Mise-en-Scene in Coraline

 Recently, I was rewatching Coraline and I noticed there were multiple examples of Mise-en-scene throughout the movie. 

The main thing I have noticed was their techniques when it comes to the lighting in the film when it comes to comparing the real world and the other world.

In the real world, the scenes usually have low-key lighting to help expressed how Coraline sees the world. The establishing shot of the house they just bought also aids with the message of the real world being dull. When Coraline was in the other world, the house looks much brighter in the establishing shot to establish the fact Coraline was much happier when in the other world.

As soon as Coraline uncovered the truth about the other world, the house starts to lose its color because Coraline uncovers the truth and the other mother is slowly loosing her grasp of Coraline. When Coraline was in the grasp of the Other Mother, the Other Mother had the world mostly in color and bright since Coraline doesn't like the dullness of the real world. This is shown when comparing the items in the real world and the other world such as the garden and the Other Father's room.

The makers of Coraline also made a creative lighting decision with scenes regarding seeing the Other Mother's appearance. Regarding scenes with the Other Mother, they used a green light in the background. It's a popular choice to use a green color amongst directors in their movies because in kids, they sense the fear of an object when relating to a green color such as the Witch in the Wicked musical and Maleficent's green flames in Sleeping Beauty. Since the movie is directed towards kids, this allowed them to have kids understand the fear of the Other Mother.

With aiding the lighting to set up the scenes throughout the movies, costume aids greatly in Coraline. For example, when Coraline's mom is buying uniforms, all of them are the same dull grey colored to emphasize, that the whole world is dull and boring. The only person that stood out in the scene is Coraline, due to her multi colored clothing. Although the colors are slightly dull, you can tell Coraline is a colorful person even in the dull world and she is much more than the dull world the directors made up.

In the Other World, Coraline received some brighter colored clothes so she was able to match with the bright Other World rather than using her dull pajamas.

Props have also aid with setting up the scenes. An example of this is the food Coraline eats in both worlds. In the real world, Coraline's dad made some porridge and looks sloppy and horrible, suggesting Coraline doesn't like the food. She then states "Why doesn't mom cook." when she enters the Other World, the Other Mother was the one making the food and we see noticeable tasty food such as chicken, mashed potatoes, and some milkshakes on top of the chandelier.

Expressions helps greatly to express how each character acts and feel in a particular scene. In the real world, Coraline's mom is very annoyed of her and preferred to do her work rather than spend time with Coraline. This is shown when Coraline asked if her mom have the key to the small door to the Other World.

Coraline's expression was a main factor of carrying out the message of what is going on in a scene. In the real world, she has a "meh" or annoyed expression. In the Other World, she was extremely happy most of time before she uncovers the truth. With her expression, this carries the mood of the settings to the audience and since the movie is revolve around her feelings and the illusion she wishes the real world was, her expression is extremely important to the story the directors are trying to tell.