MIse-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a film production. It practically means "visual theme" or "telling a story" in both visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design and storytelling in poetically artful ways through direction. 

Now talking about the mise-en-scene, all of its aspects (that I will discuss later) should coincide with each other. Why? so the film would be consistent in terms of what era or time it is set.

Lets take for example the movie "Pride and Prejudice" a film adaptation from a novel written by Jane Austen. The movie is set during the 19th century of the British Regency. Now lets review the different aspects of Mise-en-scene and find out if the movie consistently did it...

First aspect is SET DESIGN : set design is everything we see in the movie, from the furnitures used to the place where it was shot.

Here are some of the set design of the movie  Pride and Prejudice:

The Bennet's house

Interior of the Burghley house, 
the house of Lady Catherine De Bourg, 
aunt of Mr. Darcy

The pictures are the different houses of two different families, the Bennet's who are not really rich, the interior of their house is a bit boring, dark brown furniture's and an elegant looking yet simple couch with a large mat which I think is a custom from the era that they are trying to set.

While for lady Catherine's house, it is so elegant, which is fitting because the family is rich and powerful. Both the houses represents the era very well.

Next aspect is the COSTUME, HAIR and MAKE UP:

The costumes of the characters most especially the ladies are characterize by long dresses with ribbons on their waste. No heavy make up and hair are tied into buns and decorated with ribbons or other hair accessories. As for the men, they wear long and dark colored clothes and black shoes.

Next aspect is the BLOCKING of the Characters: 

 

Mr. Darcy finally confesses his feelings to Lizzie.

in my opinion, among the other aspects, this was done excellently. Perfect casting, the characters gave justice to their roles that its as if they were not acting. The picture above shows the emotions that Mr. Darcy projected through his eyes,indeed it looks so real. The accent and the script was also good, though I was not able to understand half of what they are saying.  So bottom line is, it was really good. 

Now lets move on to LIGHTING: 

Their confessions of love made more romantic and dramatic with the sunrise.

aside from the lighting equipment used during the shoot, the very obvious source of light  is the chandeliers, the candles and natural light.