Planning: Mise En Scene - Mrs. Quinlan

Introduction:

Mise en scene is made up of body language, facial expression, lighting, setting, costume, hair and makeup and iconography. Mise en scene is vital in film, especially in thriller films. Mise en scene can make the audience feel differently depending on how the director or editor wants the particular scene or shot to come across. Mise en scene can also contribute to how the audience understand the scene, for example body language and facial expressions can clearly tell the audience if a character is feeling negative and whether the events that are occurring should have positive connotations or negative connotations. Lighting can be low key or high key, low key lighting is generally for scenes that follow dark themes and negativity, high key lighting is for a more upbeat mood as you can see things clear. Setting is important as it gives the audience an idea of what is going to happen, some settings may connote different feelings or events. For example a cemetery is a dark setting which connotes death, and therefore will give the audience a sense of fear even if nothing has happened in terms of narrative.

Body Language & Facial Expression

Antagonist: Jamie Anderson

The Antagonist Jamie Anderson will have an upright posture with a neutral facial expression throughout the opening. Anderson has this body language because he is confident of who he is and he doesn't really seem vulnerable to get easily attacked. This portrays that he is an important character, audience might wonder if he's the protagonist or antagonist due to his confident and upright body language he'll have in the opening. Anderson has a neutral facial expression throughout which doesn't indicate much yet till he gets home and remains calm when he after the viewers witness dead bodies scattered around his house. He has no reaction towards these dead bodies and simply ignores them like there's nothing there, this could indicate that his the antagonist as audiences are able to clearly infer that these people in his house were killed by him. Further suggesting that the antagonist is a psycho killer because a normal person wouldn't react to this normally. This is conventional to a thriller film because the audience are able to understand clearly that he is psycho through his neutral expression.

Anti-Hero/ Victim: Trang Lam

The anti-hero/ victim also has a slouched posture throughout the thriller opening to suggest that her body is lifeless. She's un-dead which is portrayed through her slouched and lifeless body that follows the antagonist around all day. This further portrays that she was a victim before but not longer shows that she's a victim by her neutral facial expression she has planted on her face which makes her the anti-hero, confident in what she's about to do next. Not only having a neutral expression to show that she's the anti-hero but also to denote that she's a living, dead body. She is a conventional thriller victim as her body language is slouched, showing vulnerability although at the same time, she is also an anti-hero because of her neutral expression instead of a scared expression to demonstrate that she's no longer a victim in the opening. Trang was once a victim, brutally murdered by the antagonist but has come back to seek vengeance and now is the anti-hero.

Victims: Victim 1, 2, 3, 4

These victims will be scattered around the house, they will have no facial expression, with closed eyes, it tells the audience that they are simply lifeless bodies that have been killed by the antagonist. Body language is also something to indicate that they're dead, by having a resting position on the floor, not moving at all shows that they are dead. Victim 4 who appears in frame 9 is still alive but barely conscious. He has poor, slouched body posture to show that he is a vulnerable victim trapped within this prison by the antagonist. Victim 4 has a terrified facial expression to further portray that his an innocent victim when he sees his perpetrator. 

Lighting

The lighting in my thriller opening will mainly consists of low-key lighting, supported by various angles such as high, low and back. This is to portray dark and gloomy events that will take place in this opening indicating that the antagonist is in fact, the antagonist. In the first scene when we see the antagonist leaving the cemetery after attending a funeral, the weather will be very cold and gloomy encouraging the idea of pathetic fallacy. The low-key lighting directed on this man shows that he is a dark character. When he arrives home, low-key lighting is used throughout to show this man who brings negative vibes where ever he goes to tell the audience that he is the protagonist. 
When the Anti-hero appears, back lighting is used to only show her silhouette and creepy figure keeping her identity hidden makes the audience feel uneasy and scared. 

Setting and Iconography:

There are 3 settings we will be using in our thriller, the first is a cemetery, the second is a house and the third is a high street or a public road.

We are using a cemetery for our opening as it will begin with the antagonist walking away from it. This will cause confusion for our audience as this is where the opening will begin and there will be many questions they can ask. The setting is great as it is quite typical for a thriller film as this is where the dead rest, it is unconventional for someone to be their on their own and the connotations of a cemetery are intended to frighten the audience. An example of this are the large trees and the the greenery which usually represent nature or the outdoors, but there will be a lot of gravestones which will indicate that the antagonist was there when it is empty, this will indicate a sense of wrong doing.

The next setting we will use is a house. There will be a few dead bodies scattered around the house which will immediately confuse and frighten the audience. The antagonist walks around the house ina  very casual manner and this is very unconventional as a home is meant to connote a place of safety and happiness, therefore it will bring the audience a lot of fear as being in the safety of your own home is what most people can relate to. A house with dead bodies goes far against the norm and will make the audience very uncomfortable. 

The last setting we will use is a public road as the antagonist will walk down a public road as he leaves his house. This will be very unconventional as a public road is where many people will be. After the audience observes the dead bodies in the house, they will see that the antagonist is free and can go wherever he wants, this will particularly scare the audience as this shows that the antagonist could be anyone and could act as anyone.

There will not be much iconography used, there will only be blood on the dead bodies to show that they have been killed and a jacket that the antagonist changes into when he arrives home. There will also be a phone that the antagonist collects off the bed as he is leaving the room, this will serve as a distraction for when the anti hero suddenly appears behind him.

Costume, hair and make-up

The Antagonist: Jamie Anderson The Anti-Hero/ Victim: Trang Lam Victims: 1, 2, 3

Anderson will be dressed in black suit. This shows that he is  the antagonist who knows well what he's doing. This is because the dark colour black portray his dark and evil intentions but the suit generally indicates that his confident in what he does. He is the antagonist that is the psycho killer who clearly gets away with it. He later changes into all dark clothes to make the audience fully understand clearly that he is the antagonist. He is neatly groomed to blend within society further demonstrating that he looks like a normal person who will never be assumed of these terrible things.

The now Anti-hero is wearing all white long dress to show that that she was once a victim of the antagonist. It further shows her once vulnerability and innocence that was taken away from her by the antagonist. She also wears large contact lens to empathise her dark eyes to show that she has evil intentions towards the antagonist. Long black hair to hide her identity for the audience to later discover. She has a pale face to show that she's dead, also with smudge make ran down her face to show that she has been crying in her past life.


All the victims would have similar clothing to show that they are the victims such as having light colours showing vulnerability. Preferably the colour white to show innocence and purity, furthermore when injured tends to contrast the colour red of blood making it stand out and more visible. Having colours like that contrasting is conventional for victims as it tells the audience almost immediately they've been hurt because they are the victim. 

In conclusion, my character's body language and facial expressions will all be appropriate for the tone of the film, as well as the characters motives and goals. For example the antagonist having an upright posture with a neutral facial expression shows that he has a goal and he is confident. The settings we have chosen are very conventional to thrillers as graveyards connote death, and houses represent safety which is typically broken in thriller films. This will make them both very conventional and appropriate settings to use in our opening. The costume hair and makeup will also be conventional as the colour of the clothing will be the most significant thing. The victims will wear light coloured clothing as this represent innocence and a sense of normality while the antagonist and the anti hero will wear either black or white representing that they are neither in heaven or hell, but rather in between.