Mise-en-scene and it's importance

Initially i knew that mise-en-scene was pretty much everything that is in the scene. However this is a generalised understanding of the term. I never expected that it would include so many different aspects of filming. These are lighting, costume, make up, appearance, props, background images, locations, set design, studio and colour.

The definition for Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of scenery and props to represent the place where a movie or play is enacted. To show our understanding of the key term we asked to create a scene which we were giving using props and the lights.


The first scene we created was of a romantic dinner. This is a romantic scene because there is a table with two place settings. The scene is candle lit with two glasses to show that the people were sharing a bottle of drink. It could be in a high class restaurant or in an agritourismo rustic restaurant. The props used in this scene are important so that the audience can see the setting and who would potentially be there, for example if there was only one place setting and no candle that would represent somebody eating on their own.

This is a crime scene. We decided to make this an office setting which could be at home, so that it would seem isolated. We did this by using a type writer and some books as these would be typical objects found in an office environment. There is a gun underneath the corner of the book so that you can see elements of a crime drama but as you can only see part of the gun it makes it more mysterious. The candle suggests that the room may be poorly lit or that they wanted to feel more relaxed.


Mise-en-scene is important in any type of media, especially film as it sets the scene and genre. It may also create suspense or makes the audience empathise with the characters. Mise-en-scene also allows the viewer to follow the narrative so that the storyline has good continuity.