U N D E R S TA N D I N G M I S E -E N - S C E N E

We can call everything that is put in a scene by a French word mise-en-scene, which literally means put on the stage.

This is a handy phrase once you know how to spell it because it includes all the elements of acting, location, set, production, design, costume and make up, that are put in a scene to contribute to the meaning of the scene.

As media students we have to work out what extra meaning is added by these techniques including how the acting, location, costume and make up also add to the meaning.

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Blade Runner is a film with a very rich mise-en-scene. Watch the first ten minutes of the movie of the film. Start your analysis by looking under just one topic: Location and setting

TA S K 1

Blade Runner is located in a very rainy city of the future. We hear and see the rain -

•what does this suggest to us about the film?

•Why has the director added the rain?

LO C AT I O N & S E TT I N G

He wants the audience to feel that this is a dystopian city - the opposite of a utopian city which is an ideal or perfect state where everything is as good as it possibly can be. So Scott is showing us a place where:

1.It rains all the time and it is night, suggesting an underworld of vice and crime

2.It is overcrowded

3.There is too much traffic above and below you

4.The police can see into everyone’s personal life

5.There is an air of menace and violence

6.The cityscape is festooned with adverts

7.The cit seems to swamp the individuals• There is very little that we can relate to from our everyday lives

1.This could be hell

We can see that this is a constructed set - both real and virtual (CGI). It is obviously not a real location. We can see that the set and the location are conveying meaning as to how are read the film. This is called the Production Design.

The Production designer oversees everything that is to do with the set or the location. The Production Designer works with the Director creating the backgrounds, the set design and the look of a film.

In Blade Runner these design elements have become a defining feature of the film.

TA S K 2 : L I G H T I N G

• Is the lighting hard?

• Is the lighting soft?

• Where does the main or key light come from? Does it come from less where the camera is placed or from the side?

L I G H T I N G

• Some genres have lighting conventions such as horror where monsters and bad characters are lit from underneath.

• A toplight can produce a spotlight effect that goes with musicals. In fantasy films a toplight suggests a character has superior or magical power.

• Naturalistic lighting? A police or cop drama, and most soaps, will try to create a very flat, strip-light look into an office setting. They will make the scene look realistic with few highlights or shadows.

C O S T U M E A N D M A K E - U P

Costume and make-up can sometimes assume importance to the viewer.

A period film such as Grease which was made in 1978 but set in the 1950s, uses costumes and make-up and props like classic cars to suggest the look and feel of the time.

TA S K : C O S T U M E

• Explain how the costumes help to establish the period and the genre?

P H O T O G RA P H I N G T H E P E R F E C T M I S E -E N - S C E N E

• Please see PDF document with instructions