Chapter 5 Mise-En-Scene

Mise-en-scene involves 'setting', 'lighting', 'costume',  'make-up' and 'the behavior of the figures' (the art of the theater).  It is the director's staging of the event.  It is everything you see on the screen.  In our reading of a film, we need to pay attetion to the functions of mise-en-scene (163-64).

Lighting is a very important aspect of mise-en-scene.  We normally notice the shadows first.  There are two basic kinds of shadows: 1) attached shadow or shading and 2) cast shadow (171).  Shadows create special senses of film space (e.g., depth and volume as discussed on page 186) .

Lighting can be discussed in terms of its quality, direction, source, and color.  Hard lighting creates  clear shadows, while soft lighting doesn't.  The directions of lighting-- frontal lighting, sidelighting, backlighting, and underlighting--also give very different effects, such as silhouette or sense of horror (172-73),  Edge lighting or rim lighting put the figures in focus.  Three-point lighting--frontal key light, back light, and fill light to get rid of shadows (See the diagram on page 174)-- is widely used in Hollywood films.  Basically, it's what we call 'high-key lighting', which is meant to render a brightly lit situation, not contrast as low-key lighting is used (such as in 'films noirs' or many art films).

There are two basic aspects of acting: it can be individualized or stylized.  Individualized performance means the actor brings in his or her own individual characteristics to make the acting unique.  However, many films, such as comedy, require that the actor or actress to follow the certain traditions of styles (like grotesque and exagerated performance in a screwball comedy, or in the so-called 'type casting' which looks for certain types of acting ).  The acting then has to be highly stylized (179-80).

Mise-en-scene in space and time directs our attention to certain aspects of a film while we watch.  We notice the use of color (such as the difference between warm colors and cool colors), depth of the plane, the relations between the foreground and the background (such as aerial perspective, size diminution, or liniar perspective), and the figures' movement.