Mise-en-scene of My own film
Setting and Iconography
Abandoned shed in the middle of a forest,dark long alley way,poorly lit dirty underpass,loughton station,chigwell station.
These five locations are going to be used when filming my thriller opening, they are all unknown isolated locations. They create a creepy feel and are conventional to the thriller genre. This is because they help create an enigma and leave the audience with very little knowing as to where the characters are and how they are going to escape their death, they are usually grotty, scary places. Most are poorly lit and put the audience on edge. Filming will start in the shed the audience are unaware of where the killer's work shop is. It will flash to a shot of our victim (Anne Angelia) getting off the train taking the scene back to reality. This helps make the scene more intense as the audience are left wondering what the killer is doing and what connection he has to the woman leaving the train. Shortly after our victim walks into an alley way, this location is used to express the characters vunerability, she is in a dark lifeless place. She later moves into the underpass next to the alley way, the lights flicker and it is damp and cold. This is to create a more intense atmostphere. This location is conventional because dark eerie atmostpheric places are key when making a character seem more alone and frightened. It will then cut to loughton station where the protagonist will be viewing the crime on screen. Then back to the alley way and underpass. These brief moments of reality and relatiable happenings are important as they increase the audiences tention.
Within our opening we have included vast iconography that inhance the audiences perception on the film letting them know it is under the genre 'horror thriller'. These include; a small injection, a old man mask, a police costumes, a light coloured work outfit, a saw, fake blood, candles, fake heart, fingers, eyes and other various body parts, black worker boots, dark clothing, chains and other small props. These are all important and significate when creating a film as they are all there for a reason and some even help solve the ignima of the film. Some are used as clues, weapons and some even to portray characters feelings and their role in the production. In my film the injection is used as a weapon and is the main iconography piece within my whole film, it is used as an image within our title and is what our killer uses as a weapon, it is conventional as it is sharpe and painful when piercing the skin and is usually used as a drug to poison and damage people, this is a strange and uncommly used weapon in the media today so we thought we would use it instead of using your typical axe or saw, this adds an interesting twist to the production and keeps the audience guessing why it is being used. The old man mask is used to break the typical stereotype for a killer, old people are seen as vunerable and innocent to the media's eye and wouldn't be expected to kill. This is conventional as it is showing that we are trying to break the pattern and be different to other thriller movies. The police uniform adds to this perception as it makes our killer look even less to blame, police officers make victims feel safe and at rest. This puts a spin on our storyline as it confuses the audience when they eventually find out he is our killer and the decoy is just a distraction. By using fake blood, hearts, fingers and body parts it makes the opening more grim and gory, keeping the audience aware that they are going to be watching a thriller movie. These are convetional as they are showing the killing of a character and the likeliness of torture before hand, it keeps the audience guessing and mortified as to why this is all happening all adding up to the engima.
Costume, Hair and Make-up
Within our opening scene we have four characters all of which are wearing costumes that resemble their portrayed personalities and their roles within a film. Our four characters are Phoebe Snellgrove playing Anne Angela as our victim, James Garszke playing Luke Lusifer as our killer, Joe Lascaris playing Robert Rage as our decoy and finally Bobby Burke as Henry Hartsaviour as our hero.
Phoebe Snellgrove will be wearing a grey work suit followed by heels and a black bag. She will be wearing a white/cream shirt and will have pale make-up and her hair tied up. These are all contriversial as the grey suit signifies her importance in the world of work it shows she is grown up and sofisicated, she is a working middle class woman. Her heels suggest she is working up in the city as she is well dresses and carrying a large bag. Her pale make-up and creamy shirt reprisent her innocence and her purity. Her hair being tied up simply shows she has been hard at work and is probably tired as she is coming home at a late hour, not glammed up nor having a face full of make-up she is your typical working girl and is relatable to our audience. This is important as we would like the audience to connect with her throughout the film and be able to relate and put themselves into her shoes, making the scenes far much more intense and more frightening.
James Garszke will be wearing a police officer costume which consists of a white skirt with black pads on the top, a walkie talkie, police hat, black work boots, navy trousers, black tie, badge and clipboard. These items are to make the audience believe he is a genuin police officer and is harmless.
This is to confuse the audience into thinking this character is the hero and having a small likeability to the persons role. He will be wearing an old man mask to make him seem more vunerable and likeable. The black tie symbolises a working man this is conventional as most killers do not show their place of work and it is breaking the pattern, the navy trousers symbolise trust as the colour blue means trust and peace. This is there to lead the audience to believe he is innocent. The clipboard and badge is just there to show he is geniune and real adding to the characters role and later become a vital part of the coupance of the killing.
Joe Lascaris will be wearing all black, this is to make him come across as dark and mysterious, he is thought to be the killer and will be viewed by the audience as scary and overpowering. His make-up will be pale and lifeless his face will be dirty and he will be wearing muddy shoes (as if he has just came out of a forest) he will have dark bags underneath his eyes and will look very rough, he is bald which shows he may have been a recent convict in prison and a typical thug. He is a large man and is very broad and musclely this all adds to his character and role and helps the audience identify his characters role and why he is a good distractiona and decoy. His costume is conventional as all killers wear dark mysterious clothing and look warn out and tired from sleepless nights and taunting victims until late hours. They dress in black to hide their identity and keep themselves unseen and undescribable.
Bobby Burke will be wearing typical everyday clothes, a white t-shirt, jeans, black shoes and a coat. His character is very simple and laid back, his make-up will be kept minimal and will not look very different to your everyday man. This is conventional as heros tend to blend in with the croud and do not look any different from anyone else, unless of course if they are a super hero or have magical powers. But as our film is set in modern times and is fit to be in relatity it would be conventional to keep our hero in normal clothes. However we used the white t-shirt to symbolise his angelicness and heroic presents as white symbolises that.
Facial Expressions and Body Language
Body language is key when pulling off a character and making the audience believe you are in the fitted role. In our production Phoebe will be walking upright and will look powerful, however this will be overshaddowed with her tiredness and will make her viewed as vunderable to the audience, her facial expressions are going to be kept minimal when walking home, she may have a little sing to her ipod as she walks through the alley way and seem soft and cheerful, this is key when making someone seem like an easy target. She will scream and kick and be made to been seen as powerless and small later on in the filming as she is being dragged out of the alleyway. James will be walking upright also to show his powerfulness and importance in character, he is in complete control of his surroundings and is the main character within the frames.
This conventional to a thriller as the Victims facial expressions must make the audience feel uncomfortable and the Killers body language must show authority and power. Joe will be very slouwched and grungy looking when he walks towards Phoebe this is key when using a decoy as they must fit the killers role perfectly or they will fail in catching the audience's attention and making the film more interesting and questionable, this is conventional as new thriller films try to use decoys to throw the audience off track when trying to solve the engima of the story. His facial expressions will be angry and distressed this is to make the audience feel uncomfortable and on edge when he is put onscreen. Bobby will be happy and cheerful but also worried and alert, it is key for a hero to show all of these emotions throughout the opening scene as a conventional hero would do the same. Bobby is young and strong he is eger to help and needs to get the audience to be on his side. This is conventional as in most thriller films the audience take the heros side and try to solve the crime with them.
Lighting and Colour
Low-key lighting is going to be used throughout most of our filming this is because most thriller movies use the dark to either hide peoples identities or create an eerie atmostphere. This is conventional to the genre as it makes it more scary and adds to the enigma. Breif moments of normal lighting will be used to break up the tention and leave the audience on edge. This is to create suspence and leave the audience guessing. Low-key lighting is a main feature of thriller films as the dark is always used to symbolise the unknown and makes people feel unsafe and uncomfortable. This is great when wanting the audience to not expect what is coming out of the darkness. We are using a small amout of black and white footage at the end to change up the mood and the audiences perspective. The audience are left on a cliff hanger and the black and white is there to show the opening scene is coming to an end and that the last few seconds are important and are in the pov of the hero. This enables the audience to understand the change of view and analyse what is going on and create a brief idea of what they think is going to happen next and their own individual expectation of the films outcome.
Positioning of Characters and Objects within the frame
The killer is going to be in the frontal view of most frames to show that he is the main character he will also be viewed from below, the victim is going to be viewed from above and also from their pov alot of the time, the hero will be viewed the same, however at the end the hero will then take the main role and will be the audience's main connection to solving the strories engima. The decoy will be shot from below and front on as he is suppose to make the audience believe he is the killer. This shots are conventional as when you are trying to show someones vunerability you film them from above. This is almost like a bird looking down on its prey. By using a birds eye view the victim is made to be seen as smaller and more likely to be attacked. When making someone seem powerful a low angle shot is used this is almost like a child looking up to a powerful larger figure it makes the character seem stronger and in control. This is conventional to a thriller as it shows the audience what kind of roles each character is going to portray without them even saying a word. POV is used to put the audience in that characters shoes usually used on victims and heros this is so the audience can connect with them and feel what they feel. It is important to let your audience identify with your main characters as it helps them persue what is going to happen and sticks them in that postition sometimes whether they like it or not. The audience will have an automatic reaction to what they are feeling and this is conventional to any thriller as they want the audience to be frightened of the unknown and unexspected.
