Mise-en-scène

Wizard of Oz (1939)

Directed by Victor Fleming

Hollywood uses midgets and children. Bright colour. Crane shot, focuses on important objects such as the yellow brick road.

Set design is large-scale and detailed. A lot of effort was put into it.

Mise-en-scène

“Everything that appears on stage”, “Whatever appears in front of the camera”

(Literally “putting on stage”)

The mise-en-scène needs to be in place before filming can begin. That means set design, lighting, character movement, images, motifs.

Mise-en-scène can say a lot about the socio-historical and institutional context of a film.

Comes from the theatre world

For everything else we use the term mise-en-shot. It is the way the filmed events, mise-en-scène, are filmed. Literally “putting into shots,” shooting a film.

Mise-en-scène comparison

	Little Caesar	The Wizard of Oz
Lighting	Use of light and dark, emphasis on dark and shadow.	Super bright, brilliant colours.
Set design	Naturalistic. Simple, basic, objects or places from ordinary life.	Created by set designers, artificial backdrops
Costume	Typical gangster suits of 1930s
Images/motifs	Suits, hats, desk, gas station, cars,	Ruby slippers, yellow brick road, munchkins