Mise-en-scene activity

This Mise-en-scene activity was meant to challenge us to see if we could represent a character and their aesthetic in the form of a presentation composed of physical representations, setting, and audio.

My Character

The character assigned to my group was a shy loner who liked to read books. She has a lot of secrets that eventually come to light. My group gave a twist to the description. We gave her a story that revealed she is actually a secret pop star (inspired by Hanna Montana) to contrast her shy personality. She moved from Florida to Alabama to maintain her secret identity as a pop star.

How Did We Represent Her?

To represent this character, my group created a PowerPoint presentation that guided the viewer through her life and her diary. Each slide would instruct the viewer to flip to a page in the physical diary we made for the presentation, while also showing images on the PowerPoint that gave context to the info on the diary. We also created a mood board that represented her two sides: her shy, book reading self and her pop star persona.

Diary: Violet’s Diary (Digital Copy).pdf

Newspaper: Newspaper 1 (Digital Copy).png and Newspaper 2 (Digital Copy).jpg

Video of alter ego "scarlet": Stage Life Video.mp4

What Our Station Looked Like

We had four laptops with the PowerPoint ready to go at our station. The viewers were meant to follow the PowerPoint and its instructions and read the diary together. The mood board was a physical item that went with the “bedroom theme” that we gave our station. The table was covered with a blanket that had her harry potter books, her mood board, her diary, a microphone, and the mask she uses to keep her “secret identity” when she's in her pop star persona.

Analysis of our Character Development

We developed our character by both following and defying stereotypes. The shy girl is usually shown in media as someone who likes books, likes doing homework, and doesn't have many friends. We showed this with our items like her book and her private diary, but we also showed that just because she's shy- doesn't mean that she is confined to books or school. This is why we leaned into her pop-star persona. Representing that part of “shy girls” that may not be seen too often. The part that is talented and outgoing, even if she is shy. It's obviously exaggerated, but it's meant to point out that the stereotype does not fully represent that population of people, that it simplifies.