Planning - Mise En Scene - Space

In a film character representation can be expressed through mise en scene. Mise en scene is a french term for "putting on stage"  which assists in the interpretation of characters.

there are five main aspects of mise en scene, the main one being how the actor behaves in a shot and how he/he interacts with characters around them.

However today we will talk about space which is another important aspect of mise en scene.

What is space?

Space can be defined as the location of your actors in s shot and it is commonly used to convey relationships and highlight the relative position in highracy. space can be divided into three parts: depth, height and body position.

Depth is how far/close the subject is away from the camera, the closer the subject is to the camera would simulate the appearance of it being larger which can be useful to convey power and authority.

Height is the relative height of a person compared to other characters in the same scene, the higher the character is in the scene would positively correlate to the power and authority of that character.

Body position is similar to body language and it's subtle positioning of body parts i.e. hands behind your backs, torso facing the camera, head looking down, etc...

Examples:

Using our knowledge of space we can apply it to help us analyse scenes, such as this one. 

• Depth: as you can see in this frame the male character is clearly in the position of power sice he is closer to the camera and appears larger then his female counterpart, thus fulfilling the popular sereotype that men are more powerful since the woman is further away from the camera and appears smaller.
• Height: in this scene the man appears higher in the frame witch as we explained before the man is in position of authority since the female is lower.
• Body Positioning: in the frame the man has to stoop down to that of the women. this shows again the level of power.

•  Depth: the character in the background of the frame is taking up more space of the frame so it would be safe to assume that he has more power.
• Height: The character int he background appears higher then the character in the foreground which means he is in position of more authority/power.
• Body positioning: the man at the back is looking down at the man in front.

• Depth: the character is close to the camera are more important to the scene. the characters at the back are less important compared to the man in front.
• Height: the man in front is taller compared to the other two. it gives him more authority.
• Body Language: the characters at the back are showed to be following the man  in front.