Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-Scene (MeS) is a French term meaning ‘what is put into the scene or frame’. What is put into or left out of a frame can make a big difference to how we receive the film and how we are suppose to feel.

 

The elements of mise-en-scene are an indicator of the genre of the film and as an audience we have expectations of the mise-en-scene depending on the genre.

The elements within MES include;

1. setting and props
2. costume, hair and make-up
3. facial expressions and body language
4. lighting and colour
5. positioning of characters & objects within a frame

·                     SETTINGS & PROPS

Settings used in a film are rarely just backgrounds to the characters and sometimes we see settings with no action taking place. Filmmakers can choose to build a set from scratch in a studio. Alternatively a lot of time and effort is put in by a location manager to find a setting that already exists.

Props is the term given to objects in a scene and are usually used to help the narrative or to follow the generic conventions of a film.

·                     COSTUME, HAIR & MAKE-UP

Costume plays a large part because it can indicate a character’s personality, social status and job. It tells us when the film is set and in what culture.

MAKE-UP

Make-up in the early days of cinema was used to highlight facial features, as black and white film stock could not register detail very well.

·                     Facial Expressions & Body Language

Facial expressions are a clear indicator of how a person feels. The filmmaker may use a character’s eyes to draw our attention to something or a slight change in a character’s face can tell us something has happened.

Body Language also indicates how we are thinking and feeling. Everyone is different but we recognise common features such as shaking a fist means anger, or curling into a ball to protect ourselves.

·                     Lighting

Lighting can help to give a scene a realistic look (high key) or a dramatic look (low key). It can also be used to highlight particular objects, characters or to change a character’s appearance.

·                     COLOUR

Colour has connotations associated with it and can be used to create a mood and atmosphere.

Connotation= the secondary meaning of a word

-Yellow= happiness,

-Blue= Sadness,

-White= pureness

-Green= jealousy, illness

-Black= evil, pessimistic

-Red= anger, passion

Denotation= the first meaning of a word

·                     POSITIONING OF CHARACTERS & OBJECTS WITHIN A FRAME

Positioning can indicate the importance of a person or object. If a character is positioned in the foreground we know to assume they have some importance in the scene. Also the positioning of objects can direct our attention to a particular area.

Firstly i Will be talking about the props. the props mainly used in this scene will be the sword's which is a weapon. the props can most times betray the genre of the movie for example a weapon such a sword like she is holding shows us this is a action film.

The costume she is to be wearing has yellow and black, something we should pay attention to because yellow and black are usually used for warning's or caution.

 The girls costume and prop gives us a big explanation of her personality and she's dangerous also fighter. The way the girl is standing shows us she is on a defence and ready for action. her facial expression shows us she is on alert. The lighting being used is key lighting showing everything bright so the audience is aware of what is going on. as for the girl she is on focus while her back ground is blurred out slightly which shows us that she is a main character and her importance in the film.

The setting and background set in this shot looks like a old factory sort of place which has not been in use for a very long time. The gun's prospect's the genre of the move which can be  crime or action.

The men's costume show us they are business men or serious people like a mafia who dress smart. The blood on the mans shirt threes blood which can indicate that his either hurt or something has happened to someone close to him and the blood got there from that person.

The man standing is looking down at the other man which shows he has he power there, also holding the gun at him shows he has no fear and he is angry. From this shot e cant see the facial expression clearly but it shows that he is very angry from the body language. As for the man on the floor, his body language shows he is alert and has fear.

The lighting here is high key spot light sort of style which indicates that they are what the audience is meant to be focusing on.

There isn't much of colour to be focusing because the suits has the black and white colour which doesn't link to any meaning but their personality or what job they do.

The positioning of the characters show the importance of that scene and the placing of the objects in the background is a generic convention it allows the audience to understand what kidn of place the location is at or what the location is.