Post 20 - Media Language - Mise-en-scene

Mise-en scene, the constructs of a scene, is one of the most vital aspects of a film to get right. This feature of film-making is all of what the audience sees, the locations, the props, the costumes, all of these are vital to the audience's understanding of what is going on in a film.

The short film above is based off of the video games 'Portal 2' and 'Half-Life'. Because of this, the mise-en-scene of the film was designed to be accurate to the design and image of both of the games, the example of the costumes is one of the most obvious, below are comparisons with the two characters and the live action film versions.

The detail in the film places the audience in a state of understanding, if they are a fan of the two games, they'll instantly know the character [although the title shows this too] but people who aren't aware of the games, will be able to tell that the male character is a scientist or engineer of some sort due to his non-military style armour and the female character has been in a science based area as her shirt says 'Aperture Laboratories' and the fact she has blood on her shirt and trousers signifies she's gone through a tough experience.

Lighting is also significant as the left image shows the character is either during sunrise or sun-set, due to the colour of the light, a slight orange; whilst the image on the right shows the character in bright daylight, the light to the side of him, this creates shadows which make him look powerful and threatening.