Mise-en-scene: Setting, Props, Costume and Make-up

Everything in the frame was chosen

Point a camera at a room and you have a shot. Decide what goes IN that room, and you are doing mise-en-scene, a French phrase that means putting into the scene. Mise-en-scene is every choice a filmmaker makes about what the camera will see: the setting the action happens in, the props the characters handle, the costume and make-up they wear, the colours, and the way people are placed in the space. None of it is an accident. A dark, cluttered room suggests a mind in chaos. A worn coat on a wealthy character says something has gone wrong. Pale, sickly make-up warns you before a word is spoken. This is different from how the scene is filmed, which is the camera work. Mise-en-scene is what is put in front of the camera, and this module is about reading those choices for the meaning and the feeling they create in the viewer.

Words for the frame

Learn what each of these means before you use it.

In front of the camera against behind it

Two parts of film form are easy to confuse. Keeping them apart is what lets you write about each one precisely.

How to read a scene

When a scene is put in front of you, do not just describe what is there. Read it in three moves. First, pick out one element the filmmaker has chosen, a setting, a prop, a piece of costume or make-up. Second, ask what that choice suggests, about the character, the mood or the story. Third, and this is where the marks are, say what it makes the viewer feel or expect. A weak answer lists what is on screen. A strong answer treats every visible thing as a decision and joins it to its effect on the spectator. Choose the element, read the suggestion, name the effect. Nothing in the frame is there by accident, so nothing is beneath notice.

Match the element to its meaning

Which choice, and why?

A director dresses a character the audience knows is wealthy in a cheap, worn coat. What is this mise-en-scene choice most likely telling the audience?

• That the character has fallen on hard times or is hiding their wealth
• Nothing, because costume is chosen at random
• That the actor forgot their proper costume
• That the camera is using a low angle

Order the character look

Put the steps a designer takes to build a character look through mise-en-scene in a sensible order.

• Decide who the character is and what they are going through
• Choose costume that signals that to the audience
• Add make-up and props that deepen the impression
• The audience reads the character on sight, before they speak

Spot the true mise-en-scene facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true.

• In film, what appears in the frame is chosen on purpose
• Costume and make-up can tell the audience about a character before they speak
• Mise-en-scene means the same thing as the camera angle
• Props are placed in a scene at random with no meaning

How many elements left?

This module works with 4 elements of mise-en-scene you can always look for: setting, props, costume and make-up. So far you have read 1 of them closely. Subtract to find how many of the 4 are left to read.

Complete the mise-en-scene facts

The French phrase for everything arranged in front of the camera is _____. The place and time in which the action happens is the _____. An object placed in a scene on purpose for a character to use is a _____. The clothing chosen to tell the audience about a character is its _____.

A room that tells a story

Picture a scene with no dialogue at all: a person sits alone in a small flat. Before anyone speaks, the room is already talking. The curtains are drawn in the afternoon, so the light is grey and low. Dishes are stacked in the sink and papers cover the floor, so the space feels neglected. On the table, turned face down, is a single framed photograph, the one tidy, cared-for thing in the room. The character wears a dressing gown over day clothes, as if they have stopped telling one part of the day from another. You have been told nothing, yet you already sense a person who is struggling and is holding on to one memory. That is mise-en-scene doing the work of a paragraph of writing, and a strong answer would name each of those choices and the feeling it builds.

Build the analysis

Choose the words that complete this rule about mise-en-scene.

Read the scene

Read each case and choose the best analysis, then think about why.

• A villain first appears in a spotless white room with almost nothing in it. How should you read the setting?
• Two characters wear almost the same costume in a scene where they are meant to be rivals. What is the most useful reading?
• You are asked to write about a prop that the camera returns to several times. What makes the strongest point?

Meaning in the frame

Select the TWO statements that fit how mise-en-scene creates meaning.

• Setting and costume can tell a story before any dialogue
• A strong analysis names a choice and the effect it has on the viewer
• Mise-en-scene is decided by the camera angle and movement
• Most of what is in a frame is there by chance

Explain mise-en-scene

A friend is revising Film Studies and thinks mise-en-scene just means the scenery. Explain what it really covers and how it creates meaning.

• Explain what mise-en-scene means and name its main elements
• Explain how it differs from the camera work, the cinematography
• Explain how setting and costume can suggest character or mood
• Explain how a prop can be used as a symbol
• Finish by explaining why a strong answer names the effect on the spectator, not just the choice