Planning Mise-en-scene - Miss Georgiou

To include all 5 elements of mise-en-scene in a film os vital as it allows the audience to feel mixed emotions as they become engaged into the film. Also if the mise-en-scene elements are portrayed successfully then it will also allow the audience to build a relationship with the characters. The audience are also able to feel shock, surprise and suspense, which is vital in the thriller genre as they are the main elements, which engage the audience.

The group and I have decided to use setting and iconography, this is evident when the audience see that the scene is set in a house, then goes to an empty street and a black small room. The group and I have decided to use a small black room because it allows the audience to foreshadow something sinister to happen in the near future due to the sinister dark room, which favours the antagonist. The audience can see that the iconography is a knife which the antagonist uses. We chose the antagonist to use a knife as it is conventional to the thriller genre and the audience expect to see this type of weaponry. Another prop we had was the mask, which that antagonist wears. The group and I have decided to make the antagonist wear a mask because it hides their identity which creates an enigma, this creates tension, which engages the audience. An enigma is important to see in a thriller genre because it allows the audience to question what might happen next, which will engage and excite them. Lastly, we have a radio and pictures on the wall. These will help to set the tone to the film/narrative as the setting and iconography we chose made the atmosphere of the film eerie and uncomfortable, all in which is conventional to the thriller genre and allows the audience to become frightened and engaged. Through the iconography of the knife, the audience are able to build a negative relationship with the antagonist as they forbade death upon an innocent.

Lighting and colour; this can be manipulated in a way to have meaning and symbolisation from which the audience can infer. In our opening sequence we will have an array of different lighting techniques such as low key lighting in the antagonists room and natural lighting while the antagonist is following the female victim. We have chosen to use low key lighting in the antagonists room as it creates a scary unpredictable atmosphere which makes the audience feel tense as the suspense builds. This is conventional to the thriller genre because the lighting creates tension and suspense which leaves the audience pondering what might happen next. The group and I have chosen to use natural lighting while the antagonist is following the female victim because it creates shadows which form what the audience can infer from the colour black is death. This allows the audience to foreshadow somthing sinister to happen to the female victim. This helps the audience to build a relationship with the female victim as they sympathise for her because she has been wrongfully murdered.

Facial expression and body language will be seen by the audience when the female victim helplessly falls on the floor and the antagonist stands over her. This plays a vital role in helping tell the narrative as the audience can infer from the female victims facial expressions that she is the targeted victim whom is portrayed as being weak and vulnerable. However the antagonist will be wearing a mask to hide his identity thus not having any facial expressions, this exaggerates the fact that he wants to be unknown to the audience which creates an enigma, engaging the audience. The facial expression and body language will help make our opening sequence conventional because the audience are used to seeing a stereotypically weak and vulnerable female victim and an overpowering antagonist whom seeks to kill. The audience can build a relationship with the female victim as they fear for her safety because the suspense builds which leaves them wondering what might happen to the female victim, ultimately engaging and exciting them.

Positioning of characters will be seen by the audience when they watch the clown antagonist standing in front of the female victim whom is tied up on the floor. The group and I have decided to do this because it shows the audience that the clown antagonist is more powerful and overwhelming than the weak vulnerable female victim. This helps tell the narrative because from this the audience are already able to infer that the victim is the female hopelessly crying on the floor and the antagonist is the powerful clown standing over her. This will help my opening sequence conventional to the thriller genre because the audience will feel frightened and shocked to the fact that the female victim is on the verge of death, this is a very common emotion to be felt while watching the thriller genre, thus it will help the audience to be more engaged into the film. The audience are then able to build a relationship with the female victim as they are frightened for her well being and if she will make it out alive, thus building suspense.

Lastly, costume, hair and make-up will be seen by the audience ash they see that the clown antagonist will be dressed in all black with a clown mask to hide his identity. We have chosen to make the antagonist wear all black because we thought that the colour black would symbolise death and pain which the audience can then foreshadow from this that something sinister will happen as the film continues. We chose to use a mask to keep the identity of the antagonist unknown to the audience so that it creates an enigma. However the female victim on the other hand will be dressed in white which symbolises purity and innocence, thus the audience are able to infer that she is an innocent harmless female. This helps to explain the narrative because the colour symbolisation and connotation alone will help the audience to figure out who the antagonist and victim are within the first few minutes of the film. This is conventional to the thriller genre because from the clothing the audience are able to tell a lot about the characters, for example in thrillers the audience are used to seeing the antagonist dressed in all black as it helps to keep them hidden in the darkness. This helps the audience build a relationship with the antagonist because they are scared and frightened of him as they feel a build up of tension and suspense.

This planning task has helped me in making our opening sequence as it has helped us further understand how important miss-en-scene is in creating a conventional opening sequence which caters for the thriller genre. This task has also helped us because we have already planned out what we think we should do within our opening sequence, which allows us to waste less time thinking about what we should do in order to make the scene as conventional as possible. Ultimately, this task has helped me to gain more knowledge, which I can hopefully use to make my thriller engaging, suspenseful and full of tension; all in hopes to appeal to my audience and keep them satisfied.