CONTEXTUAL STUDIES - MISE-EN-SCENE

Interesting fact

Melies, was fascinated by the work by the Lumieres Brother (Film clip as above) so he went on to film everyday life, one day his camera got jammed whilst a bus was passing, when it came on a hearse was passing by, he loved this idea of the transformation and used this to set the stage for his fantasy films.

A great example of Mise-En-Scene 

MISE-EN-SCENE , By my own interpretation Mise -en-Scene is for the director/writer to capture the essence of the world the story teller has created by using the 4 elements (As Described Below).

There are 4 general areas of Mise-En-Scene these are as followed:

QUOTE BY ANDRE BAZIN :

'The Human being is all-important in the theatre. The drama on the scene can connect without actors.

A banging on the door, a leaf in the wind, waves beating on the shore can heighten the dramatic effect. Some film masterpieces use man only as an accessory, like an extra, or in a counterpoint to nature, which is the true leading character'

SETTINGS - The settings is essential to the feel of the movie/tv project - what is on the set/location and key elements such as props and lighting.

COSTUME AND MAKE - UP -  Also a key part of a project  - Costume and make-up is used differently by film/tv creators to have there own interpretations of the look in which they are going for below is an example of a scene from 'Young ones' a 1980's slap stick comedy about 4 housemates living in a dingy flat in London, without even watching the show, just by looking at the costumes and make up we can already make our own interpretations of what there characters may be. TAKE A LOOK.

LIGHTING - There are 4 major aspects of lighting

1. QUALITY
2. DIRECTION
3. SOURCE
4. COLOR 

lighting creates not only texture but also the overall shape.

• Highlights and Shadows - A highlight is a patch of relative brightness on a surface, shadows allow the allow objects to have portions of darkness as well as working the same as a highlight.
• Frontal Lighting is used to eliminate shadows.
• Backlighting is used from behind and can be used in various different angles.
• Underlighting comes from below the subject often used to create horror effects.

The three-point lighting system is used to create one focal point , several lights can be moved to create different shots but still focusing on the main subject, often using a backlight, fill and key, with the camera off to the right of the key.

STAGING: MOVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE - The performer is the subject to be apart of the whole Mise en-scene.

Overall there are many elements that go into Mise en-scene - it has been interesting and also mind blowing that there is so much to look at when creating the overall feel for each scene using , lighting , settings, props, camera angles and performers. 

This subject is very vast and as things change in film/tv all the time the options are endless for using different technics on a project.