MISE EN SCENE:Research and

Planning

Costume: ResearchCostume is vital to piece together a story, and carry the genre throughout the film. The use of planned costume does not always seem obvious; however, for each film and promotional package created, the costumes are carefully thought out in order to create a perfect aesthetic for the film. Costume links in directly with character establishment. It tells the audience who the character, in a way which the audience pick up on their personalities without realising. Costumes usual have a ‘social truth’ about them, holding appropriate visual looks to reflect the characters emotion and any social conditions. The typical idea of costumes in a ‘thriller’ film, revolve around images of dark clothing and pieces which will cover people up. Although very stereotypical, dark clothing is enforced repetitively as it creates a darker mood and atmosphere. This is more common for men in thrillers, but also be seen on female characters. Another stereotypical costume for women, is usually a dress – in either red or white. This can make them a stand out character with the colours implying different meanings: red indicating blood or violence, and white showing innocence.

Example: Gone GirlThe main male character in Gone Girl constantly wears dark or dull coloured clothing throughout. Whereas, the main female character wears white or pale colours often, to represent her ‘innocence’.

Costume: Research Analysis of ‘The Girl On The Train’ Costume Use

The main character in the thriller, ‘The Girl on the Train’ is Rachel Watson. She is an alcohol who has lost her job, obsessed as it seems with ex husband and his new life. During the film, quite frequently her outfit mirrors this one on the left. It consists of a pair of dark blue trousers, a shirt, blazer, big coat and a scarf. As you can see the overall effect of the costume is quite messy. Her shirt untucked, and her trousers not fitted. It works in sync with her character to bring across the correct image for the character’s personality. Although it isn’t all dark like the stereotypical thriller costume, it does cover her fully and not make her an obvious stand out character. The costume has carefully been pieced together in order to give the impression of how chaotic her life is.

To the right is a clip of a scene from the film. It shows one of the male characters talking to the main character Rachel. This character is quite aggressive, and confused as his wife has been murdered. His costume in reflection fits his personality well. It uses dark colours of grey and black, to show his dark personality. It is also quite a fitted shirt, which allows the audience to see his muscular build and perceive he may be potentially able of physical aggression.

Costume: PlanningDevil PersonaOur main characters holds two personas, good and evil. Part of our main character is an aggressive, murdering ‘devil’. Due to not wanting to make the character split in the teaser obvious that it is stemming from one person, we thought we would go for a more subtle costume for this persona of our character. Sticking to the stereotypes of a dark costume to suit an evil, personality, for the devil costume we will get our main character to wear all black. This will include black jeans, black shoes, a black t-shirt and a black hoodie or hooded coat. The hoodie/ coat will play a vital part in the costume. It will be used to disguise his identity in the trailer, not showing the audience that he in fact is two characters in one. Normal PersonaOur main characters may persona will be a teenage boy during his college years. He is an enthusiastic writer, and keeps a blog. In our film, that blog has been turned into a nightmare journal. This is where he keeps records of all the nightmares he has of the ‘devil’ character. This part of the character is very casual, but quite smart. His costume will be quite simplistic including: black jeans, trainers, a white t-shirt or shirt and then possibly glasses to imply the smart element of his character.

Our costume will be for a main male character. He is the only character making an appearance in our teaser, and part of his costume will follow the stereotype of dark thriller costumes. As he holds two different identities, we will need to reflect this through costume.

Props: ResearchThe significance of props in films can vary from meaning everything, to meaning nothing at all. They can have symbolic meaning, or represent a character in a certain way. Props can be an extension of the characters personality, suiting the characters mood and feelings, then implying that to the audience. In some films, such as Harry Potter, props are used as clues for the audiences. Hinting them towards what is going to unfold, or key elements which make the story make sense. In ‘realistic’ film making, props can mean nothing more than making a scene authentic. I believe that approach would suit our film the most. The film is a thriller, with hints of violence. Therefore, the appropriate equipment to make scenes clear is vital. There are some ‘typical’ props that people may associate with thrillers. These can include: • Knifes – relating to violence, and death. An easy weapon to get a

hold of, making thrillers realistic if they use it.• Blood – A big part of thrillers can be violence and death. This is

easily represented through blood, and can be frequently used in thrillers. Blood will be a big part of our teaser, to represent the theme of murder.

• Mysterious Items – These add tension and suspense to thrillers. Thrillers are full of twists and turns of not knowing what is going to happen when, some random mysterious items can emphasise this further.

• Masks – our form of this prop is used via costume. Masks can be used to hide identity, and to create suspicion.

Props: PlanningFor our teaser, not a large variety of props will be necessary. The props we will be using will incorporate your ‘stereotypical’ thrillers props. The props we will use will deeply associate with the different personas of our main character. Below is a diagram, indicating which different props are needed for two different personas of our main character.Knife: Available through college to use, we will be using a FAKE knife during the nightmares scenes to show the murders. It will be fake and plastic, but the knife does look realistic in order to keep the film idea a reality.Blood: Fake blood will be used consistently throughout the teaser. This prop will be brought in by Alex and I. We will use this all throughout to put on actors to show their deaths, but also on location to leave the ‘devil’s’ trace.

Scratchings/ Markings: Although this isn’t really a prop, we may be creating images of scratchings, or finding some real ones; we will film these to show the devil’s markings.

Computer: The only prop our main characters normal persona will have is his computer. This will not be something he carries with him, but something we will film whilst he is using a mac computer in one of our locations. This is where he will write his blog entries.

NormalDevil

Setting: PlanningSettings highly vary in films, depending on what genre or storyline it has. Typically, thriller films are more than often set in places with dark natural lighting or at night time. For our filming day, we will have no choice but to record in natural day light. We are hoping for a gloomy or cloud day, as in post production that would be easier to change into a darker setting. Settings on Filming DayINSIDE• Bedroom: In our studio at college, we have a range of rooms used for filming.

One of these is a bedroom, which we will be using dark bedding (which is provided), in order to create a night time scene. Not a lot of the teaser will be located here, just the beginning as our main character lives through one of his nightmares. When taking these shots, we will make sure the lights are off and natural lighting is blocked out through curtains in order to make it seem like it was recorded at night.

• Computer Room: Using a media computer room at college, we will film our main character with a singular mac computer. These will create the scenes where he is writing his blog, explaining all about his nightmares he has. We will get close ups of the computer screen so the audience are able to read what he is typing.

OUTSIDE• College grounds: Using parts of the gravel college grounds we will be shooting

scenes where a lot of blood is used. We will be taking multiple close ups within these places, this will to make it unclear where the events are taking place.

• Town: Using various tunnels and long roads in town, we will be shooting walking clips with our main character in his devil persona.