Planning The Mise-En-Scene

Settings and Iconography

As a group, we discussed the location for our film in quite a lot of detail because we wanted to make sure we chose the right place. The key feature of our thriller film is the young female has to be tied up, we though this would look best in a grimy abandonded location, which would look authentic with the killers character and fit the conventions of a thriller film.  We will only shoot inside the house as we want to keep the enigma  about where and why the character is trapped and tormented within this room which will keep the audience interested and build suspence. The iconography we will use in these shots will be very simple yet effective to promote a feeling of foreboding to the audience. There will only be a chair and a dim lamp in the room and she will be tied up with very simple ropes. We chose to use very little iconography because if fits with the underlying theme of isolation that will run through out thriller. By putting very little objects in the room with our character, she appears even more alone which will lead to the audience feeling sympathy for the victim.

Another location we will use is a forest, and we will use this when she is running away from the antagonist. We chose a forest because the forest is a place that can be very obscure and empty, so it would be the perfect place for someone to kidnap another person withough risk of being caught all together. The forest of also a very dark place, which again is conventional to thrillers, because alot of thriller films are set at night in dark places. We will use even less iconography in this shot, because all shes doing is running through a forest, so we dont need to use props. However, we will use a scarf a bit later on in the narrative when the protagonist gets caught.

Costume, Hair and make up

The costume our female victim will wear wil be a white very light coloured dress. This is becuase the use of plain, white/ light colouted clothing will give a clear indication of her innocence and vunerability. This is something the audience would expect to see in a thriller film so is conventional. She will have minimal makeup but wear mascara to show she has been crying. This again will cause the audience to feel sympathy for the character and it will help convay to the audience the horrific situation the girl has found herself in. Her hair ill be slightly messy to show she has been struggling, even more indication that she is there against her will.

Our Villian will be the opposite to this character, and wear dark clothes ( dark trousers and a jumper with a hood), this will show that he is a dark twisted chacter, something that is convenrtional to a thriller film
His identity will be hidden which will again fit in with the suspence of the scenes and be conventional to the thriller film as it displays a clear enigma.
Facial Expressions and Body Language;
As the audience will not be able to see the antagonist, there can be no indication of his facial expressions, so the actor will have to rely on body language. His movements will be swift when he's in the process of kidnapping the protagonist. However, once she's under his control, his movements become slow and deliberate which will build the tension.

However, for a lot of the scene, the protagonist will be tied up, so will have to mainly rely on facial expressions. The only times body language will be important is when she is running, because the audience will need to know that she is running away from somebody in terror. But this will also need facial expressions to help achieve this. She will also d be struggling slightly when she is tied to the chair, in an attempt to get free. Her facial expression will always be panicked, fearful and distressed which will show the audience exactly what sort of situation she is in.

Positioning of Characters/Objects;
Our character will be placed in the middle of the room with a dim lamp near her. this low key lightening will allow the audience to know that she is an important character and also the emptiness of the room. This will portray the theme of isolation. The fact that she is tied up will show the audience that she is under someone's control and they will begin to feel empathy for her and start to build a relationship with her.

Lighting and Colour;Throughout the whole scene, there will be only low key lighting, because this is a convention of thriller films, and gives the impression of mystery. We will also use plain, dark colours to keep our thriller simple and the dark colours will portray the darkness of the thriller and the personality of the antagonist. The dark colours will also give an impression of mystery.