Planning Mise-en-Scene

Introduction

All the 5 elements of miss-en-scene are important to include within a thriller film because they help create shock, surprise and suspense which are all conventional to the thriller genre as they keep the audience engaged. They also help the audience build a relationship with the characters because the connotations of the 5 elements make the audience feel sorry for the victim or scared of the antagonist.

The first element of mise-en-scene is the setting and iconography. This is important in a thriller as it usually shows where a murder will take place and what the main objects in the scene are.The setting will start off in the antagonists house where he is getting ready. As it's in his house, it shows the audience that he isn't getting the victim yet. The iconography here will be photos of women on a mirror, make up all around and the radio. The photos of females show that he has an obsession for them and that perhaps by them being placed around his mirror, he might want to secretly be a woman. This creates an enigma for the audience because they don't know exactly what he is thinking and who he really is. It also could tell the audience that these women are on his hit list and they are going to be killed one by one. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it helps the audience get an insight to the antagonists mind and who he is going after next. The make up also gives this idea of the antagonist wanting to be a woman and confuses the audience as they believe the antagonist is a female when it's actually a male. The second setting is in the school which is where the victim finds a note whom she thinks is from a secret admirer telling her to meet her down an alleyway. By her being in a school, it shows that she is only young and vulnerable creating tension as the audience become worried about her. This also makes them feel like something bad is going to happen to her as it usually would in any other thriller film. The school is conventional to the thriller genre because it
shows the audience that it is where the victim is safest. This builds up tension as the audience know something is going to happen. The next setting is down the alleyway where she finds pictures of her hung up along the fence. This foreshadows that something bad is going to happen and she will get hurt. It also builds up suspense as the the audience question what is going to happen next. The alley way is a creepy location as it is usually dark and empty making it a popular choice for an antagonist to take his victim. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it creates tension as the audience know that she isn't safe and no one will be able to save her. The final setting is in a dark room where the antagonist takes her after putting her unconscious. This creates an enigma as no one knows where this room is which is conventional to the thriller genre because it builds up tension keeping the audience engaged in the thriller film. By it being dark, the audience can sense that something bad is going to happen to the victim as the darkness symbolises death and danger. It also helps the audience build up a negative relationship with the antagonist as they know that he is out to kill the young girl and no one will ever find her as it's in a hidden location.

The second element of mise-en-scene is lighting and colour. This is important as it can create tension for the audience and can also create shadows causing enigmas. In the bedroom there is high key lighting as this shows that it isn't a dangerous place and the antagonist isn't going to kill anyone yet. We thought this would be good lighting to use in this scene because it shows that it is a safe place and it doesn't scare the audience. In the school, there will also be high key lighting to show that the school is a safe place and nothing bad can happen there. This is important as the audience know that the victim won't be hurt so can feel happy for her. The use of high key lighting means that the audience and the victim can see everything around them whereas if it was dark, things are easier to hide. When they are in the alley way, the lighting will be natural as we will be filming around 4pm when it starts
getting dark outside. This is conventional as the victim won't expect something bad to happen as it is still light outside. By using this lighting, it will create shock for the audience as they don't expect anything to happen and this is conventional to the thriller genre. The use of natural lighting also creates shadows which is conventional to the thriller genre as the audience can see that the antagonist is behind the victim whilst she can't. This also creates an enigma for the audience as when they can only see shadows, they don't know whose they are so they want to find out and keep engaged in the rest of the film. This helps the audience build up a relationship with the female victim because they know she is going to get hurt and she won't be able to do anything about it. This also helps them build up a negative relationship with the antagonist as they know he is going to hurt her. Finally, in the final scenes, they will be in a dark room so the lighting will be low key. This lighting brings sharp contrasts of light and dark areas which is conventional to the thriller genre as it creates suspense for the audience. In most of the sequence, the colours will be dark as this is conventional to the thriller genre because it builds up tension for the audience as it makes them believe something bad will happen. The darkness is conventional to the thriller genre because it symbolises death and danger which scare the audience. It also symbolises mystery which is used throughout our sequence as the antagonist is hidden behind a mask so it creates an enigma for the audience.

The next element of mise-en-scene is facial expressions. These are important in a thriller film because it clearly shows what the characters are feeling, especially the victim. The antagonist has no facial expressions throughout our opening sequence because he wears a mask showing that he wants to
keep his identity hidden. By him having no facial expressions, it makes the audience wonder who he is and why he's doing this creating an enigma. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it keeps the audience engaged and wanting to know what's going to happen next. By him wearing a mask, it tells the audience that he doesn't want them to know what he's feeling and wants them to have to think about who he is. However, the victim shows lots of different emotions through her facial expressions. When she finds the note that has been written to her, she has excited and happy facial expressions because she thinks that she is meeting her secret admirer. This makes the audience feel sorry for her as they know it's actually from the antagonist and that he wants to make her his next victim. This also makes the audience feel anger towards the antagonist as they know what he wants to do to the girl although she is only innocent and young. Then, when she is in the alley way and notices the photos of her, she looks scared making the audience worry for her. This tells the audience that she knows something is wrong and that she knows something bad is about to happen. This is conventional to the thriller genre because an enigma is created as no one knows what is going to happen next keeping the audience engaged in the film. In this scene, her facial expressions are also surprised as she didn't expect something like that to happen to her because she is only young and vulnerable. This is conventional to the thriller genre because the audience are also surprised that the antagonist would actually want to scare a young girl the way he does. When she wakes up in the dark room, she looks frightened because she doesn't know what he's going to do to her. This creates tension as the audience don't know either. This helps the audience build a relationship with the victim because they are both thinking the same thing. In this scene, she looks very scared as she doesn't know who the antagonist is that has kidnapped her. This creates an enigma which is conventional to the thriller genre as the audience are thinking exactly the same thing as her. During this scene, she is crying which helps the audience build up a relationship with her because they feel sympathy towards her. They also build up a negative relationship towards the antagonist as they don't know why he would want to hurt an innocent girl.

Another element of mise-en-scene is the positioning of characters. The first position shown is of the antagonist, when he is getting ready looking in the mirror. We chose this position as it shows the audience that he doesn't go out as himself and he takes time to get ready. It also shows that he likes to keep a hidden identity which is conventional to the thriller genre because it creates an enigma keeping the audience engaged. By the photos of girls being placed around the mirror, it makes the audience wonder if he wants to be a girl or if this is his hit-list creating an enigma. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it keeps the audience engaged and wanting to know the truth. The make-up placed next to the mirror also makes the audience question this as well. The next position used is when the female victim is walking slowly through the alley way looking at the photos put up of her. By her walking slowly, it tells the audience that she knows something is going to happen which is conventional as it creates an enigma keeping the audience engaged. Also, by her looking at the pictures, it shows that the victim knows someone has been watching her. As they are all of her, it tells the audience that he has been watching her and knows everything she has been doing. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it creates suspense for the audience. The final main position is when she wakes up in the corner of a dark room tied up. This shows that she has no way of getting out and the door is on the other side of the room so he can easily catch her if she runs. By her being on the floor, it tells the audience that the antagonist has power over her and that she is weak and vulnerable. It also shows that the antagonist is more dominant and she won't be saved. This shows that something bad is going to happen which is conventional to the thriller genre because it keeps the audience wondering what is going to happen next so they are engaged. It helps the audience create a relationship with the victim because they feel scared for her and don't want her to get hurt when they know she will be. It also helps create a negative relationship with the antagonist because they know he wants to hurt her.

The final element of mise-en-scene is the characters costumes. In our opening sequence, the antagonist will be wearing all black because this foreshadows death. It also shows darkness and danger which tells the audience that he will have the most power out of all the characters so won't be scared to hurt his victims. This is conventional to the thriller genre because it makes the audience wonder what he is going to do creating an enigma which keeps the audience engaged. This also tells the audience that he is dominant and that he is just going to look down on everyone else. Black also symbolises mystery which is what the antagonist creates throughout the opening sequence by also wearing a mask hiding his identity. This clown mask shows that he doesn't want to be known and he
wants to be hidden from the world. This creates an enigma as the audience don't know who it is so don't know what he might do next. This builds up suspense keeping the audience engaged and wanting to watch the rest of the film. They also stay engaged as they want to find out who he really is and what he wants to get out of taking the young girl. This helps the audience build up a negative relationship with the antagonist because they know he wants to kill people. The female victim will be dressed in white because this shows purity and innocence. This tells the audience that she is vulnerable and isn't out to hurt anyone. It also shows that she is the one that is going to get hurt and that she is in danger. This is conventional to the thriller genre because white is a popular colour for a victim to wear as it shows their innocence and vulnerability. It also helps the audience build up a relationship with the victim because they are scared for what is going to happen to her building up tension.

Conclusion

This planning of mise-en-scene will help us create a conventional opening sequence to a thriller because we know how we are going to create all the elements. By doing this planning, we can now imagine more about what the character are going to look like and how they are going to behave during the scenes. We also know the reactions we are going to get back from the audience through each element o mise-en-scene. We hope that by doing this planning, we won't have to think as much about costumes and where characters are going to stand when we are actually filming our opening sequence.