Planning The Mise-En-Scene

Settings and iconography;

As a group, we discussed the location for our film in quite a lot of of detail because we wanted to make sure we chose the right place. One of the most important parts of our thriller's is when our female victim is tied up and imprisoned and we decided to use an abandoned house for this location because we felt that it fit the conventions of a thriller. We will only show the inside of the house and this is because we want to create an enigma about exactly where the characters are as this will keep the audience intrigued and build suspense. This will appeal to the target audience as the place in which she is being kept is hidden, and the target audience will enjoy the element of mystery. The iconography we will use in these shots will be very simple, this is to make sure the target audience are able to easily follow the events within the narrative. There will only be a chair and a dim lamp in the room and she will be tied up very simply with ropes. We chose to use very little iconography because it fits with the underlying theme of isolation that will run through our thriller. By putting very little objects in the room with our character, she appears even more alone which will lead to the target 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 without risk of being caught. As this is a realistic setting, the target audience will be more likely to believe our story, therefore causing them to get more engaged in the film. The forest of also a very dark place, which again is conventional to thrillers, because a lot of thriller films are set at night/ in dark places. We will use even less iconography in this shot, because all she's doing is running through a forest, so we don't 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 will be a white/very light coloured dress. This is because the use of plain, white/ light coloured clothing will give a clear indication to the audience that she is innocent and vulnerable. This is something the target audience would expect to see from a thriller film because her character is very conventional and they know instantly that she is the victim, and they will start to create a bond with her straight away. She will have minimal make up, with mascara stains on her cheek to show she has bee crying. This again will cause the target audience to feel sympathy and empathy for the character and it will help convey to the audience the horrible situation she is in. Her hair will be slightly messed up which will show she has been struggling, even more indication that she is there against her will. The target audience would expect to see this as we learnt from our research that they expect the female to be the weaker, female character.

Our villain will be wearing dark clothes (dark trousers, jumper with a hood), which will show that he is a dark, twisted character, something that is, again, conventional to a thriller film, so something the target audience would expect to see. But as his face will be completely hidden by a hood, there will be no need to focus on his hair or face. The hidden identity creates an enigma as the audience is never quite sure who he is. Again, from our research, we know that this aspect is something the target audience would expect, as they expect the male to be the villain and his dark clothing makes it obvious he's the antagonist.

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. This is conventional to thrillers, and something the target audience would expect to see, as the identity of the antagonist is usually hidden, in order to create an enigma. 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 target audience exactly what sort of situation she is in. This obvious display of her fear and pain will draw in the target audience as they will be able to instantly create a bond with her because they will feel sympathy for her and fear the possibilities of what could happen.

Positioning of Characters/Objects;
Our character will be placed in the middle of the room with a dim lamp near her. This is so the audience knows that she is an important character and also the emptiness of the room 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.