
LIGHTING
Colour:
How is colour used in the 3 below pictures?
Can be used to show the costumes, set, lighting etc. The connotations are
generally so welled used that they’re used in children’s texts.
1. Red stands out, therefore showing evil, blood, danger of the villain. The red
in her coat, shows the dead puppies blood within the film, however the
white portrays that she’s trying to trick the character’s within the film that
she’s a nice person, but they don’t know what’s in the inside. (Can also
show love not in this example) Her black hair also infers that she is a crazy
and horrible character, as black connotates to death.
2. The costume is black and shows darkness or death. Her skin tone is also a
slight green, “green with envy” showing that she is envious of Sleeping
Beauty. The purple also shows royalty, which suggests she is royalty of
some description.

2. Mise-en-scene
3. Her huge dress shows purity as it’s white, with the elements of blue
showing the “coldness” that she has been through within the story. There is
also a black background, suggesting that her “perfection” isn’t going to last
much longer.
Costume:
What can we interpret from these costumes?
Costume shows personality and character. Costume can
include hair, clothes and make-up. Costumes can make the
audience judge the character before even knowing the personality of that
character.
The costumes that are chosen are deliberate, as the audience is so quick to judge.
1. Audience may feel that these characters are poor and lower class, because
of their clothes and the way they are wearing them.
2. Sherlock and Watson would be classed as higher class, this is because of
the long coats looking more expensive.
Props:
Props are any objects used within the frame. They may be used to dress the set or
be used by the actors, they can have a symbolic significance- expressing mood,
character traits etc.
Location:
Can be a purpose built set or a real location
A set would have been built for filming and is most likely part of a studio complex.
Location shooting involves leaving the studio environment and filming in existing
locations that have been “scouted” as suitable.
They have all been dressed purposely.

3. Mise-en-scene
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?
2 main approaches- high-key lighting and low-key lighting.
High-key ensures that light across the frame with little or no shadow or dark areas-
it has little dramatic effect.
Low-key lighting allows for high contrast between light and dark within the frame,
with shadow often being used for dramatic effect. Eg. Horror films.
Another useful term is ambient lighting, this means the scene has been lit using
available light (eg sun) perhaps to look like natural light.
1. The light within the 1st picture is shining in front of the characters, could
potentially show they are the good people within the scene.
2. In the second picture, there is both high-key and low-key lighting, as there’s
shadow on the man’s face. This could show she is more innocent than the
man, as her face is fully lit and the shadow on the man looks as if he is
hiding from something, making the audience feel there is a huge sense of
betrayal.
Mise en scene shows VERISIMILITUDE. This is a useful term which refers to the
authenticity of the environment created on screen.

4. Mise-en-scene