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CHAPTER 3
MISE-EN-SCÈNE: EXPLORING A MATERIAL WORLD
MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. Mise-en-scène includes
A. sets and setting.
B. actors.
2. The function of costumes and make-up in films is
A. to help viewers understand and follow a character and the development of the story.
B. to reproduce the clothing and facial features of people living in a specific time and place.
3. Character actors are
A. relatively large groups of “background artists” who provide character and sometimes personality to large crowd
scenes.
D. the two or three actors who appear most often in a film.
E. None of the options is correct.
4. Naturalistic acting requires an actor to
A. employ emphatic and highly self-conscious gestures.
D. speak in pronounced tones with elevated diction.
E. All of the options are correct.
5. Aspects of nineteenthcentury visual culture that influenced the staging of early films included all of the following
EXCEPT
B. special effects.*
C. participation of famous stage actors.
D. indoor lighting systems.
E. painted sets and props.
6. Chiaroscuro lighting has been used in films
A. to create a light and lofty feeling.
D. to replicate the lighting in a museum or an art gallery.
E. All of the options are correct.
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B. heroic mise–en-scène.
C. comic mise–en-scène.
D. naturalistic mise–en-scène.
8. An example of a cultural prop is
A. Gene Kelly’s umbrella in Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
B. the knife in Psycho (1960).
C. a mysterious briefcase in Ronin (1998).
C. A highlighting technique that illuminates the person or object from behind
D. An arrangement of characters or groups according to visual patterns
E. None of the options is correct.
10. A set designer
A. scouts for realistic locations.
B. determines how actors are costumed and made up.
C. uses lighting to shade and accentuate figures, objects, and spaces of the mise–en-scène.
FILL–IN-THE-BLANK QUESTIONS
1. A term meaning literally “placement in a scene” or “onstage,” _____________ refers to those elements of a
2. Large soundproofed buildings called _____________ were designed to facilitate the construction and movement of
4. Actors are frequently cast for parts precisely because of their association with certain _____________ that they
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS
(3-4 SENTENCES)
1. How do different approaches to and cultural contexts for mise–en–scène help us identify and assign meaning? What
effects might be created for the film viewer through sets, props, acting styles, blocking, lighting, and other elements
of mise-en–scène?
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2. How can the arrangement and movement of actors in relation to each other within the physical space of a mise –en–
scène be deployed to accentuate relations among them?
3. What are the effects of directional lighting in conjunction with the narrative and other features of the mise –en–
scène? Give two examples of directional lighting that elicit certain responses.
4. What is a metaphorical prop? Give two examples of what one might convey in a film.
5. Explain how characters attract or repulse us through the clothing and make-up they wear.