MISE-EN-SCENE

Analyse how mise-en-scene is used in the extract from Cuffs to create meaning. Refer to at least two examples from the extract in your answer. (This means that a good candidate will write fully and freely, covering more than just 2 examples, as we practised in class).
Worth 5 marks: write half a side of A4 and post on your blog tonight.


When Jake and Ryan are in the drug addicts front room, the placement of the syringes, empty bottles and general state of the very crucial to the audience to create a sense of menace and seediness in the atmosphere and understanding to the audience. The empty bottles provide us with background knowledge of the man as an addict and alcoholic. Showing that the alcohol has not only made his home a mess but his life as well, the bottles are a metaphor for him as well.

Another example of mise-en-scene in Cuffs would be around 7minutes in when the male -who is later on an identified criminal- is looking at the young girl through the fence in a convict-like shot where he appears to be behind bars of a cell. The way in which this is paired with the police car driving by foreshadows the events that may occur in the near future. The gentleman casted looks normal and could easily be a father but he is messy, he's unshaven and has greasy hair; presenting him to be in a bad place, presenting himself on the inside on the outside which again gives the watcher detail, not too much though so we are engaged and want to continue watching to learn the story of the man.