MISE-EN SCENE RESEARCHAdam Trotman

MISE-EN SCENE DEFINITION

Mise-En Scene is what is in a shot within in a film and how it is arranged, it relates to the following:

• Composition

• Sets

• Props

• Actors

• Costume

• Lighting

These act as signifiers and connote the genre of a film as well as construct representations.

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

Opening title: http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/napoleon-dynamite/

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

Looking at the mise-en scene in Napoleon Dynamite we can see different things. Looking at the costume and props we can see that they are very simple and are just household objects which suggest that it adding to the comedy factor of the film, we can only see the main protagonist once in the opening scene and what we see is that he is the stereotypical nerd. From the body language of the character we can see that he is unenthusiastic and reserved from his hand movements which is the only time we see his body. The lighting is high key to show the tone of the film which is upbeat and light hearted, yet its still peculiar when you look at the props and décor. The lighting is like this throughout the opening suggesting that the film will always be like this. The setting is quite humble as well as we travel around different areas of what we presume is a house seeing different types of floor, this suggest the light hearted humble nature of the film. The shots of the floor also suggest that the film is set in the mid 80’s as what we see is quite retro telling us that the comedy in the film will be quite retro, as we understand he is a nerd the colours connote old games which we assume he will play to carry out his persona.