Film Analysis: Visual Style

Mise-en-scene

3-Point Lighting

Comprised of key, fill and back lights.

	Key light: main source of illumination.
	Fill light: fills in shadows created by the key light.
	Back light: separates figure from background.

Combining these three results in 3-point lighting.

Cybill Shephard in Moonlighting (1985)

Lighting Contrast: High Key vs. Low Key

High key lighting.

A Night at the Opera (Wood, 1935), 16:00

Low key lighting
Citizen Kane (1941), 18:10.
The Big Combo (1955)	Double Indemnity (1944)
The Lady From Shanghai (1948)

The Matrix (1999)

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

Mad Men production still (2010)

Day-for-Night, aka, la Nuit Americaine
The Hitch-Hiker (1953)
Out of the Past (1947)

Sample Mise-en-scene Analyses:
Shakespeare in Love and Raging Bull

Additional mise-en-scene examples from Television

From "Style and Setting: Mise-en-Scene," Television: Critical Methods and Applications, www.TVCrit.com.