MISE EN SCENE

According to Butler, mise-en-scene the staging of the action for the camera. All of the physical objects in
front of the camera and the arrangement of those objects by the director. The organization of setting,
costuming, lighting, and actor movement.

 Setting

Since the earliest days of cinema critics and audiences have understood that cinema setting is not only a
container for human events but can dynamically enter the narrative action. The filmmaker may control
setting in many ways: one way is to select an already existing place in which to stage action; on the other
hand filmmakers are used to construct the setting. We should remember, however, that realism in settings
is partly a matter of viewing conventions. What strikes us as realistic, might seem stylized to future
audiences.

A full size setting need not always be built. To save money or to create fantasy effects the filmmakers can
use miniature settings. Parts of the setting emay also be done as paintings which are then photographed to
combine with full size objects. The filmmaker may create props: when an object in the setting it is
motivated to operate actively within the ongoing action is called show prop.

 Costume and make-up

Like setting costume can have specific functions in the film. Different genres make extensive use of custom
props. Costume is often coordinated with setting. Make-up was originally necessary and up to the present it
has been used in various ways to enhance the appearance of actors and reproduce complete realism.

 Lighting

The impact of an image comes from its manipulation of lighting. Lighter and darker areas within the frame
help create the overall composition of each shot and that guide our attention to certain objects and
actions. Lighting shapes objects by creating highlights and shadows. There are two basic types of Shadows:
attached shadows or shading and cast shadows. Attached shadows occurs when light fails to illuminate
part of an object because the object shape or surface features. If a person stands in front of a candle part of
the face and body will fall into darkness. This phenomenon is shading or attached shadow but the candle
also projects a shadow on the wall behind: this is cast shadow, because the body blocks out the light.
Lighting also establishes a scale of importance emphasizing the protagonist by making him the most lit
element.

There are for major features in lighting: its quality, direction, source and colour.

Lighting quality refers to the relative intensity of the illumination: high lighting creates clearly defined
Shadows, whereas soft lighting created diffuse illumination.

The direction of lighting refers to the path of light from the source or sources to the object lit. We can
distinguish among frontal lighting, side lighting, backlighting and top lighting.

Frontal lighting can be recognised by its tendency to eliminate shadows. Backlighting comes from behind
the object. If used with no other sources of light applied tends to create silhouettes. When we use a narrow
line of light which makes the actor’s body stand out from the background we use a Edge lighting or rim
lighting. Underlighting suggests that the light comes from below the subject: it is often used to create
dramatic effects but it may also simply indicate a realistic light source such as a fireplace. If the light comes
from above we talk about top lighting.
Lighting can also be characterized by its source. Any object normally requires two light sources: a key light
is the primary source providing the dominant illumination; a fill light is a less intense illumination which
softens or eliminate Shadows cast by the key light. Classical Hollywood filmmaking developed the custom of
using at least three light sources: key light, fill light and backlight. The backlight comes from behind and
above the figures, the key light comes diagonally from the front and the fill light comes from a position near
the camera. 3-point lighting emerged during the studio era of Hollywood filmmaking and it is still widely
used.

These three point lighting system demands that the lamps be rearranged usually every time the camera
shifts to a new framing.

 Figure, expression and movement

The director may also control the behaviour of various figures. The word figures covers a wide range of
possibilities since the figure may represent a person but could also be an animal, robot and object or even a
pure shape. Although abstract shapes can become important, the most intuitively cases of figure
expression and movement are actors playing roles. An actors performance consists of visual elements
(appearance, gestures, facial expressions) and sound (voice, effects).

 Space

In cinema, our vision is attuned to changes of several kinds: movement, color differences, balance of
distinct components, variation in size. Our sensitivity to these changes allow the filmmaker to direct our
notice across the two-dimensional space of the frame.

 Colour

In the early days up to the 30s, Colour was used as a metaphorical storytelling device. Broken Blossoms
(1916) by D.W. Griffith showed how colour could separate different moments inside the film.

The filmmaker like the painter can also exploit principles of colour contrast to shape our sense of screen
space. Sometimes the filmmaker will treat colour design in terms of what painters called a limited palette:
this involves few no contrasting colours perhaps along with white, brown, grey and black. An extreme views
of the limited palette principle is sometimes called monochromatic colour design. Here the filmmaker
emphasises a single colour varied only in purity or lightness.

Key Elements To Colour

- Hue: actual colour

- Saturation: intensity (vibrant or faded pale)
- Value: low value (dark), high value (bright)
- Changing colours will change the tone of the film and hence the viewer’s reaction to it.
- Chance in colour will elicit different moods.
- When you throw in one colour that does not fit the scheme, you create discordance.

Use of Colour

- Associative: most of the time helps the spectator identify a character or certain character traits
- Transitional: change of colours show transitions, hence shifts in location, time or mood.

 Composition
Since the film shot is composed within a horizontal rectangle, the director usually takes care to balance the
left and right half of the screen. The extreme type of such balancing is bilateral symmetry. The simplest way
to achieve compositional balance is to centre the frame on the human body. Balanced composition is the
norm, but unbalanced shots tend to be edgier, to give a feeling of unease. The primal objective of film
composition is to accentuate the focal elements of a scene: to drive the audience’s attention toward
something (“what should the spectator look at’).

Composition aesthetic types:

 Static Framing: relying on Camera Angles, position, lens choice

 Mobile Framing: camera movement (simple or complex)

Mobile Framing

1. Actual Movements of Camera: pans, tilts, Dolly/tracking/traveling shots, Crane (and “boom” or jib)
shots, Hand-held and steadycam shots
2. Zooms, where Camera doesn’t move, but the frame changes as the lens focal length is changed:
Zoom In or Zoom Out.
3. Computer-generated shots: for ex: “fly-bys,” “rotations.” Computers, like traditional animation, can
potentially generate any movement.

 Rule of thirds

“Compositional rule of thumb in visual arts (painting, design) where an image is split into 9 equal parts,
horizontal and vertical and the framing follows that.

 Lenses

Wide angle lenses  from 9 to 75 mm  The wider the lens the stronger the distortion

Long lenses  From 50mm onwards. Compress the space. Objects that are lined up from background to
foreground, come closer . The longer the lens, the closer the object seems. The are used primarily in close-
ups and leave the background out of focus.

 Time

The filmmaker decides how long the shot will last on the screen. Within the confines of the shot’s duration
the director can control the rhythm of time as it unfolds. Rhythm involves at least a beat or pulse, a pace
(what musicians call tempo) and a pattern of accents or stronger or weaker beats.