Research into Mise-en-scene in thrillers - Miss Georgiou

Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means visual information in front of the camera. Mise-en-scène en scene includes setting & iconography, costume, hair & make up, facial expressions & body language, lighting & colour and positioning of actors. I chose a clip from 'Kill Bill' as it has a good setting, brilliant hair and make up and great iconography. 

Setting plays an important part in film-making and not just 'backgrounds' as they create the whole atmosphere and give us an idea of where the film may take place. In a thriller it will be most likely; haunted house, abandoned warehouse, graveyard or a forest at night. 

Or in a romantic comedy it will be most likely; in a open friendly house, daylight, in a city, or office. 

Sometimes sets are either built from scratch for a fantasy film or a film that deals with parallel universe or world. Or they chose a setting that already exists and is used again and again. 

Although some settings can manipulate an audience by building up certain expectations that a film might be happy, and romantic and that in a particular scene everything will be fine, yet the scene may take a wrong turn and change and a fight may break out in a neighbourhood where everything is sunny and normal. 

Costume, Hair and Make up: 

Costume, Hair and Make up play an important part in Mise-en-scene as well as it is an instant indicator to us of a character's personality, status and job. When you see for example a black suit you can either think of a spy or a person attending a funeral, or if you see someone in a dress which has bright colours it creates a nice turn of showing that, that particular person is a nice and happy constantly. 

Hair in a film is very important as it shows in a screenshot what happened to a person for example if the hair is messy then the it shows that there they either just got out of a fight or they just come out of a night out with a person, or if the hair is normal and neat then the character/person has just encountered a normal day and nothing interesting has happened yet. 

Make up also shows what has happened to the person so if on an actress the mascara is smudge and she looks quite unattractive then it shows that she has just been crying and is quite upset. Or if the make up is done up proper then it shows that she has done herself up for a party or a date. In a fighting scene making is used to show blood and cuts on their face or body to show that there has been a large fight and lots of people have been either killed or injured. 

Costume, Hair and Make up tells us immediately whether the film is set in the present and what society/or culture it will centre around. 

Facial Expressions and Body Language: 

Facial Expressions provide a clear indicator of how someone is feeling and how they react to a news or something, also body language is used a clear indicator too to show what the character is doing and how it effects the scene. If in a fighting scene the main character would stand at a very confident stance, ready to react to whoever would take a first swipe or attack at the character.

Lighting and Colour:
Lighting and colour is also important in a Mise-en-scene as it creates the atmosphere especially in a thriller as you use very dim lighting to create an eerie feel to the room and making us feel that we are actually in the room with the characters. The colour is also important as it is not right to have bright colours in a thriller or to have dark depressing colours in a romantic comedy, or just a comedy as it doesn't fit the mood.

Positioning of Characters and Objects with a frame: 

Positioning of characters is very important in a Mise-en-scene as a character which is close up and in focus whereas a character behind them is blurred and out of focused shows that this person in the front is very important and a main character and should be focused on him more as he is more important than the blurred character in the background. 

Also the objects within the frame is important as the object is in the centre of the screen shot might be large and in focus where everything else around it is out of focused and not important as the actual main image. 

I intend to analyse a clip from the strangers when the women is home alone in a house out of they way and a 'stranger' knocks at the door. I am using this clip because it includes many different areas of Mise-En-Scene

 

From this screen shot we can see low key lighting, the colour in this scene is very dark and mysterious, they background is almost black as this particular scene is set in the middle of the night, this allows the audience to engage with the character in the scene. Shadows are used in a lot of thriller films as they create large amounts of suspense and tension as we do not know who's shadow it is. Low key lighting is also used a lot in thriller films as we cannot quite make out her facial features and whether she is frightened or not. This creates mass amounts of tension as we do not know what is going to happen next. 

From this screen shot we can see iconography, we see the unsettled girl holding a knife. This creates tension and suspense for the audience, they will feel suspense as they will be thinking about what awaits the girl and what the future holds for her. They would also feel tension as the scene is tense as she is holding a knife and may kill someone or be killed. This creates a relationship between the audience and this girl as they can see how scared of what she is about to see and is petrified with her position, this engages the audience and makes them sympathise with her situation. This is also conventional to the thriller genre as many thriller films use knifes to show the fright of the character and to show their inferiority of them as they need a weapon. 

From this screen shot we can see the director uses facial expressions to create tension, surprise and shock. This creates large amounts of tension in the scene as the audience are awaiting whats going to happen to the girl in the scene. It also allows the audience to put themselves in her shoes and they can then feel what she is feeling which then creates a relationship between the character and the audience. This is conventional to the thriller genre as many thrillers use facial expressions and body language to make the audience engage into the scene and therefore makes them feel what the victim is feeling. 

From this screen shot we can see that the director has used a mysterious and scary costume for the villain, this creates suspense for the audience. This is because we do not know who the killer is and will not know throughout the film but the audience want to know who the killer is. This also creates tension as he looks mysterious and scary and we do not know what awaits the girl. This creates a relationship between the audience and the girl as they can put themselves in her shoes and empathise with her situation and how petrified she is. This is conventional to a thriller film as many use costume and make up to create tension and suspense through an unknown villain. 

From analysing this clip I can take diffrant ideas about mise-en-scene and use them in my own piece. I can take ideas about all 5 elements of mise-en-scene and use them to try and portray certain ideas to my target audience and make them feel shock, suspense, surprise. From analysing this clip I have also learnt that thrillers don't tend to have a lot of dialogue in it and so replace this with music. I am going to use minimal dialogue in the thriller to try and create as much of the 3S' as possible. I have also noticed that you dont need that many props to create a good thriller just a good setting, low key lighting and a unknown killer covered by even the simplest mask.