Mise-en-scene

• Identify elements of mise-en-scene • Apply knowledge to a variety of still images • Demonstrate an understanding of how mise-

en-scene creates an overall impression.

Activity

Draw a house and make it look nice and inviting.

Now draw a different house and make it look scary and threatening.

What techniques did you use to make you houses look different?

Changing Perspective

It’s easy to change the audience’s perspective on something by changing:

• Camera angle

• Location

• Colour

• Lighting

Some of these elements are called ‘mise-en-scene’.

A new term for your glossary

Mise-en-scene

It means ‘everything in the frame’ and refers to lighting, props, costume, location and make-up.

Settings & Props • Settings & Locations play an important part in film-making

and are not just ‘backgrounds’ • Sets are either built from scratch or a great deal of time is

spent to find a setting which already exists • Settings can manipulate an audience by building certain

expectations

Costume, Hair & Make Up

• Costume, Hair & Make Up act as an instant indicator to us of a character’s personality, status & job

• It tells us immediately whether the film is set in the present

and what society/or culture it will centre around

• Certain costumes can signify certain individuals (i.e. black cloak of a vampire, Spidey’s Spiderman suit)

• Task How would you dress the following types of characters 1. A Geek 2. A ‘barbie girl’ 3. An goth

This stereotypical image of a ______ illustrates how important mise-en-scene is. It especially demonstrates how audiences judge people based on their costume, make-up and props.

Facial Expressions & Body Language

• Facial Expressions provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling

• If someone is smiling broadly, we assume they are happy but

we may get a different feeling if this is accompanied by scary music

• Body Language may also indicate how a character feels

towards another character or may reflect the state of their relationship

• TASK: What meanings/emotions do the following images convey:

IMAGE 1

IMAGE 2

IMAGE 3

Positioning of Characters & Objects within a frame

• Positioning within a frame can draw our attention to an important character/object

• A film-maker can use positioning to indicate relationships between people

• TASK: What does the positioning in the following images reveal about the characters/film:

IMAGE 1

IMAGE 2

IMAGE 3

Lighting & Colour

Lighting & Colour can be used to achieve a variety of effects:

• To highlight important characters or objects within the frame

• To make characters look mysterious by shading sections of the face & body

• To reflect a characters mental state/hidden emotions (i.e. bright = happy, dark = disturbed, strobe effect = confused

Unconventional mise-en-scene

It’s easy to see how important mise-en-scene is to a media text by swapping it for something else.

For example…

• Someone trying to stab someone…with a sandwich (props)

• A dog sitting in an armchair like a human (location)

• An old man wearing a tutu (costume)

Carousel Each pair has a number. In pairs, visit the different stills around the room and label it with things you notice about each picture. You need to write: • what the denotation is • what the connotation is • what the audience might think about your part of the

image 1’s location & props 2’s costume, hair & make-up 3’s facial expressions & body language 4’s positioning in the frame (plus camera angles) 5’s lighting & colour

An example

What could you say about this image?

Use the spider and what you have learnt from this lesson to write 2 paragraphs on the following image…

Firstly when looking at the mise-en-scene of this image I notice the… (pick an element). It gives the audience an idea about… (who/what/where/when)

Use the spider and what you have learnt from this lesson to write 2 paragraphs on the following image…

Firstly when looking at the mise-en-scene of this image I notice the… (pick an element). It gives the audience an idea about… (who/what/where/when)

Use the spider and what you have learnt from this lesson to write 2 paragraphs on the following image…

Firstly when looking at the mise-en-scene of this image I notice the… (pick an element). It gives the audience an idea about… (who/what/where/when)