Planning Mis-en-Scene - Miss Georgiou

Chloe Eustace

Planning Mise-en-Scene 

Introduction:

   Mise - en - Scene is important within a thriller film and important to the thriller genre because it includes the 5 main elements that pulls a film together. The 5 main elements include Iconography, Facial expressions, Costume, Hair and Make up, Lighting and Colour and Setting.  In our group we have together decided the main features of Mise - en - Scene and how we are going to use these in our opening Sequence, when they are going to be used and how they are conventional. 

Iconography: 

   The main prop that we are using within our thriller opening sequence is a Knife. This is a prop or icon that is used typically and conventional of thriller films and the thriller genre. The knife is used in our opening sequence by the antagonist as he murders one of our main female victims. The use of the knife will be seen in after the victim is murdered, this is because it will create more effect to the audience by not actually seeing her die, just hearing her die. A knife is conventional within the thriller genre as it is the main and suspected weapon within a thriller film for someone to be murdered. When the audience see the knife they immediately know that something bad is going to happen and that someone is going to be killed, this makes the audience feel sorry for the main victims and the knife being there helps the audience to sympathise with them. 

Setting:

   The setting of our opening sequence is set in the early evening into the night as the main two characters/victims are going to a party. The setting when the car breaks down is in an abandoned area where there is no one around and it is dark and tense. This type of setting is typical of the thriller genre because it is abandoned and you typically get an abandoned area in thriller films. By there being an abandoned area with no one about it creates tension and suspense for the audience and makes them feel sorry for the characters knowing that something is probably going to go wrong. There is tension created as there is no one around to help these two girls and makes the audience frightened for them but want to know and find out what is going to happen. 

   Also some of the setting within our thriller opening sequence is in the forest as when the car breaks down one of the girls goes to try and find some phone signal and she actually gets murdered in the forest. This could be conventional of a thriller because the forest is an abandoned place as well and is somewhere where you are unlikely to be found, this is conventional because the antagonist wants to cover his tracks and wants to make sure that nobody will find the body so he chooses an unlikely place for people to start looking. This setting creates tension and suspense for the audience as they may feel that obviously something bad is going to happen. the tension that is created for the audience is wanting to know whats going to happen and how it is going to happen and this is created by the setting and location. The location of the forest also is abandoned and this is typical to the thriller genre as there is usually a place that is abandoned and creates suspense and tension for the audience and makes them know what is going to happen. 

Costumes, Hair and Make up:

   The costumes for the main characters which are the two girls is just casual clothing as they are going to a party. They are going to a party so in the car before it breaks down they are happy and wearing party clothes like typical teenagers would. This is conventional of a thriller film because they are two ordinary people who are doing ordinary things going to a party yet the audience know before they do that something bad is going to happen to them and this makes the audience nervous for these characters because they don't suspect anything and so the audience believe the lie. This in turn creates shock for the audience as they know that something bad is going to happen yet they are shocked when it does because it was just an ordinary moment. The costume of the antagonist is essentially a mystery because there will be a lot of bits from his point of view, the identity of the antagonist is going to be hidden and so the only time within the opening sequence that we will see the antagonists costume is his feet as he walks away. He will be wearing a hooded and a dark coat with boots which actually creates more tension for the audience and the mystery and enigma is there which is conventional of a thriller, because the man is dark and hidden and so it makes the audience want to know more and get them hooked to the mystery of the antagonist. 

Positioning: 

   The positioning of the characters that we will use is the fact that our antagonist has a hidden identity and won't be seen by the audience and so obviously the position of him will be technically behind the camera as the audience are literally looking through his eyes for some of the scene. The positioning of this character is behind the girls and places where he can't be seen by them. This is conventional to the thriller genre because the identity of the antagonist is hidden and by the positioning of this character constantly not being seen it makes it easy for the audience to feel tense and shocked at whats going to or what might happen. This allows the audience to create a relationship with the character because they can see from his point of view and as he is hiding from the girls at first the audience may sympathise with him slightly because they don't know what he is going to do and/or what is going to happen.

Lighting and Colour:

   The lighting that we will mainly use in our thriller opening sequence is natural lighting that is low key. The scene is going to be filmed in the dark because it is more conventional to  a thriller film and makes the audience feel more tense and shocked when something happens, it also makes them feel nervous. When the car breaks down on the abandoned road the low key lighting will be natural light like lamp posts and the headlights of the car which will create natural shadows and make the audience feel more tense. The use of shadows within the scene will make the audience feel nervous for the characters as it will be dark and quite so the shadows of even a tree near the forest will frighten the characters which will in turn then make the audience feel tense. 

   The lighting in the forest that we are going to use is again low key and natural lighting because it will create the natural shadows of the antagonist running away from the murder scene. This is conventional to a thriller sequence because there is typically low key lighting in a thriller film and also the use of natural lighting to create shadows is conventional because scenes of despair and murder scenes within thriller films typically take place in the dark. The low key/Natural lighting will help the audience to develop a relationship with the audience because they can see shadows of the antagonist and can connect in this tense moment with the victim who the audience by this point know is probably going to die or that something bad is going to happen.  

Facial Expressions and Body Language: 

   There is a number of different facial expressions that are going to be used within our thriller opening sequence including at the beginning where the car has broke down and both of the victims are annoyed/angry/upset and scared about this as they realise they are on an abandoned road in the dark and that anything could happen. This is conventional to the thriller genre because the victims are clearly vulnerable as they usually are in thriller films, and they are on an abandoned road which is also a conventional setting. These facial expressions allow the audience to build a relationship with the characters, because the audience feel sorry that they are scared and the audience are obviously aware at this point of the antagonist that is following them to the party and so the audience wonder whats going to happen to thees characters and feel nervous for them.

 

Conclusion: 

   Mise - en - scene is important in not just thriller films but any film because it is the main 5 elements that are needed in order to pull a scene together and make it effective for the audience. The various elements of mise - en - Scene are important because they make the film viewable and understandable for the viewers. This has helped me and my group because by having an idea of what we are going to use and include within our opening sequence and why we are going to use them including the planned props.