Research into Mise-en-scène Miss Georgiou

Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means visual information in front of the camera. Mise-en-scène en scene includes setting & iconography, costume, hair & make up, facial expressions & body language, lighting & colour and positioning of actors. I chose a clip from 'Kill Bill' as it has a good setting, brilliant hair and make up and great iconography. 

Setting plays an important part in film-making and not just 'backgrounds' as they create the whole atmosphere and give us an idea of where the film may take place. In a thriller it will be most likely; haunted house, abandoned warehouse, graveyard or a forest at night. 

Or in a romantic comedy it will be most likely; in a open friendly house, daylight, in a city, or office. 

Sometimes sets are either built from scratch for a fantasy film or a film that deals with parallel universe or world. Or they chose a setting that already exists and is used again and again. 

Although some settings can manipulate an audience by building up certain expectations that a film might be happy, and romantic and that in a particular scene everything will be fine, yet the scene may take a wrong turn and change and a fight may break out in a neighbourhood where everything is sunny and normal. 

Costume, Hair and Make up: 

Costume, Hair and Make up play an important part in Mise-en-scene as well as it is an instant indicator to us of a character's personality, status and job. When you see for example a black suit you can either think of a spy or a person attending a funeral, or if you see someone in a dress which has bright colours it creates a nice turn of showing that, that particular person is a nice and happy constantly. 

Hair in a film is very important as it shows in a screenshot what happened to a person for example if the hair is messy then the it shows that there they either just got out of a fight or they just come out of a night out with a person, or if the hair is normal and neat then the character/person has just encountered a normal day and nothing interesting has happened yet. 

Make up also shows what has happened to the person so if on an actress the mascara is smudge and she looks quite unattractive then it shows that she has just been crying and is quite upset. Or if the make up is done up proper then it shows that she has done herself up for a party or a date. In a fighting scene making is used to show blood and cuts on their face or body to show that there has been a large fight and lots of people have been either killed or injured. 

Costume, Hair and Make up tells us immediately whether the film is set in the present and what society/or culture it will centre around. 

Facial Expressions and Body Language: 

Facial Expressions provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling and how they react to a news or something, also body language is used a clear indicator too to show what the character is doing and how it effects the scene. If in a fighting scene the main character would stand at a very confident stance, ready to react to whoever would take a first swipe or attack at the character.

Lighting and Colour:
Lighting and colour is also important in a Mise-en-scene as it creates the atmosphere especially in a thriller as you use very dim lighting to create an eerie feel to the room and making us feel that we are actually in the room with the characters. The colour is also important as it is not right to have bright colours in a thriller or to have dark depressing colours in a romantic comedy, or just a comedy as it doesn't fit the mood.

Positioning of Characters and Objects with a frame: 

Positioning of characters is very important in a Mise-en-scene as a character which is close up and in focus whereas a character behind them is blurred and out of focused shows that this person in the front is very important and a main character and should be focused on him more as he is more important than the blurred character in the background. 

Also the objects within the frame is important as the object is in the centre of the screen shot might be large and in focus where everything else around it is out of focused and not important as the actual main image. 

I intend to use the points shown above for 'Kill Bill' in the clip where "the bride" turns up at the women who attempted to kill her's house. This will help me to show and understand the points that I have explained and using screenshots to explain these points in this film that I have chosen.

I will be assessing this clip from 'kill bill' as i believe this clip includes lots of different features of Mise-en-scène. This clip is set in a suburban area, this creates confusion as people think the film will be violent and seeing this at the start of a scene doesn't match what they thought would be there. In addition we can see that the house looks very home like and something that would be in a happy film, not a thriller. We can see that on the front lawn of the house we can see children's toys which gives us an insight that the house belongs to a family, or a mother and daughter.

The setting of this scene plays a big part in creating tension and suspense for the film. this is because we can see that this house looks very nice and in a happy environment which isn't expected of a thriller genre. This also creates surprise and shock as when she arrives at the door a fight breaks out which the audience does not expect. Settings like this are not just backgrounds and take a long long time to find the specific setting of the directors needs or are made from scratch. 

The director also uses costumes very well to create that non stereotypical look on the scene, we can see that neither of the women are wearing clothes which you expect cold blood killers to be wearing.

From this screen shot we can see that both of the women are wearing every day clothes, tracksuit bottoms etc. This makes the audience surprise of the attack as they are not wearing stereotypical clothes to of what a cold blooded killer, like the bride, would wear. This is out of the ordinary and engages the audience and makes them more interested in the film. we can also see that the director has used hear and make up to make the look as though they have been fighting as they have messed up hair and cuts all over their body. this is conventional to a thriller film as many thriller films include things like this to show thriller but not so much that it becomes a horror. This creates a relationship between the character's and the audience as the audience feel sympathetic towards the women as they have been hurt for a lost cause. 



The director also uses facia expressions to create relationships between the characters and the audience, we can see that the women that "the bride" is fightings face drops when she sees the arrival of her daughter.

The first screenshot infers us that the bride has hurt herself as we can see that her mouth is open which shows she is in excruciate pain from having all the plates and china thrown onto her head. This also makes the audience feel sympathetic for her. From the second screenshot we can see that the women is petrified to the fact that her daughter is going to see her hurt and holding a knife, we can see that her daughter is about to arrive home and this women doesn't want her to see anything. This expressions engages with the audience as it makes them put themselves in her shoes and think about how they would feel if they were in the same situation.



The director also uses iconography to portray the thriller genre although he uses things that are unexpected in a thriller film. We first see kids toys in the garden which creates a happy atmosphere for the start of the film. we then see the women fighting with all sorts of different objects. 

From this screenshot we can see that the women are fighting with household objects. The women on the left is using a knife whereas "the bride" is using a frying pan to try and defend herself. This is conventional to a thriller film but at the same time isn't  This is because the women are fighting with dangerous objects which is conventional but we would not normally see them fighting with a frying pan which is weird but sets an un usual tone to the scene. 

The director uses high key lighting which isn't conventional to a thriller as many use low key to create shadows to portray enemies or spooky people. Even though the lighting isn't conventional it does shock the audience as they wouldnt expect to see the girls as clearly as they can.