Mise en scene District 9- Kathryn Warburton

Mise en scene is really everything that is physically seen in the film. Everything including actors, props, setting, lighting, and various other things. All of these things help to give the audience a feeling that the creators of the the film intended to give. In the film District 9, the mise en scene contributes to the depressing, dirty, uncomfortable feeling that you are supposed to get from the movie. The fact that the aliens live in a slum and that this is where the majority of the movie is filmed, creates an atmosphere that is extremely gloomy. The lighting in the slum is either dreary or it is blinding. This is used to give the audience the feeling that these aliens may be feeling. It is to get you on the side of the aliens as opposed to the humans. When on the inside of the alien's huts, the lighting is extremely dim, and the line of sight does not go very far. This gives us the feeling of being trapped and uncomfortable.

Once the main character is infected by the alien substance, the protagonist beings to appear distraught, sweaty, pale, and dirty. These things all contribute to how the director wanted the audience to feel in the terms of this character. They wanted the audience to understand how uncomfortable and sick he was. They made him vomit black to get across the fact that what he was feeling was unnatural, and that is was the alien substance that made him feel sick.