Mise en scene booklet

Mise en scene booklet

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  MICRO ELEMENTS OFFILM : Part 4 What is Mise-En-Scene? Mise-en-scene is a French term which literally means everything that is ‘put into the scene’. Imagine a freeze-frame – all the elements that have been placed in front of the camera in that freeze-frame are elements of mise-en-scene. Mise-en-scene includes : SETTINGS DÉCOR PROPS LIGHTING COSTUME MAKE-UP COLOUR BODY LANGUAGE AND MOVEMENT The use of mise-en-scene elements encourages the viewer to ‘read’ a scene in a particular way. Your chosen film sequence will use these micro elements in order to generate specific meanings. Mise-en-scene can offer the viewer information and meanings connected to character, genre, atmosphere, mood, place, space and time. Elements of mise-en-scene may be repeated within a film; they may also change. You should identify carefully the elements that are constant and those that change and consider why the changes occur. READING A SCENE The mise en scene is vital in conveying information through ‘visual signifiers’ (things we see on screen). It is through the visual elements of the scene that we extract such meaning. Even when the film is mute (without sound) the setting, costume, props and body movement or gestures of the actors will tell us a lot. In silent cinema it was vital, with much emphasis on one particular aspect: body language. As a result, the performances in early cinema may seem over dramatic when compared to today’s filmmaking. MISE EN SCENE : ANALYSIS To analyse mise en scene, it helps to break it down into its component parts and to consider not only the surface information but also the deeper ‘symbolism’ of the imagery in the film. Setting The setting of a scene is crucial to our understanding of time and place. We can locate ourselves in a certain place, town, country, planet or even galaxy! The setting will convey basic information like time and date (present day or historic) and perhaps whether the characters are urban or rural (city ‘slickers’ or country ‘innocents’). It may convey isolation (horror) or claustrophobia (thriller) or it may indicate wealth, poverty or class as well as many other things. The information about the physical setting, which in a novel would be very detailed, with perhaps several pages being devoted to its description, has to, in film, be conveyed very quickly in visual language by skilled set designers and prop buyers who work alongside the director.
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  Settings within afilm can evoke many kinds of responses. They can mirror the emotions of a character, establish place and time, and offer information about themes within a film. The bright picket fences, well- kept lawns and neat houses of the setting for Sam Mendes’s American Beauty are too perfect and provide a picture-book surface for the dissatisfaction of the characters. Decor The room in which a scene occurs can add meaning to the event shown. The décor of a room (wallpaper, furniture and layout) can mirror a character’s psychological state. Norman Bates’s study in Hitchcock’s Psycho is full of old furniture and stuffed birds, the décor has no vitality, the room is almost mummified. In James Cameron’s Titanic, the different decks present the class differences between the passengers: the upper decks are opulent and expensively furnished while the rooms of the lower-deck passengers are simple and without luxury. Props The objects included in a scene are essential in the generation of meaning, giving information about genre, historical period or character. One of the ways in which we can identify the genre of a film is through the props used: in The Matrix (Wachowski brothers, 1999) space ships, futuristic weaponry and advanced computer systems all indicate that the genre is science fiction. Think about the props in the scene you have chosen and analyse what you can deduce from them. In a living room scene, the props could be anything from pictures on walls to flowers or curtains. These things can be cleverly used to convey elements of story or character. For instance, subtle props like dying flowers or fading curtains may fit with the theme of change within a story or a state of mind of the character. It is important to understand that with mise en scene, nothing in the scene is accidental. Everything in the scene is deliberate and relevant. Therefore in an analysis of settings and props, careful attention to detail is necessary. Furthermore, always think how the details of the mise en scene add ‘depth’ to the film by symbolising that which is often not outwardly expressed; the themes. Body Language and Movement Body language, movement, posture and poise of the actors can give us a significant amount of information. We can read from this much about the character without any dialogue. The way the character walks, stands and performs facial expressions are all relevant. Even the physical stature of a character will be significant. Q. How is body language being used to give us information about the characters ?
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  Costume (including hairand make-up) The way a character is dressed is one of the most important signifiers for the audience. As in real life, there are associations made with different kinds of dress and these are utilised both stereotypically and atypically in filmmaking. Not only can costume indicate time period but certain ‘uniforms’ are also indicators of character. The geek, the office worker, the tramp, the gangster, the police officer, even the alien will all have identifiable ‘costume’. The level to which these costumes are customised to fit the individual role is varied and hence each film has to be considered on its own merit. There may be a key element of costume, which is synonymous with the character, such as a certain hat or a jacket, or there may be certain colours that are associated with that character or characters (in westerns it was typical for the good cowboy to wear white and the villain to wear black). Hair and make-up are also significant in defining a character. Apart from taking a great deal of time casting a part, film-makers will often then ask that actor to change their hair according to the role. This can range from Demi Moore actually shaving her head in GI Jane (Scott, 1997) or dying hair a different colour, to wearing wigs to achieve the desired effect. Sometimes the hairstyle of the character will change throughout the course of a film to indicate the development of a character, and along with setting and costume can indicate the era or the passing of time. Make up is used in most filmmaking but is more significant in certain types of films than others. For example, horror films, fantasy and science fiction utilise it a lot to create imaginary characters. The use of prosthetics to utterly change the look of an actor into an alien, zombie or superhero is commonplace. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Jackson, 2001) has many examples of this and along with a diverse range of costumes succeeds in creating a whole new world for us. The mise en scene in a film like this (fantasy) is therefore not only creative but also vital in the film’s success, as we have no cultural references to relate to unless you have ever been to Middle Earth or met hobbits! The costumes are important in the creation of historical time, characters’ state of mind and status, and in the generation of place. The different clothes worn in each of the stories within Stephen Daldry’s The Hours, for example, clearly define the time periods as the 1920s, the 1940s and the 1990s. Changes in costume for a particular character during a film can indicate anything from a change in fortunes to a shift in political affiliations. Julia Robert’s costume shift in Pretty Woman, for example, carries particular meanings and signals her character’s transition from street-hustling prostitute to tycoon’s girlfriend. Within this kind of Cinderella story, the shedding of one set of clothes for another signals a change in social status and, perhaps, of attitude. Comedy often also makes good use of make-up along with visual special effects (a subsidiary of cinematography and editing), and this can succeed in making characters likeable or funny. An example of creative make up in comedy may be Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor (Shadyac, 1996), or Jim Carrey in The Mask (Russell, 1994), where much of the comedy is visual and relies on a skilled make-up department in conjunction with special effects. Make-up is an essential tool for all actors but it can also be used to generate particular meanings. Tom Hank’s make-up in Philadelphia shows us the physical ravages of AIDS and adds to our sympathy for his plight. The make-up and prosthetics worn by Willem Defoe as the
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  Green Goblin inSam Raimi’s Spiderman are grotesque and frightening: we are left in no doubt that he is the villain within this narrative. Only when all the elements of mise en scene are considered and combined with the other cinematic codes can we gain a full and in-depth analysis of the meanings created by the filmmaker.