Online Research Presentation

Mise en Scene is a French term which refers to the composition of shots in film, inclusive of framing, characters, set design, costume, symbolism, juxtaposition, and lighting. The composition and framing of each shot enables the director to communicate visually aspects of narrative, mood and setting to an audience without the need for dialogue or other forms of sound and music. Where characters are placed within a shot in relation to other persons and objects as well as the angles used serve to convey a plethora of meaning. These elements within the shot work together to tell a story purely through visual means while also providing an aesthetically pleasingly image for audiences.

Image 1

One aspect of composition and framing is the positioning of characters within the setting, and from this may emerge ideas of symbolism also. For example, in the above photograph the girl pictured is descending a staircase. The railings and posts of the stairs and her placement between them symbolically generates images of bars and cages thereby suggesting to viewers that she is trapped. The tight framing and placement of her body within a confined space in which she is engulfed by these slats and the shadows they form as a consequence of lighting suggests vulnerability, weakness and imprisonment, while her hand placed upon the railing post suggests a reliance upon and protection from these bars. The use of lighting and the way in which it is reflected upon her, and the ‘bars’ which surround her draw attention by means of dominant contrast to her entrapped state, while the light ascending the stairs from below is suggestive of a desired and just out of reach freedom and safety. This image of a still frame from the movie sin city also uses composition and framing to produce symbolism in the form of bars; the rain as well as the sky scrapers in the background suggest he is trapped by the gun, which rests at the forefront of the shot. The low angle of the shot is connotative of power by means of the weapon, while the power afforded to him by the gun leaves him a prisoner of the corrupt city which towers above.

Sin City

Image 2

This second shot above uses various elements of framing also to create meaning for audiences simply through visual representations. The girl is placed at the left of the shot, typically representing subordination, and is again entrapped by the stair railings surrounding her. Her small size within the frame is suggestive of her lack of power as she cautiously moves down the stairs, while her placement towards the edge of the shot creates a sense of danger in her being ‘out of depth’. The staircase fills most of the shot which is again tightly framed, alluding to the power of the bars and their entrapment of her. The use of dominant contrast directs the audiences line of sight directly to her, as her white dress reflects more light than her surrounds thereby juxtaposing the darkness of her entrapment with her white dress and blonde hair, symbolic of innocence and purity. In this still frame of the film Citizen Kane, the man on the right of the frame holds a more powerful position visually than Kane on the left, despite his being in the forefront of the shot. The use of lighting also draws our attention to the right side of the frame first, allowing contrasts to be made to earlier shots in the film, in which Kane himself inhabits the right side of the low angle shot and thereby holds power; the juxtaposition of these two shots conveys a fall from power.

Citizen Kane 1

Citizen Kane 2

Citizen Kane 3; Citizen Kanes use of stairs within shot composition as a means of framing characters, creating levels for character interaction, and as a symbolic tool.

The power dynamics vested within the right side of the frame as opposed to the powerlessness emenated by the left are evdient also within this still frame from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

The third image below also uses various aspects of framing and mise en scene within its composition to convey meaning not present within dialogue or music. Unlike the previous two shots, this is a more loosely framed image. The placement of her body, facing towards the camera and the room beyond not only places the viewers attention outside of what is actually in the frame, it suggests the presence of something or someone else, whose domain is the spacious room behind the confines of the staircase. This lose style of framing suggests freedom and power, while the stairs form a barrier between this space and the girl. Lighting is also used to imply a freedom beyond her confines; one which is made out of reach by the closed door stifling the entry of the light. Her size within the shot remains small in accordance with her lack of power and subordinance, while the creation of a space outside that of what is in the frame serves to be equally as important as what is placed within it; creating suspense and a sense of the unknown as ‘the space behind the camera (is) all part of the filmspace of the entire composition and crucial to making the visual experience more three dimensional’ (Brown 2002). The brightness and starkly contrasted nature of the light draws the viewers attention here first as this aspect of the frame is at this moment of most importance, significance and desire for the girl in accordance with Hitchcocks rule that ‘the size of an object in the frame should equal its importance in the story at that moment’ (Brown 2002).

Image 3

This is evident within Hitchcock’s framing of shots, for example in his use of stairs to create suspense;

References

Brown, B. 2002, Cinematography: Theory and Practice : Image making for Cinematographers, Directors & Videographers, Focal Press.

Dugas, T. 1998, Mise en Scene/ Movement, http://www.crosscut.net/film/powerpoint/movement/sld014.htm

Cennamo, K. Shot Compositions, http://courses.iddl.vt.edy/DEDCM001/sa/11sacomposition.html