Film Storytelling & Visual Design: Narrative and Mise en Scène

Posted on Sep 24, 2025 in Arts and Humanities

Film Narrative: Storytelling Frameworks

  • Narrative form is the organizing storytelling framework of a film.
  • The opening scenes of a film, during which a great deal of information about characters and situations is imparted, are known as the exposition.
  • The standard pattern that shapes narrative films is the three-act structure.
  • The dénouement is a series of events in the third act of the film that resolves the conflicts that have arisen.
  • In a film, the exposition usually takes place near the beginning.
  • In episodic narratives, events are not tightly connected in a cause-and-effect sequence, and characters do not focus on a single goal.
  • An open ending in a film is when a narrative concludes without resolving its conflicts.
  • Diegetic elements are details that are part of the story world the characters inhabit.
  • In a narrative film, an element is nondiegetic if it is not part of the world of the depicted narrative.
  • A narrative is also an account of a string of events occurring in space and time.
  • The story in a narrative is the sum total of all events in chronological order.
  • Classical filmmakers prefer that the end of a film bring closure.
  • A narrator is the agent who tells the story in a film.
  • The process of narration involves distributing story information to achieve specific effects.

Mise en Scène: Visual Elements in Film

  • Mise en scène, a French term meaning “what is put into a scene or frame,” refers to the implied world of the story, including settings, characters, sounds, and events.
  • The primary function of setting is to establish time and place, introduce ideas and themes, and create mood.
  • Actors’ performances contribute a great deal to a film’s meaning. Most narrative feature films tell stories about human beings and the conflicts they face.
  • Figure placement and movement—what audiences see on screen—can produce artful compositions, provide information about characters and their relationships, develop motifs, and reinforce themes.
  • Costumes provide information about time and place, but, more importantly, they express social milieu and personal style.
  • Makeup and hairstyles establish time period, reveal character traits, and signal changes in characters.
  • Lighting is an element of mise en scène because it illuminates the set and the actors and can be used to create certain moods and effects. It is also related to issues of cinematography, since film stock, lenses and filters, and processing techniques all affect the look of a film. Lighting furthers the audience’s understanding of characters, underscores particular actions, develops themes, and establishes mood.
  • Light exhibits three attributes: quality (hard or soft), placement (the direction from which the light strikes the subject), and contrast (high or low).
  • In the Hollywood studio era, a system of lighting was developed that would allow cinematographers to do just that. Three-point lighting (key, fill, and back lights) has remained a standard approach to lighting.
  • High-key lighting refers to a lighting design in which the key-to-fill ratio is 2:1 or lower.
  • Natural-key lighting (or normal lighting) is produced with a ratio of key-to-fill light between 4:1 and 8:1.
  • Low-key lighting is produced by increasing the intensity of the key light relative to the fill. In low-key lighting, the lighting ratio (key/fill) is between 16:1 and 32:1.
  • Composition, defined as the visual arrangement of the objects, actors, and space within the frame, may reiterate underlying themes and ideas, and may also produce striking visual effects.