20 Mise en Scène Elements Every Filmmaker Needs to Know

mise en scène in film

Mise en scène definition

Mise en scène means everything that has to happen to make the finished image look the way it looks, which in turns helps your content feel the way you need. 

Mise en scène refers to the visuals of a film.

It’s what we see onscreen — all the elements that appear on camera, how they are arranged, and the overall look and feel they combine to convey.

For the record, it’s pronounced meez-on-senn. Let move on to an essential question: How do you define mise en scène in film?

FILM TECHNIQUES

1. How location affects your scene

Here’s a veteran filmmaker tip: If you have a two-person dialogue scene and think any location will do the trick, think again. The difference between a conversation in McDonald's as opposed to a church can be extreme. Location says a lot about characters, intentions, obstacles, and themes.   

What’s the difference if a conversation takes place in a synagogue or mosque? At Disneyland? What about in a schoolroom, a confessional … or how about in the trunk of a car?

The more you know about color, the stronger your script breakdown will be and your mise en scene will follow suit. 

If Harry Potter’s school of wizarding had been set in an American public school, it would be a very different film.

Key mise en scène examples relating to set include the Harry Potter films and Titanic. In both cases, the set actively informs time, place, and story.

Tracking and managing set requirements early in your production process is integral to controlling your film’s mise en scène.

Imagine if Dorothy is being chased through Oz … for a pair of Jordans or penny loafers instead of her magical kicks. Different movie altogether, all because of props. 

The objects in your frame are interacting with every other element of your mise en scene all the time. Whether the filmmaker recognizes this or not, the audience sure does.

Even if a character is not directly lifting, donning, tripping over, or smashing a prop — if it’s in frame, it’s part of your story.

Let’s look at an example: Creed.

We’ll spend some time in Adrian’s restaurant with Rocky and Adonis. We’ll identify and tag all the elements for each department for your script breakdown.

Props have power. They’re vital elements of film. Any mise en scene definition must include them. Any script breakdown must tag them.

wear MISE EN SCÈNE on your sleeve

5. Costumes make the difference

The costume, or wardrobe, is another key part of the filmmaking arsenal when composing mise en scène.

What characters wear says much about the world they inhabit, who they are within the world,  how they feel, and how they carry themselves.

Keeping track of wardrobe can be a tricky task from the outset. Breakdown your script with robust software that makes your film’s costumes easier to track. You can use StudioBinder's script breakdown feature to do it. 

With the intuitive drag and drop menu, highlight the particular wardrobe piece, you need, and simply tag it as "costumes."

With a radically different approach to the character’s hair and makeup, the new iteration of the Joker dispelled memories of the original and helped win Heath Ledger an Oscar.

MISE EN SCÈNE spotlight

7. Lighting sets the tone

Film techniques seen and unseen contribute to your mise en scène. Lighting techniques exemplify this “seen and unseen” quality. Just ask a cinematographer.  

Lighting is one of the key elements of film. It’s the pièce de résistance in completing your mise en scène. Here's one of today's premiere DPs, Roger Deakins, discussing his relationship and approach to lighting.

The contrast of stark blacks to ethereal whites, the moody lighting, the highlights seen and unseen all combine. They inform us of the theme of this period piece and the characters’ places in the world.

But a film does not have to use drastic lighting to set mood, tone, or theme.

MISE EN SCÈNE

8. The medium — film vs. video

You’re making a film, right? Film is the material that records moving images. It’s also the movie you make with those moving images.

Different kinds of film and processing techniques lead to different kinds of mise en scene. And between film, chemicals, digital, software, apps, and other tools, the possibilities are vast.

Film or digital is now the ultimate question when it comes to making a choice for your project’s mise en scene. Check out test footage for the best 4K video cameras. Talk to other filmmakers. Do your research.

Which leads us to the next section.

The scope of the film and whether or not it is digital plays a large role here. There are now digital versions of 16mm, Super 16mm, and so on.

Every cinematographer can consider a wide array of camera choices to benefit your particular story.

MISE EN SCÈNE in motion 

10. Camera placement

Where you choose to put your camera is just as important as what kind of camera you use. No viewer will be thinking of where you put camera if you place it correctly. Here we cannot overstate the importance of a shot list.

Whether at a high angle above the subject or a hundred feet away, where the camera is and what it captures should be determined before you arrive on set.

Make a shot list. Start tagging your elements. Stay organized. Be prepared.

You’ll make a better film.  

speed of MISE EN SCÈNE

11. Speeding up or slowing down film

As a filmmaker, you can shape and bend your created world like a wizard. Time can stand still, it can move at a fraction of normal speed or be sped up into a blur. This all comes down to frame rate. Here's our guide to frame rate and the options filmmakers have to manipulate their mise en scene.

You can also change the tempo of your world and your characters with fast or slow motion. You, as a filmmaker, are a master of time and space, all contributing to mise en scene.

Many filmmakers have used the speed of the scene to accentuate every element of mise en scène. Whether fast motion or slow motion, you can become a master of time and space by controlling your elements of film.

Chariots of Fire, Raging Bull, Any Given Sunday and pretty much every other sports movie ever offered from Hollywood would not be complete without a slow-motion finish for the victor.  

The speed of the scene is an easily accomplished film technique that is a cornerstone of filmmaking.

To say that the framing in the scene of the discovery of the escape is masterful is no hyperbole. Here, the warden is literally framed by the tunnel that will be his undoing.

Framing takes composition to the next level. When you frame your film, you’re doing so with the understanding that your created world functions within the real world. Where will you set the parameters for your viewers?

You’re deciding where the form of your story ends and the real world begins. You’re putting a border around your film — or artistically suggesting that the border doesn’t exist at all.

Frame is as crucial as any of the other mise en scene elements on our list.

Ask yourself, what draws attention first, then second, and even third? What’s the order of importance to what’s being shown, and why?  

One of the most effective film techniques to master focus: depth of field.  

The music becomes a character in the film itself. The leitmotif and the character are synonymous.

The rhythm, tempo, and texture of mise en scene is tied to the music.

When we think of “The Raiders March” (“Indiana Jones Theme”) we can’t help but envision Harrison Ford in character as Indiana Jones, wearing his hat and running from a boulder, or wielding his whip and leaping off a cliff.

Music, or the lack thereof, can be effective in painting a full picture. Music also is a way for the filmmaker to communicate to the audience. The filmmaker can inform and enrich the what, when, why, and how of a story’s moment-by-moment emotional resonance.

essential film techniques

17. Know the talent

Your actors are one of the most essential mise en scène elements.  

Many directors feel that if you cast correctly, that is to say appropriately for the characters, story, and overall vision, then half the battle is already won.

Actors’ strengths and weaknesses can be exploited when they are the central focus of a scene.  

Some actors are chosen for the melodramatic or overacting quality of their performance. Think Jim Carrey in 80 percent of the roles he’s played.

Jim Carrey would be out of place in a Merchant Ivory film. The term “chew the scenery” can be used as a positive or a negative, depending on the scene and the intention.

The look and ability of your actors articulates your film’s mise en scene definition. For directors, working with cast on performance is quite possibly the most dominant way to shape mise en scene.

block by block

18. Blocking actors

Just as camera placement and movement are essential, so are placement and movement of talent.

Blocking takes all the mise en scene elements directly to the cast.

Where an actor is arranged, and if, when, and how an actor moves in the scene, all highlight the reason for the scene itself.

Blocking organizes the action, the business of the moment. It flavors what’s going on, both on the surface and underneath.

Does an actor take a step, scratch an itch, put on a hat, do a jumping jack, bite into a sandwich? Does an actor do this before, after, or in the middle of speaking? Why? It can all have a major effect on the dynamics of the scene.

Consider what your actors do and how the action reads to your audience. Put yourself in the theater — how would you interpret it?

The term “What’s my motivation?” was coined by an actor given blocking direction that had nothing to do with the scene they were in.  

Be prepared to explain and justify your blocking choices to collaborators, especially to your on-screen talent.

Your mise en scene depends on it.

elements of film in motion

19. Action in the background

The main action in any given moment is what your mise en scene all comes down to. What’s the conflict, the desire, the intention? How does it unfold? Where do your characters start in a scene, and where do they end?

Not just physically, but emotionally. How do they change?

Background action, seemingly throwaway action, and any action that is secondary to that in primary focus can be memorable and valuable as part of your mise en scène.

In Midsommar, director Ari Aster uses the wide open spaces of his daylight rural setting to create an extra layer of foreshadowing and suspense. 

This is a specific use of action in the background to complete the story. Remember that lack of action is still a form of action.

Even if characters do nothing, inaction becomes their action. Mise en scene depends on what’s being done.

MISE EN SCÈNE in film

20. Post-Production

The final step to completing your mise en scène is often the final step in locking your film.  

Post-production and/or, more specifically, CGI or Computer Generated Imagery, can be the icing on the cake for your completed film.

You want to minimize surprises in executing your mise en scène by starting with a solid script breakdown during pre-production.

The script breakdown phase is also where you’ll want to determine what you’ll aim to accomplish during the post-production step. Unforeseen fixes and tweaks will very likely arise, and post is an ideal place to address these — but you’ll want to keep “major repairs” to a minimum.

The rapid growth of CGI can create mega-worlds of wizards and superheroes. This translates to the ability of filmmakers to add many critical mise en scène elements with computers.

up Next

Wes Anderson’s Mise en Scène

Mise en scène elements can be as simple as an actor in front of a camera. It can be as elaborate as a thousand-person crew and twelve visual effects teams. Wes Anderson has mastered all the mise en scène elements and crafted his own style. Find out how right now.

UP NEXT: Wes Anderson’s Mise en Scène →