Focusing on mise-en-scene

The goal that I strive for is to create a convincing mood, taking into account the concepts of mise-en-scene, and by using photorealism as a tool to achieve that.

The most important element here is mise-en-scene. If I do not create shaders and models that do not much resemble their counterparts, then that is fine. As long as the message that I want to convey is realised.

The more that I think about the final piece that I want to create, the more I find myself thinking about this message, than creating accurate recreations of real life objects.

I like the above images, especially as photorealistic pieces, but I want to expand on them further. I wish I could download each file and play with the lighting set-ups myself, and create some interesting camera focuses and movements. That is where the challenge lies. I'm confident that I could make scenes like this, but in order to get them looking dark, moody, and ambient will take much time and experimentation