Planning Mise-en-ecene - 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.

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 center 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. 

In our thriller opening scene we have decided to use 5 elements of mise-en-scene as we believe that these elements create suspense, shock and surprise which is what we as film makers want the audience to feel throughout our opening scene. 

Setting:

Our opening scene is set in a house in the middle of an estate, this is because when the audience see the house which is surrounded by other houses they can conclude that it is an every day place where people like themselves live. This is conventional to the thriller genre as it engages the audience into our clip as they put themselves in the victims shoes as they live in a similar house and realise the reality of the fact it could happen to them. This creates surprise, shock and suspense as they might not have expected things like murders happening in a estate just like theirs. 

Costume, Hair & Make up:

We decided that in order for the audience to relate to the two characters, we needed to portray them in an everyday manner. We therefore decided they should both be wearing everyday, casual clothes such as jeans and a top. In addition as in our opening scene you do not fully see the killer until the very end, we have decided thus that we do not need clothes for him to wear especially for the film. Although we will be using a mask to hide his identity at the end. This is conventional to a thriller film as when you watch a thriller you expect to see a killer with a hidden identity as it creates suspense and tension as you do not know who the killer is. Like with the costumes we want to portray the characters as normal everyday people to create shock and suprise for the audience. To do this we will have normal everyday hair & make up for the women and none for the man. Although when the man finds his wife dead she will have messy hair as though shes been pulled around and will have blood on her face and smudged mascara as though shes been crying.

Facial expressions and body language:

When the women is in her room and hears a knock on the bedroom door with no answer her body language and facial expressions will suggest her instability and her inferiority in the scene. We also see the womens facial expression when she opens the door to a mysterious man with a mask on, this facial expression will show how frightened she is and also how surprised she is. In addition when the man finds his wife dead in the attic his body language of him falling off the ladder will show how scared and upset he is about the current situation. 

Lighting:

Throughout out opening sequence we will be using a lot of low key lighting to portray an eerie and almost sad atmosphere around the house. This then creates suspense for the audience as they do not know what is to come and may not be able to see whats lurking around the house. This is conventional to the thriller genre as many thriller films use low key lighting to portray instability and to create suspense for the audience. On the other hand we will be using some high key lighting at the start of the sequence to create an everyday atmosphere for the audience.

Iconography:
The iconography of my thriller will contain the everyday kitchen use, for example a knife, a timer, an oven, kettle etc.. all of the regularly seen objects within a household which therefore creates a sense of safety but when this is jeopardised it creates a sense of fear. This is conventional to a thriller film as this is used by many directors to make the audience unstable as the things being used are items that every person who owns a house will have which will engage them into the film.