Spotted: Mise en Scene!

Evening Upper Media Siders, you know who it is, it's your favorite Media Studies site with more information than ever.

This week,  I rewatched one of my favorite episode of The Vampire Diaries and went scene by scene joting down the general mise-en-scene I saw. For example, setting, lighting, costume, and staging really do contribute to the overall tone and feeling of the show. Let's get started! 

First off, If you have never heard about the show, The Vampire Diaries, here's a quick little main idea of the show: The lives, loves, dangers and disasters in the town, Mystic Falls, Virginia. Creatures of unspeakable horror lurk beneath this town as a teenage girl is suddenly torn between two vampire brothers. After centuries of quarreling, Stefan and Damon Salvatore return to their original town of Mystic Fall Virginia.

The Vampire Diaries (6x22)

The Vampire Diaries Show its self channels a supernatural, thriller, mystery, and romance genres. The show takes place from 2009 to 2018. The type of clothing, music, and slang develops through the show and the use of mise-en-scene really helps make the entire show flow and true to its genre. I am going to be covering 4 mise-en-scene elements in this specific episode. 

 1. Setting: The Vampire Diaries takes place in Mystic Falls, Virginia. Mystic Falls is the perfect place for this show, it channels just the right amount of mystery, thriller, and supernatural. Every day there is a new monster, creature, or problem in the town. The vampire diaries show would not exist without its Mystic Falls. The area itself is a small, modern town that everyone knows each other. All the houses look the same, a lot of trees, one high school, one restaurant, and a huge cemetery. This episode itself takes place in Mystic Falls as one of the characters is getting married. The settings in Mystic Falls usually share some similarities, wooden features, dark colors, and ancient history. Traditions are very big in The Vampire Diaries, and it is quite established in its setting. Many of the buildings are historical and have significant meaning to the storyline and the development is the plot. Below I added some pictures of mystic falls that can help develop my explanation. 

2. Lighting: Lighting is very important in the Vampire Diaries since the story reveals around Vampires, Monsters, Werewolves, basically any supernatural creature you could think off. When it comes to lighting, 98% of the time, dark lighting is used to capture mystery and thriller. Down below I am going to include some pictures from the types of dark lighting in just this episode alone. The dark lighting, helps emphasize  the characters face features; such as, their teeth, changing eyes, and hair. When you think of monsters, majority of the time, you think of nighttime, dark shadows, and foggy locations. The vampire diaries have all 3 of these and many more. Without dark lighting, the show would not even be remotely scary or even capture the full supernatural abilities. Check out this short clip from the episode, notice how dark the lighting is!!

3.Costumes: Vampire Diares have a variety of costumes because the characters range from normal human beings to 1000 year-old immortal creatures. When it comes to the humans outfits, they are the usual 2010s outfits. For example, Low rise jeans, tight long sleeves, and sneakers. However, when it comes to the creatures, like vampires, werewolves, and people that have lived for longer than usual, they typically wear ancient dresses or suits. The vampire diaries like to incorporate a variety of decades into their costumes. For example, the 1920s suits and dress, 60s outfits, 80s outfits, and they even go old school and include clothing from before the 1800s. Vampire Diaries costumes never get boring because each episode they wear something different. The clothing truly does add to the overall tone of the show. One thing that is typically on every part of clothing is BLOOD. Without a little stain of blood on a shirt, the costumes would not be complete. Their doesn't go one episode  where there isn't blood on a short, dress, suit, or even shoe. 

4. Staging: In every show, the actors need to look the part and act the part. In the Vampire Diaries, staging is super important because it's a show all about mystery and thriller so the actors need to be 100% into the role and go all out for the viewers. For example, Vampires need to be emotional, strong, and act crazy when needed so that the scene can look the best. Being comfortable with the role and understanding not only your character but your peer's characters is very important to make sure the viewers are seeing the best shot ever. One character that is especially hard to play because he is reckless, and does very bad things is Kai. His is super sarcastic, emotionless, has zero tolerance for anything, basically a terrible person. The actor, Chris Wood does an amazing job in his performance as well as looking the part. He gives it 100% and its noted in the scenes. Take a look at one of his best performances, (happens to be episode 6x22): 

The vampire diaries is just a well made show that captures the genre perfectly and doesn't fail to entertain the viewers. I personally laughed, cried, yelled, and so much more while watching this show. Its one of my favorites shows in the entire world. Well, until next time!!! 

You know you love me, 
XOXO Nicole Lastra-Rodriguez