Mise-en-scene in Hawaii Five-0

I decided to use the TV series Hawaii Five-0, specifically season four episode 12, for my mise-en-scene comments because it has a lot of different changes in scenery and in mood.

     At the beginning of every Hawaii Five-0 episode, there's a specific introduction scene which will tell the story for the episode ahead. This opening scene set the tone and storyline behind this episode. In this scene, the setting is a noisy, wild, and hectic club, known as The Hideaway Bar. This key scene of setting "sets" up the case for the investigation, being as the bar is where the murder took place. At the beginning of the scene, blocking is used to show how the owner, who is casually watching TV at his bar, has power and authority over his employee, who is behind the bar cleaning dishes. This introduces the character but also uses diegetic sound to make sure that the viewers catch on to the donation the owner has made to the Honolulu Police Department of $100,000 which shows his true character and will be an important detail to remember throughout this episode.

      At the bar, the viewer will easily notice that the lighting is very low-key, which makes the scene seem a bit mysterious. The lighting is very dark, with shadows and different colored lights and smoke emerging every minute. Along with the lighting, the loud music tends to add to the somewhat uneasy feel of this bar. Soon enough, a bar fight breaks out, which results in the owner kicking two gang members out. After locking up for the night, the owner walks outside to get a surprise attack from thr two gang members he previously kicked out. This scene is very dark and only shows the light when the three characters are hitting each other, trying to focus only on the action and intensity of the scene. The scene ends off with a hard punch to the owners face, which then opens to the title scene and introduction.
     Since the main characters are all cops in the present day, costume is also a very important aspect of mise-en-scene. When Danny or Steve, the two main characters, are not on call, Steve wears casual button-up shirts and cargo pants and Danny dresses a little fancier and wears business casual clothing. When the two are on active duty, they wear bulletproof vests, carry guns, tasers, handcuffs, and always have their walk-e talk-e's on them. The wardrobe of these two characters really makes the show out what it is supposed to be. Without the clothing worn by these two characters, the show could have a completely different meaning.

     Lastly, frontality is also used in Hawaii Five-0 as an example of mise-en-scene. When interviewing each suspect, they are faced directly at the camera which gives the viewer a more intimate and in-depth feel of what is actually going on in the show because they start to get involved. When questioning or "interrogating" each suspect, the suspect if handcuffed down to a metal chair and Danny and Steve casually stand in the cold, dark room and make their suspect talk. After persuading the suspect to tell them all they need to know, frontality is used when the suspect is talking to change the view of the scene and get the viewer involved.

Five Master Shots with Sound Effects

Click here to view my five master shots with sound effects!

Non Diegetic sound- The clip we used to represent non- diegetic sound was the symbolism clip of the water bottle transforming into a tree. This symbolism clip represented recycling buy showing a re-usable water bottle eventually turning into a tree. The sound we chose to include in this clip was chirping birds. By adding the sound of morning birds chirping, it enhanced the value of nature and natural beauty through recycling. The mood of this video changed by honoring the natural sounds of nature. Without the sound, the video still has the same meaning but adding calming nature sounds really enhances the natural beauty of recycling. 

Contrast- The clip we used to represent a voice-over, was our contrast video. In our video, the scenes flip between both Lily and I casually getting homework done which is followed by us both rushing to get our homework done. This scene may have been confusing to viewers without sound, but when the sound is added the scene comes to life. For our first clip, Lily and I casually talked about how we had to get out homework done, and then in the next clip where we were rushing to get our work done we spoke in a more panicked voice explaining how we have little to no time to get our work done. Adding a voice over to this scene really gave a more clear understanding of what was going on in the scene and painted a picture of what an averages students school night might look like.

Parallelism- The clip we used to represent adding music was our parallelism shot. In our shot, we show us walking on a green screen which then turns into us walking on grass. The music we added was the song "I'm gonna be" by the Proclaimers. By adding the music to the scene it shows how the two scenes connect and are parallel to each other with a common sense of walking from one distance to another. 

Simultaneity- The video we used to represent diegetic sound was our simultaneity shot. Our shot shows two things happening at the same time (the murderer getting away, and the news searching for him). When recording our video, I talked, pretending to be a newscaster. This sound was already embedded in the video and the clip did not make sense without sound. 

Leitmotif- Another example of non-diegetic sound is represented through our leitmotif clip. Our clip is a clock ticking, with music slowly increasing as time gets closer to 11:59 when our assignment is due. Without the music, the clip would not be an example of leitmotif. The music adds suspense to the scene which represents what is felt when an assignment is very close to its due date.