Understanding and Using Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-Scene is a French expression for "put into the scene". It's everything that the audience can see on screen which consists of the most known features. This can be broken down into categories: costume, location, setting, scenery, props, lighting, actors and framing.

I have learnt from this article the importance of MES in a movie as every single aspect can make a big difference when clearly thought through.
The first example in the article compares a Batman movie from 1960's and one from 2012, I can see how clear the difference is from the two movies from MES as firstly the colours are very different. In the 1960's version it's more brightly coloured which suggests its more light-hearted, childish and more related to the comic books. The bright colours takes away the seriousness that a thriller would have but from this the audience can already guess what kind of feel they'll see in the film. Also, the setting is much more cramped and small which suggests it was cheaply made, and the tights Batman and Robin wear again gives off the childish and cartoon feel.

However, in the 2012 version the location and setting in the prison is huge and looks like it was shot in a real prison, which instantly should tell you that it's more serious and realistic than the older version. The colour used is much darker and grainy like blacks and greys, with plenty of shadowing which adds to the typical creepy thriller theme. The costumes like Batman's are more detailed and tougher looking, adding to the scary and serious tone and the framing of the characters is definitely more studied as a less important character is in the background, unfocused whereas Bruce is closer and clearer.

The next example in the article is of the movie Submarine (2010) which tells you a lot about the importance of props to costumes as you can learn so much about a character from little details. For example in Oliver's room there are props that suggest he's still a child at heart but also some props that suggest he's entering adulthood and growing up. The neat bed and props that are placed around his room can tell you more of his personality and hobbies. The neat covers can tell you he's clean and a perfectionist, the telescope, mobile of solar system and skeleton can tell you Oliver's interested in science. The costumes are again well chosen as the colours of Oliver and Jordanna's coats can tell you more about their personality and mood with dark and bright colours. Also Oliver's parents wear very dull colours which can tell you they're dull and boring people.

Lastly, the articles gives us ideas and inspiration of how we can use MES in our thriller films, although it tells us to be more creative with locations and costumes, it doesn't really apply to us as our film is supposed to be about a regular, everyday boy living a regular life which just takes a turn. But we have thought more about the settings as we intend to make it darker and also darker clothes, such as Freddy, he will be wearing basic black & white so he looks normal but the black could hint to a different side of his personality. Enzo will look completely different, more run down and skinny/dead looking so audience can guess she is not real. The friends who like him will be wearing bright clothes to suggest their personalities and the friends who dislike him will be wearing black clothes. The only props we will really be using are phones and a fake gun. The phone can relate to the young audience we're targeting and the gun is because it relates back to the thriller theme and is part of our big plot twist at the end.