VV 301 – FILM STUDIESMISE EN SCENE

Prepared by:

WAN FARHANAH BINTI WAN ISMAIL

(PTSS, 2012)

DEFINITION OF MISE EN SCENE

� a French term for "staging" or "putting into the scene or shot“

� in film theory, it refers to all the elements placed (by the director) before the camera and within the frame of the film -- including their visual frame of the film -- including their visual arrangement and composition;

� elements include settings, decor, props, actors, costumes, makeup, lighting, performances, and character movements and positioning

� (there are no static elements for mise en scene but the stated elements above are the common ones)

ELEMENTS OF MISE EN SCENE

ELEMENTS OF MISE EN SCENE

performanceperformance

framing and compositionframing and composition

propsprops

setting and décor

setting and décor

colourcolour

miseen

scene

miseen

scene

lightinglighting costumecostume

How do these different elements interact with one another?

LIGHTING

direction source

LIGHTING DIRECTION (1)

frontal lighting

side lighting (cross lighting)

LIGHTING DIRECTION (2)

top lightingunder lighting

LIGHTING DIRECTION (3)

backlighting

LIGHTING SOURCE (1): THREE POINT LIGHTING

LIGHTING SOURCE (2): NATURAL LIGHTING

greater realism

expert cinematographerscan use natural lighting expressively

the ‘magic hour’

LIGHTING SCHEMES

low-key lighting

high-key lighting

PERFORMANCE

actors construct characters by using their voices and bodies

acting ‘signs’ can include: body, gesture, posture,movement, make-up, costume, voice (tone, accent, delivery etc)

performance and verisimilitude

performance and other aspectsof film language

what makes a performance realistic?

of film language

how do the use of camera, editing and sound influence an actor’s performance?

COMPOSITION AND FRAMING

arrangement of actorsand objects…

…in relation to one another

…in relation to the sides of the frame

FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND

SYMMETRY AND ASYMMETRY

BLOCKING

PROPS

as a thematic motif

as part of star persona

as MacGuffin

LOOKING AT SETTING AND DECOR

what is the role of the production designer?

do they try to reflect the real

is the set design invisible or visible?

or do they invent a new world?

the real world? new world?

can the setting be considered a character?

KEY FUNCTIONS OF SET DESIGN

expresses emotionalstates

connotes fantasy

recreates the past

connotes fantasy

reinforcescharacterisation

generatesatmosphere

LOCATION SHOOTING

location or studio?

location as marker of authenticity

Italian Neorealism

French New Wave

Contemporary TV crime drama

CINEMATIC LANDSCAPES

landscape and national identity

landscape and genre

CINEMATIC CITIES

city as labyrinthcity as labyrinth

city as territory

city as freedom

STUDIO AS LANDSCAPE: THE MATTE SHOT

a matte shot is where different areas of image are photographedseparately and combined during

post-production

COLOUR AND FILM STOCK

first Eastmancolorfilm: Royal Journey (Bairstow, 1951)

first Technicolor film:Becky Sharp (Mamoulian, 1935)

Soviet film stock

COLOUR AND REALISM

unlike sound, adoption of colour was a gradual process

colour was ‘inauthentic’ and connoted excess and spectacle

INTERPRETING COLOUR

depends on cultural context

meaning is unstable

colours createthematic contrast

filters used to create a melancholycolour scheme

colours can evokethe past

FUNCTIONS OF COSTUME

creates contrastbetween characters

constructs character

signals transformation

between characters

COSTUME AND IDENTITY

fashion and identification

costume as ‘spectacle’