Planning mise-en-scene- Miss Georgiou

Mise-en-scene is important within a thriller as this includes everything that is seen in the frames. Therefore without any of this the thrillers would be very boring with little content. It focuses on all things in the sequence, some obvious but some not so much. For example, background iconography and facial expressions. All of this helps to build up suspense and tension within the thriller making it conventional to the genre. Planning all of this is important otherwise we would not have as clear a vision of what we want our opening sequence to look like. 

Through out our sequence we will use mainly low key lighting. During the day to create this effect we will cover some of the natural light that comes through the windows by covering them with black plastic bags; however, we will aim to film most of our sequence during the period of day when it's just starting to get dark. Before we film we are going to go to our location as a group and take some practise videos to test out different times of day and what looks the most conventional to the thriller genre.The audience will relate to the low key lighting because they are used to seeing this everyday so they will put themselves in the victims position and will remember the film when they are walking at this time during real life. Additionally, they will relate because it is harder to see certain objects at this time and shadows are formed, which builds tension as the audience don't know whether the shadows are actually people that could jump out at them. This will create enigma as they can't fully see so they are focusing on what is going on which will lead to a greater shock element. Low key lighting is conventional in thriller films because it creates a dark and uneasy atmosphere which will build suspense as the audience are waiting for something to jump out at them and because its unlikely that many people will be around at night to be able to save her so she will be deemed as isolated.


We then brainstormed what colour aspects we wish to use and see within our thriller sequence. We all agreed that our victim will wear a white dress which is conventional as it portrays innocence and a ghostly attire which will mirror that she is going to die. The audience will build a relationship with the victim as she starts of by wearing casual clothing,  our target audience are going to around the same as the victim, so will be wearing similar clothing. Therefore will be able to picture themselves in the situation. Then she is changed into the white dress by the antagonist which the audience, this will show her innocence. The colour white is commonly worn to show purity for example of wedding days, this will add to the tension the audience feel. Our antagonist will wear all black to show how dark his personality is and how he doesn't feel any emotion for his victims, which is conventional as it helps the antagonist hide not only his feelings but also help him physically hide due to the dark low-key lighting which shows that he doesn't want to seen or known by what he does. This also builds tension as the audience never know when to expect to see him so are constantly engaged trying to spot him. The audience will relate due to the dark clothing because it will tell them what the characters personality is like so they can easily judge him. We will also use red filters and red pen to cross out his previous victims on the walls as red has connotations of blood, danger and anger, which the audience will relate to as red is ell known for these connotations so they will feel helpless which will help the, sympathise with the victim. Red is also conventional as the antagonist usually has a built up anger that has lead him to what he does and it also denotes death, which symbolise the outcome for the victim.

The sequence will take part in an isolated setting; an abandoned house in the middle of the forest. As a result of this there will be nobody around to help the victim, which showed she was trapped. This increased the suspense as the audience knew there was no escape. Which will make the audience feel helpless, this helps them to build a relationship as they would have been in a situation  before where they felt helpless, therefore relate it to this. An isolated setting is a common convention we found when researching into the thriller genre. This is because it increases the victims feeling of being alone and frightened as there is no one around to help them. This uncertainty and aloneness helps to build up a strong sense of suspense. The iconography used in our opening sequence is going to include a knife, which is a common weapon used in thrillers.  This is the chosen weapon for our killer as it suggests murder, danger and as soon as the audience see this the tension within the scene will massively increase. Also we will use a mask, this conceals the identity of the killer. This increases the sense of enigma.  It is conventional for the killer to conceal their identity from their victims and the audience, this builds up the surprise and suspense within the scene. 

From our researching into the characters within the thriller genre, we have seen that they adopt particular facial expressions and body language. The victim will have very emotional facial expressions, the emotions that will be shown are fear, confusion and sadness. We will use close ups of the victims face to emphasise the victims emotions. The audience will be able to relate to this as they would have shared these emotions at some point. They will also have very timid and submissive body language. They will do this by crouching down and backing away from danger. This will allow the audience to build a relationship with the victim as they could compare this situation to a pet and owner relationship, which most people are common with. This is conventional to the thriller genre as victims are usually timid and the killers more dominant, which increases the tension. The killer will be a very calm person with little emotion shown. This is mainly due to the mask worn by him. This would confuse the audience as he is killing innocent people so they would think he would show emotion.