Planning Mise-en-scene - Miss Georgiou

After me and my group analysed our narrative we decided on what elements of mise-en-scene we will use within our opening sequence. Mise-en-scene is important as it helps the audience in understanding the conventions of a thriller and consists of everything, which is put into the frame. The five elements are setting, iconography, costume, hair and makeup, facial expressions and body language, lighting and colour and positioning of characters/objects within the frame.

My Groups Mise-en-scene Planning Sheet

There are many types of setting and iconography my group and me will use within out thriller sequence. For example, the first use of setting will be in the antagonist’s room while he is getting ready however, he will already be wearing his clown mask this is to keep his identity hidden. By using the antagonists room it will show to the audience what type of person his character is as we will have pictures of young women around his mirror while he is getting ready this is to show the audience that he has an obsession over young pretty women. Furthermore, in his room we will also have make up on the antagonists dressing table this is to link in with that he dresses up as a clown as so he has clown makeup but also it is to confuse the audience and create and enigma make them think whether the antagonist is the stereotypical male or is the antagonist is female. As well as this we will see a radio in the corner of his room, which will be playing a news update about young women going missing. Another setting we will use is the alley the female victim will walk through on her way to meet whoever sent her the secret admirer note, she then notices pictures of herself up around the alley, soon after she is then grabbed and knocked out by the antagonist before he takes her to an unknown location, which consists of a dark room. Once, the sequence moves onto the girl being in the dark room tied up in the corner the antagonist will enter with his murder weapon, a knife, this use of iconography is conventional to the thriller genre as most antagonist use a knife this is because the audience can easily relate to how the victim must be feeling when they have seen the knife and it is a dangerous and sharp, everyday object.

The costumes, hair and makeup we will use for the antagonist will be different to the victims. This is because the antagonist is a clown and so he will be wearing a clown mask this is to represent the theme of him being a clown but to also keep his identity hidden from the audience and the victim’s character. He will be dressed in all black this represents to the audience power, death and mystery. These are all relevant as the antagonist has power over the victim, he is going to commit a murder, which will be the death of his victim Also, because his identity is hidden this creates a mystery and we don’t know who he is, we also don’t know why he is doing what he is doing. This contrasts with the female victim, as she is going to be dressed in all white. By dressing her in all white it infers to the audience her innocence, purity as well as her being young. This then makes the audience build a better relationship with her character as they fear for her as they know what is going to happen to her later on in the sequence, also, they can relate to what she must be feeling and going through. Additionally, it is better for the antagonist to wear dark colours and for the victim to wear white, pale or neutral colours as it portrays who there characters are within the sequence.

We will use different facial expressions and body language of the characters during different situations during our thriller sequence, this will help in giving the audience a better understanding of how the characters are feeling. Throughout our thriller sequence the antagonist will never had facial expressions. This is because he is a masked antagonist and so the audience don't ever see the antagonists face, and only see the clown mask he wears. This is conventional as it creates tension, anticipation and an enigma as the audience cannot see the antagonists facial expressions as see how he is feeling. On the other hand, we can easily see the victims facial expressions and body language as she does not wear a mask and so her identity is not kept hidden from the audience. The type of facial expressions we will mainly see on the victim are her being shocked and scared this is because she knows that someone, the antagonist, is after her. As a result this is conventional to the thriller genre as it portrays the elements of shock for the audience. As well as this is causes suspense for the audience as they can see how the victim is feeling throughout the sequence and so they fear for her, this is because neither the audience or the victims character know what is going to happen next.

The types of lighting and colour me and my group have deciding on using is mostly low key lighting and dark colours this is because it is conventional to the genre and it can foreshadow that something bad is going to happen later on in the sequence. Therefore, when the antagonist is in his room we will use low-key lighting to infer to the audience that he is the one who will carry out the murder and that his motives for the young women are bad. Although, we will have a lamp, which will be the back lighting. This back lighting will produce sharp contrasts of light and dark areas and so deep distinct shadows and silhouettes are formed. In comparison, to when we film the alley scene we will use natural lighting. However, as it will be dark out when we film there will be many shadows and so there will be a sense of mystery for audience, as they don’t know what is lurking in the shadows. Our target audience for our thriller sequence can relate to these types of light and colours being used as the setting we are using them in are places, which they can relate to. Therefore, they know how the antagonists or victims character will be feeling when the different types of lighting are being used.

Positioning of characters/object within the frame will change depending on the setting and characters being used in the particular section of the sequence. The first use of positioning will be used with the clown antagonist character at the beginning of our sequence, when the clown is getting ready standing in front of the mirror. This will infer the audience that he is the antagonist as he is masked and so his identity is unknown. Also, by positioning him in his bedroom the audience can start to piece together who the antagonist could be and what his motives are. This is because they can see pictures of young girls around the mirror, which are his next targets and they can also see makeup around, this could imply that the antagonist is female and not male. As a result this is conventional as it creates an enigma as to who the antagonist truly is. Another use of positioning on characters within the frame will be towards the end of our sequence when the young female victim is tied up in the corner of a dark room. By positing her in the corner and tied up it portrays to the audience her weakness and vulnerability, which causes the audience to fear for her life as they can predict that the antagonist is responsible for this. Therefore, this is conventional as it not only represents the victim in the stereotypical way of being hopeless and vulnerable but also, creates suspense for the audience.

To conclude, by planning mise-en-scene it helps to create a conventional opening thriller sequence. This is because we can look at out target audience, which is age 15 and above and then see what type of elements we will use within our sequence in order to create the themes of shock, surprise, suspense and tension for the audience, which are appropriate for our age certificate and which fit in with our narrative. 
Furthermore, by planning our miss-en-scene we was able to adapt our narrative to make i better and more interesting for the audience. For example, when planning we wrote down in the positing section that when the clown is chasing the victim they will be running along the street but we have now got rid of the chase scene. Instead of this chase scene we are now going to have the victim brought to the antagonist by a note. The antagonist would of put this note in the victims bag wit jour her realism later on and so when se find it she thinks it from a secret admirer. The reason for us changing the chase scene is because we wanted our narrative to be more unique as less stereotypical to the thriller genre.