Although the average viewer is rarely conscious of it, mise-en-scene is both a powerful and important cinematic technique in film. Mise-en-scene allows the director to guide the viewer’s attention to what they should be looking at so that important details are not missed and trivial details are not focused on. Many effective elements of mise-en-scene are illustrated in the “white room” scene in The Matrix, in which directors Andy and Larry Wachowski use only minimal setting, costume, and staging in a very effective way.
Quite often, film scenes are filled with a variety of props and have rich, textured backgrounds. This scene, in contrast, is played out in an empty, white room with minimal props; two chairs, a television, a table, and a
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