Mise-En-Scene

                                          Mise-en-scene

Everything you see in a film is mise-en-scene. If you're watching a movie, whatever your eyes may lay on is a part of the mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene is comprised of two key components:

Design:

The makeup of the characters, their costumes and how they perform, and the overall look and feel of the setting along with the lighting and props.

Composition:

The arrangement of objects and how they're organized with the frame.

What mise-en-scene creates

Viewing these two components allowed us to pick apart a shot to better understand what's going on and what the intended feel may be.

For instance, when looking at this image you can pick apart many things that are going on in the frame. Firstly, looking at component 1; a design we can see that the character appears to be wearing a red dress which is closely related to the romantic comedy genre. We can also see the two characters have a light shined on them letting us know they are the main focus and or important to the scene.

How we use mise-en-scene

Understanding what each little thing on-screen represents is essential to having a better understanding of the purpose of the film. You can do this by separating everything you see into sections then analyzing how it made you feel. This way, everything is broken down simply so you're able to connect everything like a puzzle. In my media studies class, we recently did this by analyzing a movie scene.

What mise-en-scene has done for me

At first, I was skeptical of the relevance of mise-en-scene. I didn't quite grasp why it was important. Once we started our mini project in class that required us to use the elements of mise-en-scene to create an image I started to notice how important each detail was. Before learning about mise-en-scene I just assumed props were there too well.. be props.. I didn't notice until after studying mise-en-scene that each prop contributes to the meaning of some sort. Personally, I wanna learn more about mise-en-scene so I can every element correct in projects soon to come in the future.