PLANNING MISE-EN-SCENE

PLANNING MISE-EN-SCENE

Mise-en-scene is the arrangement of scenery and stage properties in a film or play. We have had many discussions about what we will be including in the scene of our film. Mise-en-scene consists of the setting, characters, iconography, facial expressions and body language, lighting and colour and the positioning of the characters in the frame.

Setting
Settings can engage the audience by creating certain expectations and bringing a twist to scene. From much discussion we have chose to use two scenes for our opening sequence. The first is a small road in a village, this road will be fairly quiet with houses the whole way through. The setting will also be dark, creating tension and suspense when the antagonist rises. Leading on from this, the scene will change to a dark forest, which will consist of enclosed areas. We found this will work well as its a smaller space for the characters to feel victimised and easier for the antagonist to move around and follow the venerable victims. The forest is an ideal place to feel isolated and this is conventional in a thriller sequence, also creating fear. Victims almost always feel captured and insecure in thriller films and this is how they show empathy to the audience, this is what we want to create and also show this through the use of facial expressions and body language.

Facial expressions and body language

Facial expressions indicate how the character is feeling and can tell a story to the screen about what they are going to next. Music can also accompany the way someone is feeling, for example; creepy music which rises up may show tension or anger. Body language can show to the audience how the character is feeling within that moment or how they feel towards another character, portraying there relationship to one another e.g. hate, love, compassion. We will use a range of facial expressions throughout as it can change the way the audience feel about the characters easily. One stage in our opening sequence where our facial expressions will change very quickly is the ending scene, here the two main characters will feel trapped and enclosed, looking innocent and scared at the audience, although after a few seconds of looking at the unknown black figure in the near distance the two girls become possessed and there facial expressions soon change to angry and frightening. Throughout we will concentrate on the range of facial expressions that we use, for example things such as laughing and smiling when they are enjoying conversation at the beginning of the scene. Although, the audience will not be able to see the antagonists face in the opening sequence as we are using a mask to create greater effect when he is looking through the dark window. The body language used will not be slouchy or unsympathetic. When the two characters see a young boy being victimised by an unknown character, the two girls feel sorry for him and feel an emotion to help. There facial expressions and body language will be strong and engage the audience.

Iconography
Iconography is the visual images and symbols used in a work of art of the study or interpretation of these. The first peice of iconography we have discussed using is a mask for our antagonist. Hiding the antagonists personality and identity creates an mysterious atmosphere for the audience. The mask we have chosen to use will be white with black distinct features. We have chosen to use this as the openi sequence will be at night and we need the mask to stand out and be an attraction for the audience, aswell as the characters. The white mask will almost be an white glow and stand out widely to the screen, this may cause the audience to be suprised and may create a feeling of suspense. The relationship created through mask is hard to show as we cannot show any emotions or facial features to the audience, although a mask does create a sense of hidden identity and can leave the audience wanting more and asking themselves questions. Do we really know the person that is underneath that mask? As the aim for our audience is 15+ the audience will be more intreged as the actor for our antagonist will be around the same age. 

Another prop/feature of the film we will be using is an animal; a dog. An animal used in films especially thrillers can create empathy towards the characters quickly and we found this worked well from research. A relationship from the audience to an animal can sometimes be stronger than one to an characters. This is because animals can't speak and show there emotions so the audience guess and think of the conventional way they would be feeling.

Lighting and colours

Everything in the scene itself consists of colour and lighting, whether it is very dull or a bright flashing light. From much discussion and planning we have decided to film overall in the evening, this will mean the sky is falling in darker and sunset will be taking place. This will give off a range of wide colours to the audience. Colours such as red, white and black are conventional of a thriller film as it can make a woman look innnocent or a man look scary and a criminal. The lighting that can be used which we found when researching is red beams or a white bright light in a dark setting. In that dark e.g. a forest like our setting, a white torch light can show dimmed features of the charachters bodys and faces, this can show there emotion or facial expressions to the audience. Although we will not be using any beamed lighting we may use a torch to show more of the charachters body image. We felt we should do this as it will be dark outside and we want the scene to stand out to the audience and keep them intriged.