A visual glossary of some key terms often used in cinematography, as well as relevant examples.

1. Mis En Scene Example Connotation
Lighting Whether it’s to represent a happy
and light or sinister theme,
lighting is the most essential key
to creating any scene effectively.
Take “TheGodfather”, one of the
greatest (if not the greatest)
movies of all time. A lot of scenes
in The Godfather wouldn’t have
been as effective if not for its low
key lighting.
Costume Costumes and makeup make up
(Hah hah.) a characters whole
aesthetic, and can often be very
iconic. Take “TheWarriors”, for
example; costumes were key to
making that film as classic as it is
today, since the characters are all
distinguishable from one another.
Props Props can often be central to a
scene, so care must be taken when
representing them and
distinguishing them among others.
A famous example would be the
Nazgul’s swords and horses from
the “Lord of the Rings” movies.
Music As seen in the Alfred Hitchcock
movie “Pyshco”and the
(in)famous shower scene, music is
always key to complimenting the
atmosphereof a certain scene.
Setting As seen in the movie “Locke”,
which takes place entirely in the
interior (or close exterior) of a
BMWX5, a scene’s setting can
often offer relative information to
a scene’s whereabouts and time
period as well as a certain
atmosphere.
Colours Colours are always a key part of
creating visual aesthetic, and can
sometimes be iconic to a movie.
(As seen in “Schindler’s List”.)