Week 4：Mise-en-Scène

What is Mise-en-Scène?

• A French term meaning what is put into a scene or frame
• Visual information in front of the camera
• Communicates essential information to the audience
• made up of various elements 

Elements of Mise-en-Scène

1. Settings & Props
2. Costume, Hair & Make Up
3. Facial Expressions & Body Language
4. Lighting and Colour
5. Positioning of characters/objects within the frame

1. Settings and Props

• Settings & Location plays an important part in film and animation.
• 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 and then taking a different turn

2. Costume, hair & make-up

Costume, Hair, and Makeup act as an instant indicator to us of a character’s personality, status, and job.

3. Facial Expressions & Body Language

• Facial Expressions provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling
• Body Language may also indicate how a character feels towards another character or may reflect the state of their relationship

4. Positioning of Characters & Objects within a frame

• Positioning within a frame can draw our attention to an important character/object
• An animator can use positioning to indicate relationships between people

5. 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.

Low Key Lighting

• Created by using only the key & back lights
• Produces sharp contrasts of light and dark areas
• Deep, distinct shadows/silhoue ttes are formed

High contrast lighting

• More filler lights are used. Lighting is natural and realistic to our eyes
• Produces brightly lit sets or a sunny day (right)

Natural lighting

Colour and Film:

Depth-of-field

The distance from the near to the farthest that objects are in focus.

Deep Focus

Use of the camera lens and lighting so that both close and distant planes are shown in sharp focus. This technique allows the filmmaker to emphasize a character or object that appears far away.

Shallow Focus

9 Types of Shot

• Extreme close-up

• Close Up（CU）

• Medium Close-Up（MCU）

• Mid-Shot（MS）

• Long Shot

• Extreme long shot

• A one-shot

• A two-shot

• A group shot

• High angle shot

• Low angle shot

• Point of View Shot (POV)

• Moving Shots