Importance of Set design or Mise en scene in Cinema

Mise-en-scène is a French term which means, literally, "put in the scene." For film, it has a broader meaning, and refers to almost everything that goes into the composition of the shot, including the composition itself: framing, movement of the camera and characters, lighting, set design and general visual environment, even sound as it helps elaborate the composition. Mise-en-scène can be defined as the articulation of cinematic space, and it is precisely space that it is about. Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theater or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story" both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term". When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, sounds, and lighting. 

The “mise-en-scène”, along with the cinematography and editing of a film, influence the verisimilitude of a film in the eyes of its viewers. The various elements of design help express a film’s vision by generating a sense of time and space, as well as setting a mood, and sometimes suggesting a character’s state of mind. “Mise-en-scène” also includes the composition, which consists of the positioning and movement of actors, as well as objects, in the shot. These are all the areas overseen by the director, and thus, in French film credits, the director's title is metteur en scène, "placer on scene." Andre Bazin, a well-known French film critic and film theorist, describes the mise-en-scene aesthetic as emphasizing choreographed movement within the scene rather than through editing.

For some film critic, it refers to all elements of visual style—that is, both elements on the set and aspects of the camera. For others, such as U.S. film critic Andrew Sarris, it takes on mystical meanings related to the emotional tone of a film. The term is sometimes used to represent a style of conveying the information of a scene primarily through a single shot often accompanied by camera movement. Mise en scene is nothing other than the technique invented by each director to express the idea and establish the specific quality of his work.

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Major Film Movements - German Expressionism

German Expressionism is an artistic genre that originated in Europe in the 1920s, and is broadly defined as the rejection of Western conventions, and the depiction of reality that is widely distorted for emotional effect. Heavily influenced by artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and El Greco, Expressionists were less concerned with producing aesthetically pleasing compositions as they were with creating powerful reactions to their work through the use of bright, clashing colours, flat shapes, and jagged brushstrokes. In its nature, the movement was interested in the relationship between art and society, and encompassed a broad range of fields, including architecture, painting, and film. 

Expressionist films were initially born out of Germany's relative isolation during the 1910's, and quickly generated high demand due to the government's ban on foreign films. The films' appeal soon spread to an international audience, and by the early 1920's, many European filmmakers had begun experimenting with the absurd and wild aesthetics of German cinema. Two of the most influential films of the era were Metropolis (1927), by Fritz Lang (Austrian, 1877–1961), and The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920), by Robert Wiene (German, 1873–1938). Similar to Expressionist paintings, Expressionist films sought to convey the inner, subjective experience of its subjects. Expressionist film in the 1920's was based on the premise that film becomes art only to the extent that the film image differs from reality.

In German film making in the 1910's and 1920's, one can observe tone, meaning, and narrative information conveyed through mise-en-scène. These films were a part of the German Expressionism movement in the 1920’s, and were characterized by their extreme sets, décor, acting, lighting, and camera angles. The aim of these films is to have an extremely dramatic effect on the audience, often emphasizing the fantastic and grotesque. Perhaps the most famous example of this is The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1919) where a character's internal state of mind is represented through set design and blocking. The sets involved stress the madness and horror of the film, as expressionist films are meant to do.

Set design:

An important element of "putting in the scene" is set design—the setting of a scene and the objects (props) visible in a scene. Set design can be used to amplify character emotion or the dominant mood, which has physical, social, psychological, emotional, economic and cultural significance in film.

Lighting:

The intensity, direction, and quality of lighting can influence an audience’s understanding of characters, actions, themes and mood. Light (and shade) can emphasize texture, shape, distance, mood, time of day or night, season, glamour; it affects the way colors are rendered, both in terms of hue and depth, and can focus attention on particular elements of the composition. Highlights, for example, call attention to shapes and textures, while shadows often conceal things, creating a sense of mystery or fear. For this reason, lighting must be thoroughly planned in advance to ensure its desired effect on an audience. Cinematographers are a large part of this process, as they coordinate the camera and the lighting.

Space:

The representation of space affects the reading of a film. Depth, proximity, size and proportions of the places and objects in a film can be manipulated through camera placement and lenses, lighting, set design, effectively determining mood or relationships between elements in the story world.

Composition:

It includes the organization of objects, actors and space within the frame. One of the most important concepts with the regard to the composition of a film is maintaining a balance of symmetry. This refers to having an equal distribution of light, color, and objects and/or figures in a shot. Unbalanced composition can be used to emphasize certain elements of a film that the director wishes to be given particular attention to. This tool works because audiences are more inclined to pay attention to something off balance, as it may seem abnormal.

Costume:

Costume simply refers to the clothes that characters wear. Costumes in narrative cinema are used to signify characters or to make clear distinctions between characters.

Makeup and hair styles:

Establish time period, reveal character traits and signal changes in character.

Acting:

There is enormous historical and cultural variation in performance styles in the cinema. In the early years of cinema, stage acting and film acting were difficult to differentiate, as most film actors had previously been stage actors and therefore knew no other method of acting. Eventually, early melodramatic styles, clearly indebted to the 19^th century theater, gave way in Western cinema to a relatively naturalistic style. This more naturalistic style of acting is largely influenced by Constantin Stanislavski’s theory of method acting, which involves the actor fully immersing themselves in their character.

Cabinet of Dr.Caligary

Filmed in 1920, The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari tells the story of Francis, who, through flashbacks, recounts his terrifying experiences at a carnival in a small German village, where he first encountered Dr.Caligari, a man with the power to control people in their sleep. When Francis's friend is mysteriously murdered and his fiancée is kidnapped, he pursues Dr.Caligari to an insane asylum, determined to unravel the mystery surrounding these terrible events.

In scenes throughout the film, sidewalks lead nowhere, walls appear warped, creating strange shapes, and buildings rise at distorted angles in the background. Considering the cultural context in which Caligari was created, it makes sense that German Expressionism was such a widely used device in film, visual art, and literature. The sense of anxiety, distrust, and uneasiness were at an all-time high in Germany following World War I, and films such as Caligari were examples of art imitating life.

Robert Wiene

Robert Wiene was an important film director of the German silent cinema. He is particularly known for directing the influential German silent film The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari and a succession of other expressionist films. Wiene also directed a variety of other films of varying styles and genres. Following the Nazi rise to power in Germany, Wiene fled into exile.

Major Films and Directors

The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920): Robert Wiene

Nosferatu (1922): F. W. Murnau

Faust (1926): F. W. Murnau

Metropolis (1927): Fritz Lang

M (1931): Fritz Lang

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