Breaking Bad's Mise-en-Scène

Hey y'all, I'm back with another post! As you know, I am a big fan of Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad. I made a whole mood board about it; you can find that blog post
here.

So, I decide to go into a deep dive into Breaking Bad's mise-en-scène, based primarily on the catalyst of it all, Season 1 Episode 1, "Pilot." Not a real creative name but most shows' first actual episode is titled "Pilot" for some reason, but I digress. 

There are four main aspects of mise-en-scène, and they are setting (where the action takes place), lighting (how the scene is lit), costume (what the actors' are wearing), and staging (how the set is designed to fit the story's narrative/ theme). These aspects are all important parts of mise-en-scène, especially when it comes to connecting all the parts of the Breaking Bad story. 

Quick note: There is a lot I could write about this one episode, it's an hour-long (like most BrBa episodes), but I can't write everything, so I will only be covering key parts of the episode that help establish the criminal theme.

Without further ado, let's begin!

We open with multiple establishing shots, with mid- to low-key lighting, even though we are in the desert and the sun should be shining bright, given little cloud cover. This shows us something about the whole series right off the bat: Breaking Bad is a gritty film, and the camera quality I feel is intentionally grainier because it helps show the mood of the majority of scenes. I tend to notice that when the scene is lighter in tone, the lighting is a lot better. Let's also not skip the music that's playing over these establishing shots. It is a little eerie, and a classic of the Breaking Bad (henceforth called BrBa) series, the infamous Winnebago comes speeding into the frame. The engine sound is the transition from eerie music to pounding drums, signifying to the audience that the action is about to get heavy. We cut to a two-shot of Walter White (Walt) and Jesse Pinkman. The lighting is very low-key, and Walt and Jesse have gas masks on. While Jesse is passed out, we see from his perspective (if he was awake of course) of what Walt looks like. He is nude in just some tidy whities. The color white represents innocence, and BrBa relies on the costume color choice a lot, especially in terms of the characters' relation to the overall themes of the show and each other character individually. By having Walt wear tidy whities, we can see all his innocence is being drained away as he was brought into the criminal world by a system that failed him, but he is so fresh and new to it, that it's almost like he is innocent-minded of how dangerous it is. Throughout all of this, the focus is deep, you can see the details of the distant rock formations in almost every scene. We aren't meant to pay attention to the minute details of what's happening around the Winnebago, but more or less the situation Walt finds himself in.

Towards the end of the introductory hook, sirens blare in the distance. Walt (who now has a green shirt on) is videotaping a "final goodbye." This handheld camera shot is excellent and puts us in the perspective of his family, to who he is saying goodbye. After he finishes recording, he grabs a gun, stands in the middle of the dirt road, and aims it at the oncoming vehicles that will be coming around the corner any minute. This is filmed from a close-up shot, and we can see the emotion on Walt's face. We the audience feel a hyped up, biting our nails waiting to see what happens next, and then... TITLE CARD!!!!!!!

Anyone who's watched BrBa before knows that this is one of the best hooks in media, at least in my opinion. The audience is reeled to watch the whole episode to figure out how Walter White got to this point, and Vince Gilligan loves doing this throughout this series, especially during Season 2. This is an excellent example of how to get your mise-en-scène perfectly tuned. Also, was no one going to tell me how I wrote 2 whole paragraphs about the first 3 minutes of this hour-long episode (did I mention that?)?

Anyways, let's jump to the true beginning of Walt's meth empire, the catalyst if you will: "lung cancer, inoperable." We see Walt lugging a large barrel of what I'm assuming is wax or soap (forgot to say he works at a car wash part-time) and he collapses. We enter using a master shot of sorts, but the collapse is filmed from a close-up where Walt falls out of frame. The uncertainty of his condition is what we were expecting, thanks to the introductory hook from earlier. After Walt's fall, we see him from an overhead angle being slid into an MRI machine, and the sound of the MRI spinning continues into the next scene, asynchronous of what's on-screen: Walt is in a doctor's office. The sound fades to ringing in the ear, which helps the audience audibly relate to receiving bad news. You never want to hear it, and often you drown everything else out when receiving it. Walt officially has lung cancer, his facial expression is of pure shock as we pan up to a close-up of his face. We also see an extreme close-up of the doctor's mouth, with the subtle ringing of Walt's ears (perfect non-diegetic sound might I add), and the muffled sounds coming from the doctor's mouth. This whole piece of the show is one of the only times we see an extremely shallow focus. Our attention is entirely guided to Walt and the Doctor's facial (or vocal) expressions.

    

I think it's safe to say that I really do love BrBa, and part of the reason why is the show's pilot being so good at capturing the right mise-en-scène. A lot of shows usually get it wrong in the first season, but BrBa stayed consistent with its style in every aspect. I really like how they were able to make this episode connect with me, I could feel the emotions and get the vibe they were going for when making the show like I was actually there.

That's pretty much it for now, see yall next time!