I remain partial to the more strictly old-school theatre definition of "mise-en-scene," already mentioned above, where it means the actual stuff on the stage. In which case, JOI's phrase might be as simple as just a sort of internal automatic camera (again, as already mentioned). But, of course, in a book where the relation between things and language about things is always troubled, another possibility is that this is JOI's attempt to short circuit/get around his own de facto interpretive contribution to what he films.
Y'know the term that got pounded into me in a bunch of film classes in college that I basically never see used anymore but that still seems useful to me? Diegesis. In film, it means the world or reality of the film's narrative and characters itself/themselves. I think the classsic easy example is that dialogue is diegetic and soundtrack scoring is "extra-diegetic." Anyone else have that word stuck in their head?
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