Mise en Scène: The Hidden Art of Visual Storytelling in Film

Mise en scène is a complex technique used in filmmaking, with its origins in the world of theatre. Find out more about it, how it works, and how filmmakers use it with this Twinkl teaching Wiki!

Spoiler alert: In the context of filmmaking, there are few techniques that, if handled correctly by a skilled cinematography technician, can be quite as evocative as mise en scène.

So, if you’re looking for a short answer, here it is. Is mise en scène a film technique? Yes. If you’re fully aware of what mise en scène is, how it’s used, and the elements it comprises, then you don’t need to read any further. Go about your day, and enjoy the smug feeling of knowing something particularly niche.

However, if you’re not so au fait with film terminology and the nomenclature that surrounds cinematography, then don’t panic. It’s quite normal not to know specialised terms like mise en scène, after all, it’s not like you need to know them in order to watch a film or enjoy a TV drama, is it?

What you might not know, however, is that having a bit of knowledge and even a small amount of appreciation for such things can actually make your viewing experience more enjoyable. Not only that, but it can also give you an insight into how filmmakers accomplish their art.

So, if you’d like to learn a little more about what mise en scène is, and how it can be used to enhance a film, then read on!

What Is Mise En Scene?

We kind of answered that question earlier by saying that mise en scène is a film technique, but let’s take a closer look at what it actually is.

The term mise en scène itself simply mean ‘staging’ or ‘what is put into the scene’ in French. The term itself actually originates from the world of the theatre, which relies heavily on staging in order to conjure the world that is presented to the audience. For the purposes of this wiki, we’ll be talking about mise en scène in terms of being a technique for films, but it’s worth remembering that it can also apply to theatre productions and TV programs as well.

Because films are often shot on location, staging in order to conjure an illusion of the action taking place in another location can often be less of an issue. Why would you bother trying to accurately recreate the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of a street market in Morocco when you could just go to Morocco and film in a street market?

However, staging can be really important on a sound stage. There isn’t any way to shoot on location if your film is set in the year 3000 aboard a space station in another galaxy, for example. Or how about if it takes place a million years ago, or even on another planet that doesn’t really exist?

Staging is vital in these circumstances, in order to make the viewer believe what they are watching is really taking place on Orbital Station Zeta One, orbiting above the event horizon of a distant black hole.

However, mise en scene extends to more than just the setting of the film. In a film sense, mise en scene can refer to literally anything that is put in front of a camera. This can encompass everything from the placement of objects, even those that aren’t used or interacted with by the actors, to the lighting, and even the position and movements of the actors in the scene.

Understandably, there’s a lot to consider when making a film, particularly one where the budget to run to hundreds of millions of dollars. Because of this, each shot of a film is often drawn and carefully considered months in advance of a film actually being shot, in a process known as story boarding. Because of this, the placement of objects and the arrangement of each shot is known in advance, so it’s rarely an accident that something is included in the finished film. It’s all very deliberate, and done for specific effect.

We’ll get onto the effect of certain things later, but for now, let’s break down the different elements that are considered as a part of the mise en scène of a particular scene:

The Elements Of The Scene:

Set Design - While we spoke a little about shooting on location versus shooting on a set before, it may surprise you to know that the majority of films are actually shot on a set instead of on location. While it takes a lot of work, it’s often a much more cost-effective way to make a movie, and if it’s an indoor set you don’t have to worry about the weather, either!

Another important element of set design is consideration of props and decor. These can often be used to say a lot about a particular character’s heritage, the time period the film takes place in, the psychology of the inhabitants, their social and economic status, and a raft of other minor details. Because a set is an artificially constructed environment, everything has to be carefully considered!

Lighting - This has some very obvious effects, for example it can show us as the audience whether a scene takes place during the day or at nighttime. But, beyond that, careful use of lighting can evoke different moods. Deep shadows can make a space feel ominous or frightening. On the other hand, bright white lighting makes us think of sterile environments like the dentist or hospitals.

Colouring the lights is also a really common trick, for example, making the light more orange makes the audience think that the environment that the action takes place in is hot. For contrast, blue lighting does the opposite and evokes feelings of coldness.

It’s become a bit of a cliché for films to use coloured lighting to also use coloured lighting to evoke a sense of place as well. Next time you watch a film set in Mexico or South America, watch as the film suddenly changing to a washed out, orange look as soon as the characters go south of the US/Mexico border. Similarly, the default colour palette for Russia and Eastern Europe seems to be a dark blue colour. It would surprise no-one to learn these places are not these colours in real life.

Space - No, not the final frontier. We’re talking about the physical space that the action of the film takes place in. Is it cluttered? Difficult to move around? Are things located in strange places, or at odd angles that mean the actors have to move in a strange configuration to reach them?

Film directors will frequently use physical space as a way to highlight the emotional state of a character. For example, shooting them framed by something like a window frame or a doorway can make a character look constrained or trapped, which if they are under pressure or stressed can be very evocative.

Composition - The combination of all of the different physical elements in a shot. This can involve a careful juggling act of how close the actors stand to the camera, or to each other, as well as whether the scene looks symmetrical or not. If there is a lot of clutter on one side of the screen, the audience will notice and pay attention to it. This can be useful to the director if they want to draw the audience’s attention to something, or away from something else.

Costume, make up, and hairstyling - What actors are wearing and how they present themselves can often offer big clues and hints to their personalities, backgrounds, and much more. Similarly to how set design works, how a character is presented is vital to establishing who they are to the audience.

How It All Comes Together

So, thinking about these elements and how they work in harmony, we can use this knowledge to understand how scenes in our favourite films work. Looking at the space a character occupies, we can draw conclusions about who they are, their status in their society, and even the society itself.

Or, to put it another way, when you write a story, you can pop the brakes on the action for a moment to explain what someone’s wearing, or what a space looks like. You can put your own particular spin on the descriptions to make your audience notice the details.

In a film, however, you can’t really do the same thing. You can’t really have a character stop, point to a crucifix on the wall, and loudly tell the audience “I am a Christian!” even if this is a really important point. It would make your film look ridiculous, and not even in a particularly humorous way!

Hopefully, if you’ve read this far, you’ve enjoyed this wiki, and it’s answered the question ‘is mise en scène a film technique’ for you. If you’d like to explore the topic further, we have a great range of resources to help you and your class to do just that. Check out the selection below!