Mise-en-Scene and Diegesis

Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-Scene is defined as how a frame is composed. The term "Mise-en-Scene" is a french phrase that literally means “to place into a scene." 

So, it relates to everything that goes into the composition of a frame. This includes lighting, props, blocking of performers, set design and the representation of space. 

The Mis-en-Scene can be manipulated through camera placement, decor, and the objects contained in the setting of a space. Production materials like a certain size lens can also greatly affect the Mise-En-Scene. 

In this still from 2001: A Space Odyssey, notice how the use of a anamorphic (ultra wide) lens affects the film's mise-en-scene to create a cylindrical effect. From The Hollywood Reporter Links to an external site.

 

Other aspects of cinematography like Deep Space (style of framing allowing for a definitive foreground, mid-ground and background) and Shallow Focus (restricting depth of field to create a seemingly flat image) can also influence a film's mise-en-scene. 

 

Diegesis 

The Diegisis is the fictional world of the film. It includes the objects, characters, and/or spaces that create the world within the frame. Basically, it's defined as anything that exists in the world of the film, including both on-screen information and what is implied about the world of the film. 

According to the Yale Film Analysis Guide: The diegesis includes objects, events, spaces and the characters that inhabit them, including things, actions, and attitudes not explicitly presented in the film but inferred by the audience. That audience constructs a diegetic world from the material presented.

The relationship between the mise-en-scene and the diegisis is that the mise-en-scene helps create the diegisis. The mise-en-scene is always a concrete aspect of a frame whereas the diegisis is always imaginary.

 

Let's use the above still from Singin' in the Rain as an example. The main character played by Gene Kelly, the department store he's walking past and the lamps lining the street are all part of the mise-en-scene but help create the film's diegesis. The inside of the department store, the other side of the street, the rooftops the buildings, traffic signals, cars etc. are off-screen elements that represent the diegesis. 

 

Sound is also part of the diegisis. Diegetic sound is anything that a character can hear in the film as well as other sounds that a character may not be able to hear that occur within the filmic world.

There are also non-diegetic elements in a film. Non-diegetic elements are things that are outside of the film world and are elicited by the audience. For example, someone laughing in the theater that you're screening the film is a non-diegetic element.

A famous non-diegetic film element in a film is its soundtrack.  Most of the time, the characters cannot hear the soundtrack. Only the audience can hear it. Therefore, the element is non-diegetic. 

Continue on to learn more about off-screen space, part of a film's diegesis. Before that however, consider the poll question below.