Mise-en-scene information

•What is Mise-en-Scène?

•Mise-en-scène translates as “putting into the scene ”

•Includes those aspects of film that overlap with the art of the theater

–Setting

–Lighting

–Costume

–The behavior of the figures

qWhen controlling the mise-en-scène, the director stages the event for the camera.

qThough the mise-en-scène requires some planning, the filmmaker may be open to unplanned events as well.

•Mise-en-scène and realism

•The mise-en-scène of a film is so often judged by standards of realism.

• A car might seem realistic for the time period being depicted or the gesture a character makes may not seem realistic because “real people don’t act that way.”

•Because of this, it is best to examine the function of mise-en-scène in a film.

•One film might seek to create an impression of realism with its mise-en-scène, another might seek entirely different effects, such as comic exaggeration, supernatural terror or understated beauty.

•The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

•The Power of Mise-en-Scène

•Setting

•Costume & Makeup

•Lighting

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•Setting

•Must not only be a container of human action, but can dynamically enter the narrative action.

•The director can control setting in many ways.

–Selecting an already existing locale

–Or he may construct the setting and duplicate it on a soundstage.

–Colors may be used to create parallels among elements of setting.

•Costume & Makeup

•Costume can have specific functions in the total film.

•Color, texture and movements can all be carefully orchestrated.

•They have motivic and causal roles in narratives.(Dracula and Ivan the Terrible)

•Costume often coordinates with setting.

•Makeup

•Like costume, makeup is a closely related area of mise-en-scène.

–Accents expressive qualities of the actors face.

–The makeup artist can use blush and shadow to sculpt the face.

–Eyeliner and mascara draw attention to the eyes and emphasize direction of a glance.

•Lighting

•Manipulation of lighting has a large impact on the image.

•Lighter and darker areas within the frame help create the overall composition of each shot and guide our attention to certain objects and actions.

•Bright areas direct attention to key gestures while dark shadows build suspense.

•Highlighting and Shadows

•Highlighting

–A patch of relative brightness on a surface.

–Provide important cues to the texture of the surface.

•Shadows

–Attached

oLight fails to illuminate part of an object because of its shape or surface features.

–Cast

oA shadow projected when a person’s body blocks light (the shadow on a wall when a person sits by candlelight).

•Types of Lighting

•Frontal lighting

–A tendency to eliminate shadows

•Backlighting

•Lighting coming from behind the subject being filmed.

•Underlighting

•The light is coming from below the subject.

Top lighting

-The spotlight shines down from someone’s face.

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•Kinds of Lighting continued

•Subjects normally require two light sources: a key light and a fill light.

-Key light: The primary source, providing the dominant illumination and casting the strongest shadows.

-Most directional

-Corresponds to motivating light source of setting.

-Fill light: Less intense illumination that « fills in », softening or eliminating shadows cast by the fill light.

-Three point lighting: Creates volume, not flatness, illuminating the most important figure.

•High-key and Low-key lighting

•High-key lighting:

–Refers to an overall lighting design that uses fill light and backlight to create low contrst between brighter and darker areas.

•-Light quality is soft and shadows appear transparent.

•Low-key illumination: Creates stronger contrasts and sharper, darker shadows.

•-Often the lighting is hard and fill light is lessened or eliminated altogether.

•The effect is chiaroscuro, or extremely dark and light regions within the image.

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