Mise-En-Scene

MISE-EN-SCENE [DR STRANGELOVE(1963)]

Mise-en-scene

(pronounced `Meez-ahn-sen') Mise-en-scene is a concept that was transposed from the theatre, where it meant that the director took into account everything that appeared on the stage; he took into account the effect of everything that appeared in the 'frame' of onstage space. These elements had to further the purpose and function of the play. So too in film. Generally there is nothing in a film frame that is not meant to be there, that is not planned. So elements of the frame have a purpose in the act of constructing the meanings in a film.

Mise-en-scene is a huge topic, and this module will not cover it all. I will especially not go into lighting in great detail. Nevertheless, it is important and you should examine Bordwell and Thompson's section on lighting, as well as everything else of course (152-157).

Mise-en-scene are those elements that appear in the film frame as decided by the director. The term is theatrical and includes those elements associated with theatre: lighting, setting, costume, behaviour of actors. Mise-en-scene includes everything we see and the construction of that. In Birth of a Nation we saw scenes of battle that were constructed that mobilised feelings of loss-the tragedy of war as Griffiths called it. In Destination Moon a certain set of threads in the web of meanings is enlivened by scenes of a factory building `airliners'.

Mise-en-scene is a strategy the filmmaker uses to create a world, a world of both space, time and narrative.

Melies was perhaps the first exponent of control over mise-en-scene. He controlled, and constructed, every element that was to appear in the frame.

SIX ELEMENTS OF MISE-EN-SCENE The six elements that combine to construct mise-en-scene are these:

Setting

Costume and make-up

Lighting

Actor's expression and movement

Screen space

Time

Setting In theatre, the character is all important. Rarely is the stage empty of characters. In film there are many scenes where the screen is empty of character and where that emptiness mobilises and moves the narrative. Can you think of any? Were there any in DR STRANGELOVE?

Filmmakers may use existing settings or construct them. To some, realism, or verisimilitude, is important. Historical accuracy can generally only be constructed; historical accuracy does not exist in existing locations. I have a document I'll put on the server about verisimilitude in APOLLO 13.

Costume and make-up Costume and make-up are fairly obvious examples of how the filmmaker controls events and stages the movement of the narrative, at the same time influencing the audience's understanding of events and attitudes. Both make-up and costume may aim for complete realism, or they may aim for complete fantasy, as in many horror and science fiction films. In these films the use of costume and make-up is designed to make real the unreal; it is to recreate a reality.

Lighting In film lighting is one of the most powerful elements in mise-en-scene. Lighting makes us look in specific places. Lighting is textual in that it can create many images, many meanings.

Features of film lighting are quality, direction, source and colour.

quality

Hard lighting from one or more points creates shadows, and suggests harshness. Soft lighting suggests mellowness, although these aspects, like all these elements, never work on their own, but are always combined into a number of threads that have inter-relations with each other.

direction

I've mentioned quality above, in hard and soft lighting. But meanings are also constructed by the direction of the light. Think about, and find out about, the rattling of the threads of reality that occur when lighting comes from these directions: frontal lighting,