Mise-en-scene.

Mise-en-scene is a French term meaning 'in the scene or frame'.Film makers have borrowed the term and have extended the meaning to suggest the control the director has over the visual elements within the film image

The elements of mise-en-scene are:

1. Settings/props
2. costume,hair&make-up
3. Facial expressions&body language.
4. lighting and colour
5. positioning of characters and objects in the frame

 Setting..

The Setting in a movie creates both a sense of belonging and atmosphere. It may also imitate a character’s emotional state of mind. The setting can differ in movies depending on how the director wants the setting to be portrayed. Usually the main types of setting are based entirely fictitious within a studio or either as a realistic, genuine re-construction of reality or as a quirky narrative. But on the other hand it may also be filmed and found on the location. In the image below taken out of the thriller ‘taken’ the setting is based in a small village in Albania (which is the location).

High-Key Lighting

High-key lighting is a style of lighting for film, television, or photography that aims to reduce the lighting ratio present in the scene.High-key lighting revolves around fill lighting  to be increased to near the same level as the key lighting. The scene appears very bright and soft with rarely no shadows shown in the scene. High key lighting is used in mostly the musical and comedy genre because the mood and atmosphere within the scene is often very bright and happy which reflects off the lighting. The lighting can create a mood and atmosphere which the audience can feel whilst watching it. For instance in the wizard of oz a comedy/musical the lighting was really heavy and most scenes were shot in high key lighting which we can see below.

Low-Key Lighting

Low-key lighting is the opposite of the high-key lighting, because in low-key the fill light is at a very low level, causing the frame to be cast with large shadows. This causes harsh, bleak contrasts amongst the darker and lighter parts of the shot, and for the man purpose of the shot to be hidden behind in the shadows. This lighting style is most effective in film such as thriller productions and gangster films, as a very dark and mysterious atmosphere is created from this murky light.

 Facial expression/body language

In a film the camera can be at a range of distances and angles to portray the actor in different types of shots for instance an extreme close up, or as a dot in the distance through the use of a long shot. The variety of shots mean at different lengths  that different emphasis's will be placed on facial expressions and body language to accurately convey the correct type of shot. Depending on what the film maker wants to portray will effect the facial expression of the character. The way in which the characters hold and move their body indicates how they feel and think. Not everyone portray the same body language but things which we will normally recognise but the majority of body movements actors frame, the audience will get.

colour

The first use of colour was seen in films for instance' voyage a Travers L'impossible' which was in 1904.in this film they painted each frame by hand onto little tapes. In 1925 the next development was introduced in a two strip Technicolor using only red and green. One of the examples shown using this is in 'the mystery of the wax museum'(1933).

From the 1930's to 1940's black and white represented reality and colour represented the fantasy&spectacle life. Nowadays it’s the opposite. Also in the 1930’s which were during the great depression the colour was sepia.