Jacques Rivette (L'Amour Fou, 1969) asked "What is mise en scène?" (literally,"putting into the scene") and gave this definition: "the creation of a precise complex of sets and characters, a network of relationships, an architecture of connections, an animated complex that seems suspended in space." (sensesofcinema.com)

If you combine all that with the word mood, it seems a reasonable description for what I mean by tone.