Language of Filmmaking

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Part 2: Mise-en-scene

The true strength of the shot comes from the placement on the stage, the look of the film (known as Mise-en-scene).

My information came from this source, they are not my own words.

Setting

  • Indoor/ outside
  • A real place or a set.
  • Composited on the greenscreen.

Set Dressing

Then, one the location is chosen, it gets filled with objects then actors. The objects that are not used by actors are called set dressing. Ones used by actors are called props. Objects can serve as exposition, they show age, meaning or character etc. Even dust or water counts.

Costume

The audience receives so much information just from the costume about the character or the situation. They start telling the story even before the camera starts shooting.

Lighting

An imperative part of film: Lighting.

Three-point lighting is the common. The key light serves as the main source of light in the scene. The fill light which fills in the shadows created by the key light. The back light, this lights the back of the subjects, separating them from the background.

There are so many other ways to light a scene artificially or naturally. And all of these elements must be considered when creating the scene.

There is high-key lighting which is bright lights, strong colours, strong key and fill lights.

High-key lighting example from Alice in Wonderland.

In comparison, in low-key lighting the lights are darker, weak fill and weak fill, but a strong to enhance the character from behind. Here the mood will shift accordingly, it may be more foreboding or simply sombre.

Low-key lighting from Assassin’s Creed film.

The lighting does not determine that the mood will be negative, but it does help to set it.

Types or lighting:

  • Hard lighting (bright, hard key lights that create hard shadows).
  • Soft lighting (lights diffuse through a filter, romantic effect).
  • Ambient lighting (natural lighting there in the scene).
  • Unmotivated lighting (could be two sources of light- which is unnatural but still fits the scene).
  • Motivated lighting (where the lighting is an element of the scene itself e.g. swinging hanging light).
  • Black and white vs colour (the chose between the two for the whole movie or only part).
  • Tinting (early version of coloured film where the a black and white film is tinted a certain colour).
  • Sepia tone (one of the most famous tints- dusty look).
  • Colour film.
  • Colour grading (layers of coloured tinting and editing, a film’s colour is selectively adjusted for a distinctive look for each stage).
  • Saturation (can change mood).
  • Colour Pallet (the dominant colours in a shot, this can be broad/overall or it can be selective by giving one colour dominance).

Space

The type of space can be:

  • Symmetrical
  • Asymmetrical
  • Round
  • Linear
  • Expansive
  • Cramped
  • Busy
  • Deceptively simple
  • etc.

There are thousands of ways to set up a shot.

  • Balance (determines where the weight is in the frame).
  • Deep space (the stage sets elements far and near the camera).
  • Shallow space (flat or no depth, emphasising the closeness of the subjects and background objects).
  • Offscreen space (the scene draws attention to something out of the frame). A mirror counts, or even a character looking at something out of the frame.
  • Blocking (all of the movements an actor makes in a scene).

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