SCF Inc.

Understanding Mise-En-Scene - Max

Mise-En-Scene is a media term for what a camera shot consists of. For example; shot type (long shot & close up), lighting, props, make up, character positioning, costume, setting and framing. These are all used in a particular fashion to create a certain idea or message for the audience to understand more about the characters, situation and overall story. 

The article expresses the importance of Mise-en-scene concepts such as colours and props. For example the 1960's version of the Batman series is made to look in a particular way and address a certain target audience. It is clear that this series of Batman is that it's a light hearted comic series aimed at appealing towards children. This is clear to see from the brightly used colours and ridiculous costuming as it holds no sense of realism and it coveys joyful emotions from the colours. The props had also been made to look extravagant by the size and the positioning of them. They had all been arranged so they were close to each other, again this does not show realism which would appeal to a older target audience. The setting was 2-D and the lighting was used to show positive or negative feelings towards certain characters in a theatrical way. This shows the 1960's series as cheap and amateur. Christopher Nolan's Batman however showed the opposite to the above. The colours related to the situation and so did the costuming. The image shows that Batman is wearing prison attire which is torn and the colours are grim; this adds a sense of realism which appeals to an older target audience. 

From this my group can learn that the use of Mise-en-scene such as lighting and props needs to be thought out carefully with a full understanding of how we would like our target audience to feel. Realism is the real aim of our work as it appeals to our target audience of teens and young adults so lighting has to be used in a professional level to make sure it doesn't come across as theatrical and childish whilst remaining effective at showing off character atmosphere. For example darkness for antagonist and light for protagonist. Our use of costuming also has to be thought of carefully as we would want the audience to infer personalities from costuming only and develop on them thoughts. We could even use a red herring to throw the audience off and keep the film interesting.