Mise-en-scene of a tv drama

The key points:

1. Costume - what it tells us of their personalities
2. Body Language - how they react
3. Props - are they holding something?
4. Location - how does this connect to the people and how they act
5. Set Design - like location but attention to detail for example - whats in their room?
6. Lighting - why the mood is like that and it reflects on the scene & the characters.
7. Gender - how the male/female stereotypes are addressed, etc.

For this I will use Waterloo Road as an example, Waterloo Road is TV drama based on a fictional school set in Greater Manchester. The show typically deals with teachers and students dealing with every day issues, also issues not usually addressed on TV shows such as suicide, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, abortion, cancer, illnesses, affairs & murders. 

 1. The costumes. 
It is set in a school. Therefore most of the cast will be in school uniforms. (The typical white shirt, tie, trousers, black shoes with a jumper and or blazer.) As in the images, you can see it is all very formal clothing. (Except for one, where the teacher is running, this was to set the tone of the episode, it gives the viewer, a chance to see the characters before the school environment. Adding in a song is also a hint as to how the episode was going to run and what the main feeling of the episode is.)


2. Body Language.
The body language seems natural here. It doesn't seem over acted. Everything seems natural - as if it were to happen in a real school. 


3. Props
Once again, as it is in a school, most of the props seem to be the obvious - school bags, folders, newspapers, instruments. The props aren't the focus of the scene, they're more background to give the scene a more realistic feeling. They aren't displaying the props as the only thing in the shot - unless necessary - like a newspaper or a phone. This is so the viewers can see what the character is seeing, we are put in the position of the character.


4. Location.
It is meant to be set in Greater Manchester, however we can only see the school and surrounding areas (car parks, playgrounds.) This is so the focus is purely on the school. The location & set design are made up fully so it is more realistic. It looks like an actual school. If you were to walk around a comprehensive secondary school, you are more than likely to see things like this.


5. Set Design
You can't tell that it is in fact shot in a studio, you genuinely get the feeling you are among corridors and class rooms. Some parts may, in fact, be shot in a school, but you are unable to tell the difference between where the studio scenes are and where the school scenes are. It has a lot of continuntity - you see the corridors and class rooms again the way they were left before - the sets don't change in between where the scene left off, and where the scene continues again. 


6. Lighting
Most of it is natural lighting through the windows and such. However in lots of scenes the class room lights are turned on as well. This is most probably down to the fact that artificial stage lighting would be too obvious in scenes. From the corridor to the class room, the lighting shouldn't change that drastically and this is another reason as to why shooting is always during the day - where they get the most natural lighting.


7. Gender

The roles of genders in Waterloo Road is something that has come up quite recently in a storyline - domestic abuse. Only it was the girl who was abusive towards her boyfriend. This is different from how it is usually done. Usually the boy is abusive towards the girl and everyone is angry at the boy and it shows the different points of view, here, we see how girls can be abusive as well. Sexism is a large role in this storyline - if the boy had hit the girl, would they still be together? They're only still together because she's a girl and she didn't mean to hit him.