Research into mise-en-scene - Miss Georgiou

Mise-en-scene is a french word and it consists of all the visual information in front of the camera.  The purpose of Mise-en-scene is to communicate essential information to the audience. The five elements of Mise-en-scene are....

• Setting and iconography
• Costume/Make up
• Body Language
• Lighting/Colours
• Positioning

I will analyse these elements of Mise-en-scene in the following clip: 

Batman The Dark Knight - Good Cop, Bat Cop.

Setting and Iconography:

This scene is set in a dark and doomey room which is quite bare. This setting reflects the situation which both The Batman and the people of Gotham are in due to the joker; a hopeless and catastrophic situation. A setting like this is often used in the thriller genre, such as grimy abandoned rooms, they are often related to crime. The dark room also represents both the dark side of batman and also the sinful intentions of The Joker. The audience would expect an evil character to be related with darkness in a thriller film, and this clip therefore allows us to identify him as the villain.

Costume:

In this clip the Batman is wearing dark clothes and a mask, this is a strong code and convention that the hero often hides their identity. Furthermore it makes the Batman seem mysterious to the audience as his face is hidden. The fact the Batman has his own costume sets him apart from the normal characters in the film, thus making him much more noticeable to the audience. Batman is also dressed in all black, this represents the dark side of him although he intends to be good. In contrast to Batman the Joker is dressed in much more brighter colours and wears clown like make up, thus conforming to his name. This also represents that he sees the less serious side of the situation compared to Batman.

Body Language:

As you can see in this screen shot the body language being displayed is quite anxious, several people are looking on in anticipation of what the Batman is going to do. This body language creates suspense amongst the audience as they can see that the characters in the film are feeling worried about the bad intentions the Joker has in mind. Body language is often used in the thriller genre to create emotions amongst the audience, it’s one of the more discreet ways to do this.

Lighting/Colour:

At the beginning of this clip there is very little lighting, however when the Batman becomes present in the scene there is more lighting, this could be to represent to the audience how Batman is a sign of hope to the people of Gotham; he lights up Gotham from the antagonists. Also at the beginning of the scene The Joker is on the dark half of the table and Commissioner Gordon is on the lighter half, this could also depict how Commissioner Gordon is representing the good side and The Joker is representing the evil side.

Positioning:

In this clip The Batman and The Joker are both positioned sitting evenly opposite each other, the effective of this is that it represents how they are both evenly matched to this point in the film. It also shows how neither party is backing down and they are both up for the battle. The fact that both enemies are positioned so close to each other builds suspense amongst the audience as they are anticipating a fight any second.