mise en scene

    When we watch a tv show or movie, we are looking at the Mise en Scene. The Mise en Scene is everything that the audience can see on screen. Some main areas in Mise en scene is setting, lighting, costume, and staging. In this blog post, I am going to analyze the show, Community.

SETTING:

The main setting is at a study room in the Community college, Greendale. The walls are blue with posters hanging all over them. There are many bookshelves with books in them. And to the right, there is a main desk with 8 chairs. This is where the main cast sits during every study session. This creates a family and homey feeling because of how comfortable they are in this space.

LIGHTING:

Throughout most of the show, three point lighting is  used. Three point lighting allows us to see the characters and the background perfectly and the balance of lighting between them is the same. This creates a normal atmosphere because it is regular, everyday lighting we are used to seeing. This also shows how one of the characters, Abed, is the one filming the video. 

COSTUME:

The costuming of the characters gives insight on their personalities. For example, the third person in the front row, Annie, is wearing proper clothing with her hair clipped up to the side. This implies that she is the more studious and well put together person of the group. The person in the top right corner, Pierce, is wearing a 70's style outfit with a long sleeve button-up and a vest over it. This insinuates that he is old fashioned.

STAGING:

For the staging, I would like to focus on this one scene. 

This scene uses a mix of over the shoulder, medium, and long shots in order to show the different characters as they all have a conversation. One shot that stands out is at the 0:11 mark when there is an insert shot of the food Britta brought for the Halloween party she threw. Simple cut transitions are used when moving from one shot to another. When the camera moves, it is usually a pan followed by a zoom out. An example of this is at the 0:05 mark in the video.