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 supposed to feel.

Mise-en-scene also known as the setting up of a scene is a term discussed on how a story is told in a film. Mise-en-scene is used to describe visual elements and camera movement which creates a shot. Mise-en-scene also describes the production design and costume in addition camera movement and choices of colours, camera lens, angles, and cinematography.

If I was to talk about a specific scene from a film, and the position of mise-en-scene in it, by analysing this film I will understand the role of mise-en-scene has on the narrative of any film. In the film Fatal Attraction the mise-en-scene constantly constructs the character as a ‘good wife’ as she is shown in radiant, affectionate, soft colours in certain areas making her seem like the ideal house wife, as her hair softly frames around her face. Though the ‘evil woman’ was lived in a flat next to a slaughterhouse simply painted in white, insensitively lit and gave a feeling of unfriendliness. The actress who played her Glenn Close looked cunning as her hairstyle was evoking serpent tails, and was constantly shot and lit ruff in sharp ways.

The elements of mise-en-scene is a sign of the genre of the film and as an audience we have prospects 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

Key aspects of Mise-en-scene

Decor:

An important element of "putting in the scene" is decor, the objects contained in and the setting of a scene. Décor can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood of a film.

Lighting:

The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting have a profound effect on the way an image is perceived. Light (and shade) can emphasise 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.

Space:

The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, decor, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the story world.

Costume:

Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Using certain colors or designs, costumes in narrative cinema is used to signify characters or to make clear distinctions between characters.

Acting:

There is enormous historical and cultural variation in performance styles in the cinema. Early melodramatic styles, clearly indebted to the 19th century theater, gave way in Western cinema to a relatively naturalistic style.

SETTINGS & PROPS

Settings used in films are not just backgrounds to the characters and sometimes we see settings with no action taking place. Alternatively a lot of time and effort is put in by a location manager to find a setting that already exists. Settings are chosen for a reason to suit the character, narrative or genre. Film makers can choose to build a set from scratch in a studio.

Props are objects that are used in parts of the sets or as tools used by actors. Props have an aim of significance when they are used to express characters’ thoughts, feelings and actions or even the primary themes of the film for example religious props. Iconography are mainly used to help the narrative or to follow the generic conventions of the film.

For example in this scene from 'Dirty Harry' it shows the settings of the location set in a city café as we see pavements, people, employees and cars. In addition we see the four characters in a stand of against one all holding guns, as we see the four look ruff and urban and the white man look smartly dressed this makes the audience assume the film as a crime genre. By the use of settings we can understand the reason of the crime is taken place in a city for the life style as a café robbery can not be made in the middle of nowhere.  

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 also some of the narrative depending on the costume for example the costume being a suit this tells the audience it is a gangster, police thriller.

Many film’s stars wear their own clothing as they feel more comfortable and at ease when acting as I believe my main actor will wear her own clothes. The person in charge of mise-en-scene in our production will need to be sensitive and have good style and fashion sense when choosing appropriate clothes for the actor to wear. Normally experience actors bring their own clothes which they know will sort the narrative for example bright colours to sort a romance.

Costume problems our mise-en-scene director will have to avoid:

1)    Don’t use costumes that tones match the settings background.

2)    Close stripes in costume strobe at certain distances.

3)    Low necklines may appear topless in close shots to viewers.

Make-up in the classical era of cinema was used to highlight facial features, as black and white film stock could not register detail very well; they draw out or point to important parts of a character’s personality.

Occasionally someone’s natural complexion or common make-up looks good on camera, and no additional treatment is needed aspect from last touches on their hair and appearance for example perspiration around temples and brow, or a distracting shine on the nose, forehead or bald head. Make up improves the persons overall appearance, while also changing it, as it minuses the blotchy complexion, reduces bags underneath eyes and improves skin tones. Make up can give energy to a persons face that the camera can not. It can emphasize attractive areas of the face for example using foundation on the forehead to hide spots and wrinkles.

My make up artist will use these basic improvement points to improve the visual appearance of our actors. As shown in this photo of Christian Bale a well known thriller actor.

1)    Untidy hair or bald head, scalp may show thin hair. Hair may be too light either dark or dense to show on camera.

2)    Perspiration shine.

3)    Deep eye sockets or eyes lack definition.

4)    Shiny nose.

5)    Beard-line still visible despite shaving.

6)    Neck bony.

7)    Normal lipstick maybe too light or dark for camera, lips may be dry and unshaped.

8)    Wrinkles show age.

9)    Ears maybe too light or dark and a different complexion from facial skin.

10) Eyebrows untidy.

In this image of 'Spider-man 3' it shows a man wearing a strange costume which is blue and red (which are the colours of the American flag) punching a man through the stomach which sand then comes out from the person he punches. The costume looks like a superhero's as super-heroes have strange, extraordinary, unique costumes to make themselves stand out from the normal person, furthermore the colours of his costume which is seen to represent the American flag making the character look peaceful, righteous and good-loving this makes the audience already identify the narrative film of being a supernatural action film.


Facial Expressions & Body Language

Facial expressions are a clear hint of how a person feels for example finding something unattractive might lead to the person a brief expression of disgust then going back to a natural face. The face as a whole indicates much about human moods as well. Specific emotional states, such as happiness or sadness, are expressed through a smile or a frown, respectively.

Body Language also shows how we are thinking, feeling and how he/her positions themselves to the audience. It is their actions, their movements and the way they present themselves.


The body language can tell you a lot about the type of character in the film. The way they hold themselves or act, will be conventional to many other films of the same genre. For example everyone is different but we know that a tear drop means some distressing as happened and body shaking can indicate that the person is scared, this indicating to the audience is a horror, thriller or drama. Even their physical appearance will be similar to others of the same genre. This body language helps us to understand who they are and how the will be represented. This all and above being a representative of character representation.

Lighting

In this image below it shows the shocked body language in 'The Pelican Brief' by woman, her body language is positioned stiff and she looks very uncomfortable as if she doesn’t want to be where she is in the scene; her farcical expressions looks stunned and disturbed this making the film look like a thriller as it shows tension and suspense.



Lighting helps give a scene a realistic look by using high key to show facial features. It can also be used to highlight particular objects, characters or to change a character’s appearance. Lighting helps to convey mood and atmosphere in a scene/film. It can also be used to guide the audience attention to a particular object, person, emotion or gesture. Lighting can also be used to cast shadows and build tension and suspense by using low-key lighting.



In this image of 'The Dark Knight' it shows a the use of low-key lighting as the dark figure is standing behind and above the man sitting down this making the dark figure look scary and mysterious. The low-key lighting is totally covering his whole body as we only see small areas of light which creates more shadows.





COLOUR

Colour brings a scene to life; changing moods, also giving subtitle colour suggesting matching the settings. Colours can direct attention to a certain shot and help clarify detail and show differences by other areas.  Colours can be refined by being bright, saturated, and hued. Unnecessary colours can be overwhelming in certain scenes; in addition certain colours do not match while others do as some are exciting together whole some clash violently.

As the audience look around the scene, their brain patterns adjust to the colours and tunes in ways the camera can not. For example colours stand out towards others from a woman wearing a green outfit in a red background may appear to change as we think it’s yellow. Mixing colours together by the use of light and setting will form new secondary colours.

Colour have connotations associated with Mise-en-scene and can be used to create a mood and atmosphere. For example in the film 'Sin City' it uses black and white throughout the whole to make the film look dark and sinister, colours are only used to represent certain characters and actions for example high-key lighting is used on a beautiful girl to represent passion and lust also to show that there is not only death and hate in the film as she is shown in colour in the grey scale movie.


Connotation- The secondary meaning of a word

• Yellow: Joy, happiness, betrayal, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, gold, philosophy, dishonesty, cowardice, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard

               

• Blue: Peace, tranquillity, cold, calm, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, conservatism, security, cleanliness, order, loyalty, sky, water, technology, depression, appetite suppressant

• White: Reverence, purity, birth, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, winter, snow, good, sterility, marriage

• Green: Nature, environment, healthy, good luck, renewal, youth, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy, misfortune, vigour

• Black: Power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger, anonymity, underground, good technical colour, mourning, death

• Red: Excitement, energy, passion, love, desire, speed, strength, power, heat, aggression, danger, fire, blood, war, violence, all things intense and passionate.

POSITIONING OF CHARACTERS & OBJECTS WITHIN A FRAME


When positioning character and objects in the scene/film it has great importance as some positioning might be a high importance in understanding the narrative of the film. When positioning the character in foreground the audience assume that they have some importance in the plot. Furthermore while positioning props in certain areas of the setting it can appeal towards the audience.

For example in the film 'Child’s Play' the audience notice that batteries have fallen out of from the toy’s package which the woman has shaken, she becomes very shocked and disturbed as she looks suspiciously at the toy, the toy then talks without the use of batteries; we as an audience soon understand that the toy has been talking without batteries before and after. The battery in this scene is the main prop and with the right positioning of prop and character we understand the importance it has set for the scene and narrative as the woman understands that the toy is alive.



Look at the following still images and analyse how mise-en-scene is used in ‘Kill Bill’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs’:

The settings and props used in this is based which it looks like to be a Tokyo bar. As the props show a large glass like flow, an exit scene in the far top left corner, stairs and famous Japanese shouji paper walls which indicate to the audience that this scene is based in Japan.

As the characters in black position themselves around the woman, they position themselves at an offensive posture while the woman looks as if she is on the defensive.  The scene shows 2-3 men on the floor by her feet, these making the audience assume that she is the main subject of the scene, has great importance and is very dangerous also she causes a great threat as many mean have surrounded this one person.

The characters facial expressions is a clear indication that all the male characters surrounding the female see her as a enemy and threat to them as it looks as if she has already defeated 3 of their allies. The body language of the male characters look very intimidated, shocked and opposing towards the female woman by their clinging of their swords making it as if they will check no chance against this woman. The woman’s body language is very protective as it looks and seems she against the men in the scene and that they are blocking her path to a greater goal. Her facial expressions look unfazed and determined as she it looks as if she is confident because she has defeated many enemies already looks as if she must defeat these enemies to reach a higher objective.

The male characters are wearing black suits and masks which make them look like assassins and gangsters because of their mysterious appearance as the audience get the impression that they don’t wont to be seen by nobody as they think their identity is of create importance. The woman’s appearance is seen in a bright track suit outfit this making her stand out as a low class person amongst high classed males wearing suits, this could also tell the audience that her and the men are from different opposite categories and are common enemies.

The colour of the male’s suits and masks are black making them look dark, powerful, mysterious, evil, and a deadly threat. This makes the room seem tense as the male characters look strong and a powerful force to be reckoned with towards the female. The female character wears a bright yellow track suit that matches her blonde hair, as yellow has a meaning of betrayal it could seem that she has been betrayed by these characters or their higher above. Her bright yellow track suit also makes her look like hope against the evil also a hazard towards everything else making her seem as a destructive force.

High-key lighting is used on the woman in the producing the image to be very bright and that feature few shadows are shown in the background making her stand out amongst the male characters as the main subject.

The costumes the characters are wearing are black suits shirts. This makes the film look like a gangster action genre. The character look sweaty and blood is shown on their clothes and faces. This makes the audience feel that they have been fighting due to them at gun point.

Choroscouro lighting is used to create a dark effect of shadows ahead of the man on the floor and the man who is standing. This directs to the gangster setting. The low key lighting and high key lighting creates suspense as the low-key lighting makes the background dark and unneeded as the high key lighting on the characters makes them stand out within the film.

Both characters show face expressions of anger and hatred this causes suspense as the audience don’t know who will shot first and can see that they have had a disagreement. As their body language seems very defensive and both attacking minded making them look like they have the urge to kill one another.

The setting and props are of chairs, bins, pipes, a ladder and guns this mise en scene suggesting that the location is based in a garage which is isolated for only the two characters to fight in.

In the image one of the characters is standing above the other character on the floor. This makes the character standing above the other one look stronger with higher power making him look like the leader of a criminal organization.