Mise-En-Scene

Mise-en-scene is a French term and originates in the theatre. It means, literally, "put in the scene". Mise-en-scene is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story" - both in visually artful ways through direction. The term was brought into film by a group of French film critics in the 1950s, many of whom would become directors and constitute the French New Wave in the 1960s. One of these critics-turned-directors, François Truffaut, used the term negatively to describe the directors of the French "Tradition of Quality," the rather stodgy French films that appeared after World War II.
Mise-en-scene has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term". For film, it has a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself; framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design, and general visual enviroment, even sound as it helps elaborate the composition.


Mise-en-scene can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space. Cutting is about time; the shot is about what occurs in a defined area of space, bordered by the frame of the movie screen and determined by what the camera has been made to record. That space, the mise-en-scene can be unique, closed off by the frame or open providing the illusion of more space around it.

Mise-en-scène concerns the shot, though we need to keep in the back of our minds that editing—putting two shots together—affects not only how a film's narrative is structured but how the shots are subsequently understood by viewers.

Mise-en-scene includes:


1. The dominant which means where is the eye attracted first and why?
2. Lighting key. High key? Low key? High contrast? All of the above?
3. Shot & Camera Proxemics. What type of shot (Long Shot. Medium Shot, Close Up)? How far away is the camera?
4. Angle. High, low, or eye-level? What effect does this have?
5. Color values. What is the dominant color? Are there contrasting foils? Color symbolism?
6. Lens/Filter/Film Stock. How do these distort or comment on the scene?
7. Subsidiary contrasts. What are the main eye-stops as taking in the dominant.
8. Density. How much viual inofmration is packed into the image? Stark, moderate, or highly detailed?
9. Composition. How is 2-dimensional space segmented and organized? Is there an underlying design?
10. Form. Open or closed? Is the frame a window or a proscenium arch?
11. Framing. Tight or loose?
12. Depth. How many planes are in the image? Does the background or foreground comment on the midground?
13. Character placement. Center? Top? Bottom? Edges? WHY?
14. Staging positions. Which way do the characters look vis-a-vis teh camera?
15. Character proxemics.  How much space is there between the characters? What does that mean?


 This research on Mise-En-Scene helps me know about what I need to think about when me and my group are filming. I will need to think about the 15 questions above and answer them in my head when I think about filming. I think this will help me a lot because I can look more into each point and research more deeply into them. I think the most important thing about mise-en-scene is the lighting and the camera because this is what will effect what most people see. I will take this research back to my group and we can talk about how we are going to answer each of the questions when it comes to it.