MISE-EN-SCENE PLANNINGRTND PRODUCTIONS

ACTORS/ACTRESS’

• When auditioning actress’ and actors we wanted to make sure they would portray the correct key elements of their characters

• The main actress needed to come across as young, innocent, naïve, harmless girl- she needed to come across as a victim in order for us to mould a character that would make the audience beginning asking questions.

• In comparison, we decided the male (possible) antagonist should be a similar age as our female protagonist so that we could use him to create flashbacks of their life prior to her death, presenting them as a young, romantic, “stable” couple. In addition to this we wanted an actor that would be able to portray both the roles of the romantic and the suspicious possible murderer.

• The final character we included in the opening sequence was a police officer for the second scene, we wanted to have a character that was portrayed as smart, dominant, the “alpha male” of the scene and powerful. We chose a middle aged actor because we felt he would portray these features the best when it came to over powering the evidently younger actor in the scene. In addition, we chose a white actor because we wanted him to be portrayed as professional, in a high position and have a certain amount of power- positions that MEG actors often do not portray within the media.

THE VICTIM- ACTING CHOICESAs stated on the previous slide, we wanted our female lead to be able to portray a range of characteristics, including innocence and vulnerability. In the auditioning process, we decided on the actress to the left. This is because when it came down to the still shots of the actress she seemed the most convincing as a victim of an accident. In addition, she was also able to portray the romantic girlfriend (necessary for shots of her an the antagonist before she died).

THE VICTIM- COSTUME CHOICES

• We chose to dress the victim in simplistic clothing, this allowed us to “dress it up” with fake blood in order to emphasise that she was in a struggle. In addition, the utilisation of simplistic clothing does not give away too much about her character- it doesn’t say whether she was a girly girl or a tomboy, whether she liked to be portrayed sexually or innocently. This further allows the audience to make their own decisions about her based on other information they are presented with.

• The top we intend to cover in blood and hand prints, and the leggings will be ripped- again revealing cuts and bruises. This will portray has a victim and evoke emotions of sympathy for her character from our audience.

THE ANTAGONIST- ACTOR CHOICES

• We chose this person to act our antagonist because we felt out of the people we auditioned he was the most well suited to play both sides of the character (the romantic and the rebel). Furthermore, it was convenient because he understood what the opening sequence was about the most and where the film would go from there.

THE ANTAGONIST- COSTUME CHOICES

• The costume choices for our antagonist were purposely chosen to give a bit more away about his character, in hope to evoke emotions of suspicion and doubt about his character. We dressed him in clothes stereotypical for a deviant teenager from an urban area. This included a black hoodie, a sports cap and tracksuit bottoms, as well as trainers (although the likelihood that you will be able to see them in the shots are low).

• We dressed him this way because of popular stereotypes of teenage boys that wear hoodies- that they are “thugs” or “yobs”, the are violent and probably involved in street crime.

• In addition, this fits with popular stereotypes of how teenage boys are presented in the media already, we felt by dressing our character this way it would further make our opening sequence fit with the stereotypes of this social group already present.

THE ANTAGONIST- COSTUME CHOICES• In contrast, in shots where the antagonist is seen

with our protagonist, he will be dressed more smartly. This suggests that something drastic happened between the time that they were a couple and when she died, giving the “good boy gone bad” effect. It could further cause our audience to ask questions such as what happened to make him change so much? Did she personally do something to him to make him “go bad”? Does this have any correlation to who killed her and why they did?

THE POLICEMAN- COSTUME CHOICES• Like earlier stated, we wanted our police man to come

across as professional and someone in authority. Therefore, we chose to dress him in quite smart attire (with a suit jacket, shirt and tie and suit trousers), the contrast between his costume and the costume of the other actor in this scene (the antagonist) highlights his power and dominance over the situation, it puts him in a position of control as he seems like the more professional and respected character. It also allows him to be trusted more by the audience as they do not view him as a shifty or suspicious character as a result of his clothing, like they would our antagonist.

THE SETTING (EXTERIOR)

• The Barn Hotel • We chose this hotel as our location because the

mock Tudor style houses have a eerie and possibly creepy effect to them, which will add to the genre conventions we are trying to portray as a thriller film. In addition, the “traditional” and “old fashioned” style is stereotyped as more scary than modern and contemporary housing, therefore following the mind set we are trying to get our audience into.

THE SETTING (INTERIOR)

• We chose one of the more simplistic rooms in the hotel to film our opening sequence in order to make it realistic as a location a teenager would be in rather than one of the more extravagant rooms. In addition, we plan on making the room messy, with smashed props (e.g. smashed bottles, smashed lamps), untidy bedding, scattered pillows etc… This will add the effects we are looking for in the genre conventions of a thriller (suspicion, mystery, chaos etc)

PROPS

• 1. Weaponry

The use of weapons for example, the knife, highlights the violence and adds an attack theme to the scenario. The use of a knife in particular evokes more feelings of empathy for the protagonist because it is clear that it was used against her, in addition it highlights that “street criminal” aspect of our antagonist and adds suspicion and feat to his character.

PROPS

• 2. Evidence of a struggle

We plan on using smashed glass as evidence of a struggle between the protagonist and antagonist, the glass could come from a variety of sources including wine bottles and a smashed lamp. The glass could have blood on it, or other props such as the weapon beside it to add an element of danger. Again, this highlights the “savage attack” aspect of what could have happened before the opening sequence and allows the audience to ask questions being creating intrigue and mystery.

PROPS

• 3. AlcoholWe plan on using alcohol as part of the stereotypes of teenagers, this creates questions within the audience about who the alcohol belonged to. If it belonged to the female then it contrasts earlier portrayals of her as sweet and innocent and could even suggest that she was drunk enough to start the fight, that she unfortunately lost, if it belongs to the male then it underlines his dangerous “delinquent” characteristics of a teenage rebel that are already portrayed in the media in other shows such as Skins.

PROPS

• 5. Fake blood

Fake blood is likely to be one of our most key props, this is what we are going to use to make it evident that the protagonist is dead, it is also going to be used on props such as the glass and alcohol bottles, over costumes such as the protagonists clothes and as stage make up to make clear signs of a violent struggle between the antagonist and protagonist. In addition blood has connotations of pain, death and danger, which are conventions that we plan to expand on within our thriller.

LIGHTING CHOICES

• 1. Int. Hotel RoomAs a thriller film, we found that it was most appropriate to utilise lowkey lighting throughout. We planned on ding this in the hotel room by shutting any curtains or blinds, using light only from a few lamps or from torches rather than using the main source of light. We hope that this will give the opening sequence a creepy aura, especially as it tracks over the dead girl, who will be in light but also in shadows like the picture on the left.

LIGHTING CHOICES

• 2. Ext. Hotel/HouseAgain, low-key lighting will be operant in any establishing shots of the house and if possible we will film in the night, where the only available lighting would be natural light (e.g. moonlight or light from windows of the house).

LIGHTING CHOICES

• 3. Interrogation RoomLighting in this scene would hopefully be as similar to the picture to the left as possible, harsh and bright on characters such as the antagonist’ face with other characters such as the police man more in the shadows, this would hopefully give the antagonist an uncomfortable “dear in the headlights” aura, whilst the police officer is left in a calm, controlled state.

LIGHTING CHOICES

• 4. Flashbacks

For the flashbacks we hope to use more high-key lighting to possibly making the lighting either more harsh to add the effect that they are painful memories, or we could use black and white to make it more nostalgic. However, we will be using some sort of effect or lighting change to make it evident to the audience that the flashbacks are past tense and not part of the present scene.