Week4: Visual culture & Note

SUMMARY: What is Mise-en-Scène?

Mise-en-Scène refers to the placement of a scene in front of the camera or on stage in a theatrical production. The term is borrowed from a French theatrical expression, meaning roughly “put into the scene”.  In other words, mise-en-scène describes the stuff in the frame and the way it is shown and arranged. And Mise en scène creates a sense of place for the audience whether they realize it or not. It does so by using: setting, costume, lighting and movement of figures.

Setting: Set design refers to everything the audience sees within a particular scene. These details help build out the world of the location and add even more context to the story.

Costumes: Costumes are the clothes actors wear and how they’re tailored to fit them. For costumes to be effective, a costume designer must know which colors look right on a character and then reconcile this with the colors suited to the actor playing the part and the color palette of the production design.

Figure Behavior: Where an actor is arranged, and if, when, and how an actor moves in the scene, all highlight the reason for the scene itself.

Lighting: Lighting is often the tool that conveys mood most clearly. High-key lighting, often used in musicals and romantic comedies, relies on hard light to minimize shadows. Low-key lighting, often used in horror movies, features a high-contrast lighting pattern to both brighten and darken parts of the frame.

Research Activity 1

Settings & Props: The first shot shows the story taking place in a chemistry laboratory and a very large number of sophisticated chemical props are placed in the scene.

Costume, Hair & Make Up: For the first two characters, the fox on the left of the camera is the only one dressed in white in the laboratory, so he is portrayed as more of a ‘smart guy’, and his eyes are so slanted that he gives the impression of being mean. The female fox on the right of the shot wearing a floral dress looks out of place in this scene, but of course, the character is an assistant. The next two characters to appear are a guinea pig in short sleeves and another fox. This guinea pig in a jersey in the lab is clearly not a smart character. The fox in the short-sleeved shirt with the round blue eyes would be more like the hero of the story.

Facial Expressions & Body Language: The first male fox will have a much less friendly facial expression and his body language will be more aggressive. The facial expressions of the female and the second male fox are tinged with more curiosity about each other.The guinea pig’s body language is much more gregarious and seemingly naive.

Lighting and Colour: Warm tones throughout the film.

Positioning of characters/objects within the frame: All medium shots used in the short film.Because the main highlights are the facial expressions and body language of the characters. It also leaves the audience with more to imagine.

What role does the shot choice (Cinematography) play in the scene: Makes character differences between characters more apparent. A third point of view that gives the audience a sense of involvement in the story.

Research Activity 2

The scene is supposed to be a hotel and the relationship between these two characters is somewhat subtle, the two have numb expressions, the woman has her arms over her chest, an uncomfortable body language, while the man looks as if he is relaxed, but his hand near the woman’s side is uncomfortably withdrawn

The picture shows a symmetrical scene, the symmetry is more accessible to the viewer and the presence of a central point makes the focus clear at a glance. Symmetry is very easy to create tension or comic effect.

Research Activity 3

The character in the light-coloured dress is seated, being looked down upon by the woman in black. The woman in black looks like a very prominent housekeeper in an aristocratic mansion, the character in the light-coloured dress is more like a guest, so the guest appears more Uncomfortable.

Can you describe the mise-en-scene in this picture?

The hijab of the heroine and one of the men around her, showing that this is probably in a market in the Middle East

What type of shot is it?

Medium shot

What is the camera angle?

Eye Level Shot

Where is the character located in the frame?

Middle of the frame

What is she wearing?

Headscarf

What is the depth-of-field?

Depth of field is the distance between the closest and farthest objects in a photo. The depth of field in this image is moderately shallow because the mountains in the distance are defocused.

Describe the colour palette?

Greyish in tone

Describe the lighting?

Warm light，Light from the left