Mise En Scene

The mise en scene is what you view and see in a scene. However, You specifically look at and analyse, the:

• Lighting
• Props 
• Costume, Hair and Make up 
• Set
• Character Performance
• Shot type 

Below is a shot of a scene from comedy film 'Madea's Big Happy Family'.

First of all, this shot is a mid long shot which has been taken at eye level, giving you the perception that you are sitting around the table.
The set shows us that this scene is set in the dining room, where the dinner table is focused on. Furthermore, the set connotes the house might be owned by an older person, as the colour of the walls and curtains are quite dull, such as green, usually associated with older and middle aged people. the walls and the curtains seemed to be patterned, so this could suggests that this is a woman's house.

There many props in this scene, such as the dining table (mentioned previously), with the plates, cups and pots on it, chairs. Furthermore, the plates don't contain, food even though there is food on the table, however the cups are full with drink.

The lighting in this scene, is quite bright. This emphasizes the details, of what the characters costumes, the facial expressions of the characters, and the props. In addition the lamp in the background appears to be on, so the room seems to be well lit and that this scene must be at night time.

The appearance of the women denotes they have make up on, and well groomed hair, and the men are well groomed as well. This connotes that the the characters care about there appearance.

The costumes women's costumes are very colourful but the men's costumes are very dull, consisting of black and grey. This connotes that the women are colourful people, extravagant, which is show through their clothing, as woman has a green coloured dress, and the other is wearing a orange coloured dress, both are which are summery and bright. However,the men are wearing, dull coloured long sleeved tops, which connotes that the men are more subdued and not as loud and extravagant. Furthermore, while the women are wearing clothing you associate, with wearing in the summer, the men are wearing clothing you associate with in the winter. This is very contrasting and contradictory. Overall, from the connotation from their costumes, the women seem to be more colourful than than the men.

The character performance is significant in this shot, as it displays to us the relationship between the characters. As this shot is a mid long shot which has been taken at eye level, giving you the perception that you are sitting around the table, but the characters are closer to the camera, you are more focused on them, mainly the man and the woman who are looking at each other. The character on the far left, seems to be looking way from the conversation, the man and woman seem to be having, and she seems to be looking at someone cut if from this shot. Her facial expressions suggests that she is surprised at what someone has said or done, even though we do not know who she is looking at. The young man, who is sitting next to both women, holding a baby, seems to be looking in on the conversation, intrigued, which is demonstrated by his facial expression, but not involved in the conversation. The woman and man who appear to be looking at each other, seem to have some sort of relationship. This is shown, by how they are positioned more closer together than the other characters appear to be, and nearly blocking out everyone else. However, it looks as there is negativity coming from the woman, as she has an angry facial expression, which is towards the man, who has a straight and calm face. This suggests, there may be tension in there relationship, whatever, sort of relationship they have. In addition, as the man and the woman have different facial expressions, this shows that the feelings between these to, being angry are one sided, the man not understand or he is just putting a straight face, and isn't showing his emotions like the woman is.