Practical source of Inspiration - Mise en scene

Mise en scene Inspiration

Mise en scene is a very important part of all films and television shows as it can convey the whole atmosphere of a scene to the audience.  Simply the set up of the shoot and the look of the characters can convince the audience into viewing the scene the way the producers want you too.  

 I took my inspiration from a film called New York Minute, featuring Mary-Kate and Ashley.  I thought that the mise en scene used in this film, was very effective at conveying the contrast between the two sisters personalities.

Particulary in this scene, one sister is portrayed as girly and innocent and the other as a tom-boy and naughty.  We, as an audience already have a pretty good understanding of their personalities, simply by their rooms and their costumes.  The first image is of Ashley Olsen, she is shown to be very
  girly as her room is all pink with pretty pillows and pictures of butterflies on the wall.  Her bedding is pink and white, which conveys her innocence as lighter colours are used to portray purity.  Her furniture and curtains are also light colours, particularly white, which highlights her innocence and youthfulness.

 I responded to this setting by setting up my friend's room to make it look as innocent and youthful as possible. I choose her room because it was pink, which is a very youthful colour and emphasizes a girly personality.  There are body products such as moisturizer, deodorant and Vaseline, which show that she is clean and looks after herself without covering herself with products and makeup.  The other colours in the room are predominantly light which shows purity and there are soft animals around the room which highlights her youthfulness.  I stuck up pictures of one direction because it is a typical feature of many young teenager's rooms.  They are mostly cut outs from magazines which shows youth.  One direction are a very family friendly band and so they are very suitable for a youth, innocent girl, compared to heavy rock or rap artists.  The room is quite messy which again shows youthfulness, a school bag is on the bed which implies the character is studious.  The bed covers are also pink and light which again highlights her youth and girlishness.

 The character that Ashley Olson plays in this film is depicted as a very cleanly and innocent person.  This is shown a little in the opening scene where she is in the shower, she has no makeup on and is very plain and youthful.  The picture on the left is my response to the print screen of the actor from the film.  I have made my model look as pure and cleanly as possible.  She is wearing no make up and her hair is tied back to symbolize her youth. The lighting is high key to make the picture light to represent purity.

In this film the main focus is the contrast between the two sisters.  The other sister, played by Mary-Kate Olsen is very grunge and not innocent.  Her room is very dark, the main colours being black, blue and red.  This symbolizes her dark and maybe not as wholesome personality.  Her room is very messy and there are drapes over the windows to block out sunlight.  The drapes are also red which is a promiscuous and dangerous colour which tells the audience that she is not to be trusted.  She is the opposite to her sister, not innocent, pure or clean.

As a contrast to the pink room I set up, I used my other friend's room which had red wallpaper to display a completely different character.  This girl is not innocent, she is portrayed as promiscuous and grown up.  The red wallpaper symbolizes danger and lust.  The furniture is dark which goes with the dark personality of the girl and provides a contrast with the light wood of the first room.  There is a large dresser and mirror in the room which shows

that the girl takes a lot of attention to her appearance.  The desk has make up on it and lots of jewelry which makes her seem quite grown up and not youthful.  This girl is dressed in all black which symbolizes how she is not pure or innocent.  She is shown as promiscuous as she is wearing a sheer, lacy top and short skirt, using these costume techniques, the audience have already made judgements on her without getting to know the real character.

I also made the makeup of the not innocent girl reflect the view I am trying to give of her. The dark eye makeup creates a sense of mystery.  The traditional dark lipstick portrays the usual image of a promiscuous girl, the dark hair also makes her seem more mysterious and un-pure to the audience.