Project 6:Mise-en-scene

Well, this was just a little instruction in the course text, before any exercise, asking me to look at the Mise-en-scene in a scene of a film of my choosing. I just so happened to watch the film 'Marley and Me' after reading through this section, not expecting to see much suitable, but I was pleasantly surprised by the amount I could see that this had been thought about in the film.

Now these two are two stills from the scene that I decided to look at. The film, featuring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, is about the dog that these two bring into their lives just after they marry, and this is a scene towards the end of the film, with just Owen Wilson and the dog.

This is a comfortable, close scene between the man and his dog, and these two stills both help show how the Mise-en-scene helps promote this feeling. In the top image, the man and his dog are the two main objects in the scene, with vast expanse around them. The position of the two, roughly aligned with the rule of thirds within the frame gives an easy feeling, the path acting as a lead in line, and their relative positions to each other compared to the rest of the frame, shows their closeness. The way the majority of the frame is filled with the grass, very similar and unchanging gives the feeling of neutral space, and really is very relaxing the way the whole frame is put together

In the second frame, again their is a comfortable closeness, with the close proximity of the two main characters, based around the rule of thirds, and surrounded by a large amount of negative space, and the edge of the path helps add to the separation between them and the rest of the frame, helping to give the feeling of these two sharing a connection, separate from the rest of the world, all done by the clever use of Mise-en-scene.

I can see that Mise-en-scene is a very subtle way of creating a feeling within a scene. It largely goes unnoticed, but can help set a viewer at ease, create tension, romance, or even a part atmosphere, without the viewer really being aware of where they are getting this feeling from