Mise-en-scene Part 1

Mise-en-scene has many aspects to it. There is one thing that I would like to incorporate into my film opening. Lighting is one of the most important parts of the film and usually helps establish certain situations or provide context to the feeling/vibe. I know that there are tons of different types of Mise en scene but one that is most neglected is lighting.

Lighting/Color Background and Examples

Lighting is used in many different ways. One technique that is used a lot or should be used. All the time is three-point lighting. Three-point lighting can help illuminate your character as well as make the scene a whole lot better. This type of lighting can do all types of things like make a character look authoritative, make the character look holy, or even make a character just look normal. Three-point lighting is simple to do all you need is two lights in the front and one light at the back or you remove a certain light, depending on how you want the scene to look. This type of lighting can only really be used inside because if you were to shoot outside during the day, the sun would of course be too strong and would not allow you to use other lights but natural light like the sun can also help give a certain mood or feeling to a scene. Another type of lighting that mixes in with another aspect of mise en scene is color. Colored lights can help establish a feeling or mood of a certain scene or situation within the film. For example, in Blade Runner 2049, while they’re in the city, the main character is surrounded by the color purple, which helps establish they there in a futuristic city, but also gives us a feeling that our character is lonely. The color purple gives a kind of relaxing feeling, but also it is very mellow.

Lighting/Color within my film

In my film, I would like to try to incorporate three-point lighting, color lighting, and natural lighting. I feel three-point lighting can help my scenes be more illuminated as well as make them look better overall. Color lighting can audiences feel the emotions of the characters and the intensity of certain situations better than if no color light was used. Natural light could help establish the fact that the character is out in nature. The sun could also help because it’s so bright and so hot creating more pressure on the character as they are doing things outside.

I feel that the types of lighting that I will use the most will be three-point lighting and color lighting. Three-point lighting will be used so that the scene looks more illuminated and does not look dull. I want to make sure that the audience can see the characters perfectly. As for color lighting, I would like to incorporate it into some scenes so that certain colors can help the audience understand what emotions the characters are feeling. For example, after their fight, I would like to use certain colors to represent the emotions that each of them is feeling. There are of course a tons more types of mise en scene. In the next blog, I will talk about another mise en scene I want to incorporate, which is camera position and composition.