Mise-en-scene, an intriguing concept that I have recently learned about and decided to discuss!

In French, the term mise-en-scene means “putting into the scene”, and this was first applied to the practice of directing plays. The phrase refers to the directors control over what appears in the film frame, how it is arranged and set up etc. A number of features make up this, such as setting, lighting, costume and makeup, and staging and performance. Mise-en-scene has great power and can be used to achieve realism by giving settings an authentic look or by letting actors perform as naturally as possible. It can also be used to create fantasy. Georges Melies’s A Trip to the Moon illustrates the early use of mise-en-scene for fantasy, utilising painted cut outs and by drawing/setting out every element in each scene.

 

Mise-en-scene offers the filmmaker four general areas of choice and control: setting, costumes and makeup, lighting, and staging(which includes acting and movement in the shot).

 

Setting: This can be authentic i.e. actual locations used for documentaries or fictional stories, or it can be filmed in a studio, where all elements of mise-en-scene can be manipulated. Setting can overwhelm actors, as in Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire, or it can be reduced to almost nothing such as in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Colour can be important, making certain things stand out etc. i.e. bright red dress among darker colourings in the film Tampopo. A full sized setting must not always be built, with parts of settings able to be used instead, being rendered as paintings and combined photographically with full sized sections of the space such as in Angels and Demons where they were refused permission to film in the Vatican City. They built partial sets of Saint Peter’s Square and the Pantheon, then filled in the missing stretches digitally. In manipulating setting, filmmakers may use props which are short for property. These can be any object placed in the setting.

 

Costume and Makeup: Costumes can play casual roles and become motifs, enhancing characterisation and tracing changes in attitude. They can also be used purely for graphic qualities. Costume is normally coordinated with setting. The colouring of costumes may stand out against the neutral background and draw attention to the characters etc. Computer technology has been used to graft virtual costumes onto fully computer-generated characters, such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.

 

Lighting: This shapes objects by creating highlights and shadows. Highlights can provide cues for the texture of a surface, and shadows can do the same by allowing objects to have portions of darkness. Lighting quality refers to the relative intensity of the illumination. Hard lighting creates clearly defined shadows, crisp textures and sharp edges, whereas soft lighting creates a diffused illumination. The direction of lighting in a shot refers to the path of light from its source or sources to the object lit. There is frontal lighting(recognized by its tendency to eliminate shadows), sidelight, backlighting(from behind subject and tends to create silhouettes, can also create a subtle contour when combined with frontal lighting), underlighting and top lighting.  Lighting can also be characterised by its source. In making a documentary, whatever light is available may be used. In a fictional film, however, extra light sources are normally used as the street lights and table lamps aren’t typically strong or varied enough. The key light is the primary source, providing the brightest illumination and casting the strongest shadows. A fill is a less intense illumination that ‘fills in’. The term Three point lighting refers to a technique characterised by: Key lighting on front of the actor, back light from behind and fill light from the side. This is most commonly used in films.

 

Staging: Acting(which makes up staging) consists of visual elements(appearance, gestures, facial expressions) and sound(voice, effects). This is often approached as a question of realism, although this is dependent on the time of filmmaking. Some films do not always appeal to realism however, such as comedies with situations that would never occur in real life. An actor’s expressions are extremely important, any blinking or eye movement may display surprise or even anxiety. Actors act with their body, therefore how a character walks, stands or sits conveys a great deal about their personality and attitude. Motion capture is when the whole body is filmed for computer generated imagery, whereas performance capture focuses on the face. How precise the actors expressions and movements need to be depends on the camera distance. Framing, editing and other film techniques all have an effect on how acting is portrayed.

 

Directors direct attention. The tools of mise-en-scene – setting, costume, lighting, performance, and staging- mesh together in each shot while unfolding on the screen in space and time. The filmmaker has to guide the audience’s attention to the important areas of the image using these tools. Mise-en-scene serves not simply to direct our attention to foreground elements but rather to create a dynamic relation between the foreground and the background.

This information has enabled me to see some of my favorite films and scenes in an entirely new light, such as the classic Jerry Maguire which utilises many facial expressions and body movements from its actors Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger.