~Mise-en-scene~

What is Mise-en-sene??

Well, judging by the name itself, this is a french term meaning "put in the scene" and in filming, we narrow this meaning down into definitive segments. We use these segments ultimately to check if everything in the specific scene is a good as it needs to be. I will now take you through the 5 aspects of Mise-en-scene.

• Lighting: This Usually highlights a certain aspect of a scene so it stands out from everything else. As a simple example take a high school scenario and the prettiest girl of the year is walking down the hallway. The light will hit her hair as she looks around and her make up will become particularly noticeable as well as her natural beauty. This will highlight the fact that she is the prettiest in the school. Lighting is particularly important as it also relates to exposure. The right amount of light/exposure is required for certain shots and can be a big issue if its too much. Sometimes too much light Is an intended purpose e.g. someone is approaching and their head in in front of the sun. Because of this, we cant see their face and it is usually later on in the film or show where their face is revealed. So lighting is a very beneficial aspect to manipulate when it comes to film.

• Costumes: The costumes of the characters determine: what time period they are set in, sometimes the mood of the atmosphere (i.e. if its a happy environment, we would see bright colours), and can add essences to certain settings e.g. If a girl is wearing a white long torn gown, without even looking at the make up we can tell that something is going on with the character themselves. Its quite obvious but if the directors wanted to illustrate that its a cold setting, the characters will wear something think and warm.

• Props: These are the objects used within a scene and essentially everything down to an office pen will count as a prop. This just means that these items are made specifically for the movie. Most movies (mainly sci-fi) rely heavily on certain crops which are used constantly throughout the film. 

Back To The Future: The first movie in the sequel was made in 1985 and the prop that is used in every single one of these movies is the delorean (Time machine car in image). This is what i would call a " paramount prop" because without this prop, we wouldn't have the back to the future film.

• Characters: In terms of Mise-en-scene, its the way the characters are displayed in the scene and what their body language suggests and how it compliments the setting and their surroundings. To elaborate on things a bit further, i will give an example below.

Image analysis:

Now to analyse this image, i can see that everyone is smiling in this image which is a clear reading that they are in a good mood and enjoying themselves in some way shape or form. I can also see that all the focus is on the elderly man so my guess is that he is telling them a story of some kind because the cups in their hand suggests that they have been or will be there for a while, which is why i say hes telling them a story . To further prove my analysis to be further accurate. This could be one of the younger peoples grand parents. (this is my short analysis to just give you as the audience what mise-en-scene means in terms of character and how it applies to media)

• Setting: This is the area in which the scene takes place and makes us as the viewer have a better outlook on that scene as a whole. If it was a snowy area with  trees stripped to the bark and deprived of their leaves alongside the unique snowflakes floating down onto the white blanketed ground, this would be a type of setting. From that description alone we can have a guess whats going on in that scene. The thought of children playing in the snow and snowmen come to mind. It is of up most importance that this is displayed correctly so the viewer can get a good idea of the scene. I find that sitcoms seem to do this a lot; they play a short soundtrack track and show a picture of where the scene will take place.

My Wife And Kids: This sitcom was started in 2001 and the way they express the mood of the setting with the image is the sound track. If its a casual matter, it will play something with a quickly snappy tempo. (see 08:10-08:17 of the video for this). At one point in this video the son is offered a "joint" which is slang for smoking tobacco/marijuana. The music following up to the next setting told us that things were going to get bad; also the shading of the trees covering the house indicates that bad matter are going to be implemented soon. If you put this part on contrast to 08:10 then we can clearly see a difference in even the lighting of the house, this establishes the following scene as "not so good" . (10:25- 10:35 to see this)