Research into mise-en-scene - Miss Georgiou

Research into mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is a french word used to communicate information to the audience by visual information in front of the camera. The five elements that make up mise-en-scene include settings and iconography, costume hair and makeup, facial expressions and body language, lighting and colour and the positioning of characters/objects within the frame. Mise-en-scene.

Settings and iconography 
the setting used in ''Insidious - Face of fire'' is a basic dining room with the characters sitting around a table in the middle of the day. This shows that the characters are all of equal importance as none are of a higher status, this is conventional to a thriller as it shows the vulnerability of all the characters as they are helpless ordinary people concerned about something. The mid shots and zoomed in shots show what the two parents are feeling and their emotions, this helps the audience understand how to feel.  The iconography also helps the audience to associate with the characters, as the basic everyday objects make the audience relate to the characters a lot more than if they were of a much higher status. Then the setting changes to walking down a dark corridor in the middle of the night and into the young boy's bedroom. The camera angles are quite jerky and unsteady so it shows the point of view of the lady walking. This creates a relationship with the character as the audience is put into the characters shoes. This is conventional to a thriller as it creates a sense of uncertainty as you are in the characters position and you are expecting something bad to happen as the scary music makes the audience feel uncomfortable.

Costume, hair and makeup
the costumes, hair and makeup in the first scene when the three people are sitting around the table are very everyday, casual and laid back. This helps the audience to understand what the characters are like and have a better understanding of what status they are, which is everyday people. The distressed look of they're hair and costumes show that they're concerned about something also. In the next scene the demon's outfit aren't showed much until the end where you see its face and therefore the makeup. The makeup used is defiantly symbolic to that particular character, and indicates to the audience that he is the 'feared' character, the music used and the womans reaction also help us to understand this.

Facial expressions and body language 
At the beginning when the first lady is talking, her facial expressions show that she is concerned about something, we can also tell this by her body language as she is holding her hands being nervous to talk (0:16). At 1:07 you see the other lady's facial reaction to what has been said, you can see she looks very distressed and worried, this shows that she is a victim in the film and naive to what is happening. From 1:30-1:42 all of the characters around the table look very concerned as the man is frowning, the lady looks like she is starting to cry and the woman is holding both her hands for comfort. At 1:44 the lady's facial expression changes to screaming and looking very scared, her body language as she covers her mouth with her hands and jumps up shows the audience that she is fearful of something and frightened. The other characters body language at this time show similar things as the lady also jumps up to comfort the woman, and the man looks shocked and concerned. 

positioning of characters and objects within a frame
The position of the first lady talking is at the head of the table, this shows the importance of the character and also tells the audience that she is the one telling the story and the main person in this scene. When the demon is showed in the little boys room, he is on the side next to the boys bed, whilst the boy is in the middle of the shot asleep. At the end at 1:44 you see the man with the demon behind him, you only see half of its face but you can tell the positioning has been used to make the audience feel more fearful as half of him is covered and hiding his identity which is common in most thriller films.

Colour and lighting 
during the first part of the scene there is high key lighting, this makes the scene feel like the middle of the day. The lighting doesn't really give a particular mood or feeling to the scene as they are having a serious conversation. But later on when she is walking down the corridor in her dream, there is low key lighting. This sets the mood that something bad is going to happen and creates and eery, scary mood. When the little boy's room is showed, there is a main light which is behind the demon and makes the demon stand out more than the boy who is in the bed.