Mise-en-Scene Introduction

Mise-en-Scene is a French term that means 'put into the frame'. In terms of analysing film, as the translation suggests, it refers to anything the viewer can see in the frame in a particular scene. Mise-en-scene creates meaning for an audience through all of its elements that I will go into detail of below.

The elements of mise-en-scene are: acting/performance, costume, props, setting, camera angles and lighting.

Acting

Acting and performance is one of the most important things in a frame as without good actors the audience will find it hard to emotionally connect to the storyline or empathise with it, even if its just finding it funny. If a viewer doesn't believe the film they wont enjoy it and a films success is highly dependant on audience reaction therefore in order to make the film successful, the acting must be of a high standard.

Costume

This is one of the most easily noticeable elements of mise-en-scene. This includes makeup, hairstyle any piercings or tattoos, clothing and anything else the character may be wearing as these are all used to portray a characters personality to the audience. An example of how costume was used to create meaning for an audience was in Romeo and Juliet, where Capulet was wearing gold in different forms and this suggested to us that he was wealthy and may be of a high social status.

Props

Props are added into the film often to give the audience a better understanding of who the characters are, for example, again in Romeo and Juliet, some of the characters have a gun on hand. This tells us that they may be aggressive or always prepared for 'battle' either because they are hated or because they have a hatrid for someone else. Another example of this is if a character had many alcohol bottles lying around their home as a viewer my first thoughts would either be that there was a party the previous night and the remains of it hadn't been cleared up or that the character has a drinking problem.

Setting

Setting is very powerful as it sets a scene and gives us a sence of place. Setting also helps us work out the genre of the film for example if the set was in a dark, silent basement I  may be led to believe it was a horror film. If towards the beginning of it the setting of the scene was in a buzzing city showing night life, I would initially believe its a film aimed at a younger audience that possibly contains a romantic storyline.

Camera Angles

Camera angles are a very important element of mise-en-scene as they are important in showing meaning, for example social status (at a low or high angle), emotion (reaction shot), what the actor is doing (mainly through a medium or a form of a close up shot) and the relationship between two characters (two shot).

Lighting

Lighting is a significant element of mise-en-scene as the arrangement of it provides all around illumination of the scene and gives the subject a sense of depth of field due to the different directions of light and parts of the subject it focuses on as well as providing shadows and highlights in it. Light can also be metaphorically used; if the subject in a film was in a mentally dark place then the scene may be low lit however as they were going towards something beneficial or positive, like a hospital where they will overcome any of their problems, the lighting might get brighter and brighter, as if to say there is 'light at the end of the tunnel'.

All of these elements are fundamental components of mise-en-scene and they help to make meaning for an audience both through their metaphors and what they really show.