Planning Mise-en-scene - Miss Georgiou

Mise-en-scene is important within a thriller film because it's the arrangement of scenery and properties to represent the place where a play or a movie is enacted. Without mise-en-scene there would be nothing to make the film out of.

The mise-en-scene of my thriller includes the 5 different elements, which are:

• Setting & Iconography

• Costume, hair & make-up

• Facial expressions & body language

• Lighting & colour

• The positioning of characters/objects within the frame. 

Setting-

Our group narrative consists of an underwater scene, therefore we thought it would be well-suited for it to take place in a river. Our group then decided to base the rest of the clips scenery around this and thought it would be relevant to film in a forest as rivers are found by forests. Also, forests are conventional to the thriller genre as it is an isolated area in which a victim would be unable to escape a killer, this would make the audience empathize towards the victim as they would have no where are no one to run to. The setting creates a relationship between the audience and the clip as they are left feeling tense and worried due to the confined and dangerous surroundings, this draws them into the current situation going on in the clip and focuses their attention on any potential negative outcomes.

Iconography - 

The iconography we decided to use was a scarf and a knife. The scarf belongs to the victim/little sister which would be used as an effect of a distorted past memory. The scarf will be placed on a tree portraying that it has been misplaced which adds a sense of enigma for the audience as they are left wondering why it has been left there or what has occurred in that particular area. The knife is used to cut the victims face, but also acts as the murder weapon. This is conventional to the thriller genre as knives are typically used as the murder weapon in thriller films. The use of the knife would make the audience feel on edge as they know the victim is in serious danger. This builds a relationship between the audience and the victim as they are sympathizing and worried for their life, it also connects the audience to the killer as they are left in hope that they do not use the knife on the little girl to take her life.

Costume - 

Our group decided for the female characters in our thriller clip to be dressed in everyday,casual clothing for the audience to relate and connect more to them. In addition, the use of casual clothing is misleading towards the audience as our clip has a twist leaving the audience shocked and surprised which is conventional the thriller genre, this is due to the fact the female characters are portrayed to be normal everyday girls through their use of clothing. When portraying the killer in our clip we want to keep his identity hidden as this is very conventional to thrillers. Because of this we decided that he should be wearing black, by wearing black the audience would associate the killer to have a dark, creepy personality, this would make the audience feel on edge as they know the killer is capable of anything as he has no sympathy he's just dark. The killer is not going to be seen clearly within our thriller clip therefore it doesn't matter too much what we show them wearing as long as the clothing is seen to be dark and basic. Keeping it basic doesn't give too much away about the character therefore making the clip more tense as the audience will have the fear of the unexpected.

Hair & Make-up - 
Similar to the costumes the girls are to be portrayed as everyday young female citizens, therefore we decided their make-up and hair should be casual and basic. During the underwater scene we decided the hair of the girl should flow outwards and spread out to emphasize the reality that she is underwater drowning, making it more tense for the audience to witness. The cut on the little girls face shown in the reflection would come under make-up as we would be using false blood for it. Blood is typically used in thrillers and is conventional to the thriller genre as it makes the audience aware that an attack has just taken place, making them sympathize for the little girl as they know she is in danger. The audiences concerns for the little girl connects them emotionally to her and her safety.

Facial Expressions & Body language - 

Whilst the little girl is walking through the forest her facial expressions should be upset and lonely, to show this we would have her put her head down to emphasize her sadness. We also wanted to portray confusion through her facial expressions as she is unaware of her surroundings this would be effective as it would reflect the audiences confusion as to what is going on at the time. This is conventional to the thriller genre as is adds a sense of enigma making the audience feel on edge as they would have the fear of the unexpected. On the other hand, we are also going to be showing happy emotions on the female characters faces and body language of playing and skipping around due to the flashbacks that occur within our thriller clip. The idea of the flashbacks is to show the little girl remembering happy events and memories of the past, experiencing 'Nostalgia' which then lead up to her death.

Lighting & Colour - 
We decided that the scenery of the forest should be low-key lighting whilst the little girl is walking through, this is to limit the detail that can be seen, creating a mysterious atmosphere. This is conventional to thrillers as it builds tension for the audience as it is unclear for them to see what is happening. The dark and dull lighting could be used to represent the mood or emotional state of the little girl as she is currently feeling sad and lonely, this connects the audience to how she is feeling making them sympathize towards her.During and in the transition between normality and the flashback, the lighting needs to help show the difference clearly. It can do this by the lighting being a lot brighter in the flashbacks than in the reality parts. The colors in the flashbacks will be bright conveying happiness, the colours in the present tense will be dull and dark to convey sadness and confusion. The colour contrasting is conventional to thriller genres as it lets the audience in on the different emotions the characters are feeling, connecting them to them, this is effective as the audience find themselves feeling the emotion the character is currently experiencing, this builds a relationship between the audience and the characters.

Positioning of characters/objects within the frame - 

When discussing the positioning of the characters, we decided that whilst the little girl is walking through the forest we should have a long-shot of her and her surroundings. By showing the little girl within the surroundings we wanted to make her look small compared to them to convey her vulnerability. This is conventional to the thriller genre as victims are shown to look vulnerable and small - beneath their killers. We intend to do this with a high-shot of the little girl whilst zooming out on her to emphasize her timidness. This will connect the audience to the little girl as they would sense how defenseless she is and would empathize for her. For the killer, we wanted to position the camera as if it were the killers eyeshot and point of view, we would have them looking down at the victims dead body whilst their feet were in the shot to make it clear the image is through the killers eyes. This would connect the audience to the killer as they are his eyes and are left in his position looking down on a little girls dead body, making them feel slightly horrified at the sight.