Blog Task 6: Mise en scene

Stranger Things

The character at the start is wearing a white lab coat, this suggests to the audience that the man at the start is a scientist (costume). The dark lighting suggests to the audience that the man is in danger(lighting).The man who was running with fast pace indicates that he was running away from something or someone, as it looked like he had fear in his eyes(setting). The flickering lights at the start of the fim tells the audience that something/someone is like coming closer to the person chasing making the audience hold there breaths in(props).At the start of the play it shows that the male character is scared and feared(emotions/movement).

Extention task

In the opening eight minutes of Stranger Things, the mise-en-scène strongly establishes tone, genre, and narrative direction through all elements of CLAMPS — Costume, Lighting, Acting, Makeup, Props, and Setting. The costumes — lab coats, security uniforms, and later, the kids’ casual 1980s attire — firmly root the series in its period setting while distinguishing social roles and power dynamics. The low, flickering lighting in the lab creates tension and foreshadows danger, reinforcing horror and sci-fi conventions. Acting choices heighten suspense: the panicked scientist sprinting down sterile corridors contrasts sharply with the calm menace implied by whatever unseen force pursues him. Makeup is subtle but effective, contributing to a sense of realism that makes the supernatural threat more unsettling. Props like retro telephones, bicycles, and walkie-talkies are authentic to the 1980s and ground the story in a recognizable suburban past, while the high-tech lab equipment suggests a secretive scientific agenda. The setting moves from an ominous, sterile government lab to a warm, lived-in suburban neighborhood, establishing a clear opposition between normalcy and the uncanny.