Mise-En-Scene

Mise-en-scène ( "placing on stage") is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. Mise-en-scène has been called film criticism's "grand undefined term".

When applied to the cinema, mise-en-scène refers to everything that appears before the camera and its arrangement—composition, sets, props, actors, costumes, and lighting. Mise-en-scène also includes the positioning and movement of actors on the set, which is called blocking.These are all the areas overseen by the director, and thus, in French film credits, the director's title is metteur en scène, "placer on scene."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_sc%C3%A8ne

 

Hilarious 4 minute explanation by Indy Mogul