Mise-En-Scene

As a group we decided we are going to have a dark setting because we want to give connotations of there being death and danger.

Props used will be:

1)drugs
2)alarm clock
3)photos

The reason we’re using the drugs is to give connotations that he isn’t in his right frame of mind. He’s not in full control.
The reason we are using the alarm clock is to give connotations that he does have a structured life. He does stick to it.

The reasons we are using the photos is to give connotations that he is blaming his current state using drugs on his past.

With regards to setting we have agreed to make it low key lighting in his house with natural light just getting through the blinds to give connotations that he wants and feels comfortable when he is isolated. Also with our film being a psychological thriller low key lighting works well with making the viewer feel uncomfortable and not knowing exactly what is going to happen next.

The costume the man will be wearing will be black give connotations of him being dangerous and capable of death whereas the girls you see in the opening will be wearing bright colours such as white to give connotations of innocence.

 With these three being seen the viewer will have it in their mind that the man might harm the two girls and that’s where the psychological bit comes in.

The man being used will look really boring, dull and mental to give connotations that he isn’t sociable or socially accepted. This gives connotations of him being isolated from everyone else and different. The girls you see will be together giving connotations of them both having friends and are socially accepted.

‘Everything in the frame’

There will be a complete contradiction of lighting and setting in the second part of the opening from the first.
the first half will be low key lighting very boring whereas the second will be high key lighting and him outside.

We want the viewer to think, why is he going outside if he lives a structured life indoors? Why does he see the girls? Also, why the sudden change? We want to meet our chosen genre as well as making a good story line.

Jordan Kenneally

Exterior Possible Locations

I thought this could be a possible location as its secluded, dark and it doesn’t look like a nice place to be. This corresponded of Harry’s personality thought which is why I thought this would be a good location to have in our film opening

This was a possible location because we wanted to give people the idea he did get out of his house but to what extent? This location has connotations of isolation, run down, dirty and somewhere that’s been given up on.

This part of the garden I thought would give away connotations of his not caring about how tidy his garden is, there it a broken light with connotations of him feeling uncomfortable in the light because the opening of our film had low key lighting. So it matches our film ideas.

This road suited our oxymoron approach to the opening with him look most comfortable in the dark but then goes out when he is under the influence of the drugs because he feels he can. We felt as though he is probably most likely going to see a girl walking down a road on this road so it kept our opening realistic.

Picture 1,2 and 3 we didn’t use at all because we didn’t feel as though it would work with our film opening ideas we had come up with together. Picture 4 did suit our film ideas so originally did put it in our rough cut opening. But due to time we got rid of that scene because it didn’t enhance our opening much, if anything it would just confuse the viewer so we stuck with harry being in the house where the Mise-En-Scene corresponded of what we thought would be be best.

jordan kenneally

Considered Locations: Interior

We have considered a variety of locations for where we are going to film our piece, the locations are extremely important to set the scene and to follow the generic conventions for our psychological thriller.
We have photographed different possible locations which we have considered and written why we have chosen them and whether they have any negative points against them and finally whether we have decided to film our footage  in this location or not.

Considered Bedroom

(3 Barnfield Mews) 

I chose this location as it can be easily accessible and changed to suit our conventions for our psychological thriller film, I thought that it looks like a small but simple room for an adult with dormant psychological problems and could be furnished and decorated to fit the role very well, the colours within this room are blacks, creams and browns which can be associated with someone serious and independent, this fitted well with our chosen male antagonist character so we believed that this room would be a very good bedroom for our main introductory character.
The props within this location that would perhaps be included in the mise-en-scene as background props would include the blinds, the desk and associated stool, the wardrobe and mirror, the sofa and also the bed in general. (Other smaller props will be brought to location if used.)
The lighting in this location can easily be changed to suit the needs of the of the filming and if we film at an appropriate time in the day a source of natural light is available in the form of a window, this will give us a chance to refilm until optimum quality footage is depicted.


  

Considered Bathroom
(9 Bounderby Grove)

 This is a possible bathroom we will use in our piece. We have looked at this bathroom as it has high light levels meaning the character will be seen easily. The house this bathroom is in is easily accessible and could be easily filmed in at it is a rather big space. The bathroom is good as it has a central medical cabinet and this is needed in our piece as its conventional. however there are also bad points about this bathroom, as the colours are quiet girlie it seems contradictory to the main character. However it could be seen as a bathroom that is themed by Penny, the main subject. The main downfall of this bathroom is that the shower isn't separate to the bath and this hinders our plan greatly. Ideally we would have a bathroom with a separate shower and therefore will probably not use this location.

Considered Bedroom
(9 Bounderby Grove)

 This bedroom is similar to the above bathroom as it is also quite girlie. The colours are bright and this would enhance the lighting in the room but make the character seem almost jolly. This is not the effect we are looking for and we think it would detract attention away from the main character. However a good thing about this bedroom is the size. It would be perfect for filming as we have plenty of space to experiment with shots and different angles. The bed is also bigger than the single bed in the first bedroom shown. This could show that maybe the main character isn't alone. the overall feel of this bedroom is to happy and I think it would be best not to use it.

Considered Bathroom

(3 Barnfield Mews)

This bathroom was chosen as it is a general family bathroom, it is complete with a shower which is necessary for a vital scene we have chosen for our film opening, it shows a unconventional bathroom for our main antagonist though as the white tiles and light colour connote a purity or innocence, we have decided that this would be a useful connotation that he is our when he is alone and possibly a misunderstood character, there is a mirror as well although there is no medicine cabinet which we were thinking could be used as an important prop for our final film when filming the bathroom scenes with our male antagonist's prescription medicine.
In general this possible location is full of space in order for filming to take place, and the variety of possible camera angles helps tick all the boxes within this possible location for our filming days.  

Considered Bedroom

(96 Sunrise Avenue)

This is our second proposed bedroom for the main antagonist, after removing a lot of the items located within this room before filming it would leave a very good room for our main male antagonist, although it could be seen as a bit too big or too cluttered with stuff, this would be good for a few of the scenes as he deteriorates and would look very natural in this room, although the clutter may cause problems in the stage of preparation this could be easily combatted, it contains a single bed which fits the expectations we were looking to uphold with our story, also the lighting will be easy to gauge due to three different possible sources of artificial light and also a window for a natural light source.

The colours withing this room would be quite light, yellows and blues mostly which does not fit the generic conventions for the male antagonist as these colours connote innocence which would not be suited for our character and can confuse the audience.  

Considered Kitchen

( 1 Hillcrest Chignal Smealy)

The kitchen location is extremely important for when we film our footage for our opening scene as it has a huge amount of time allocated to the scenes within, including the majority of our antagonist's morning routine.

This kitchen is a very useful location for shooting it is just round the corner from our other proposed film locations, it is also very large so that each section can be used for a different scene without it becoming tedious to watch.

Although conventions are not entirely kept to in regard to the cleanliness of such a kitchen we believe that we could easily overcome this as it still connotes a sort of mystery to our character and the black table tops used fit generic conventions and reflect our antagonist, as black connotes in itself mystery, plague and death which fits our conventions well as a psychological thriller. 

Verisimilitude is used within this setting as kitchens contain the same fundamental equipment it contain within, in which our audience can relate.

Considered Kitchen

(9 Bounderby Grove)

Another kitchen we looked at was in the same place as the pink bathroom. We found this kitchen would be a good place to set our film opening as it is stereotypical to most normal kitchens. This kitchen applies to the kitchen work triangle, by having a sink a cooker and a fridge based in a triangular formation, this gives the majority of the audience something to relate to and shows verisimilitude. A good thing about this kitchen is the bright red tiles. They could connote feelings of blood and death. However on the contrary the yellow tiles give a sense of happiness, showing that the character may be both. This is a subliminal message that could be used in our final film. The downside to this kitchen is the size, I feel if we were to film here we would struggle to get the right shots.

Final actors

After looking at different actors from the thriller genre and thinking about the kind of look and personality we want our characters to have (which can be seen on our mind maps) we have decided these are the actors we would want to play our main characters in our film.

Penny-Chloe Moretz

Harry -Nicolas Cage

Now that we have these people to work from we have a better idea of what characteristics to look for during our audition process.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Common thriller film actors

As we are creating a thriller film we need to look at various actors and think who, in a perfect world we would have playing our characters. By doing this we will have an idea of who we want to play the characters in our film and think about what sort of look we want them t have. By thinking who would be our ultimate actor we can work down and find someone suitable and mainly accessible. Our film is an independent film so I will have to look at actors who are commonly in thriller films and ones who are commonly in independent films and hopefully find some that fall into both characterisations. If I cant I think the look of the person will be most important and we are more likely to go for the actor who is in independent films because our institution won't have the money to use someone who is used to making big budget films.
Some actors commonly found in thriller films are

Nicolas Cage
Cage has starred in a large variety of genres and always brings in a big audience so having someone like him would be very good for our film as he has a very large mainstream fan base. He has been in thriller films such as Ghost Rider, Knowing and The Wicker Man so he would definitely be a good person to have to play Harry in our film. Although he is a very big budget actor he has been in some British independent films. In 2010 he was in Kick-ass which was produced by Marv Films and Plan B Entertainment, both mid sized independent institutions. I think Nicolas cage would be a very good person to have in our film as he would bring in a mass audience to a niche film and is known for being in films like ours. Mainly he would be good because he is accessible to an institution like ours even though its independent as he has work with them before.

Liam Neeson
Neeson is a very well known actor and is mainly associated with big budget films. He is Irish but often uses a British accent which would be good for the realism in our film to establish that it is a British indepentdent film. He has been in many thriller films such as Taken and The Grey. Although he has been in thriller films and has been linked with British films I dont think as an institution he would be an accessible person to consider. I also think he could be too old for the role and would possibly make and fight scenes look too convincing because of his large build.

Chloe Moretz
I think Chloe Moretz would be a very good person to play Penny in our film. Although she is American which could pose problems she definitely has the feminine and innocent look that we want for the character. She has also been in many thriller films such as Let me in and Wicked Little Things. she also starred alongside Nicolas Cage in Kick-ass so we know she has done independent film and would work well with another potential lead actor.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Common action film actors

For our thriller film there will probably be some form of action sequence, be it a car chase or a fight scene. We thought it would be a good idea to see what actors are commonly linked with action films to maybe consider them for our film or at least for some ideas of the build needed to be in such action scenes.

Denzel Washington
Denzel Washington is a well known action actor who has won two Oscars for Training day and Glory. His ability to characterise and his desire to do his own stunts makes him extremely believable as various characters. He can also make sure every character he plays is different and isn't just the stereotypical film hard man people expect to see. He is of quite large build but its a healthy large, he isn't overweight as most of his bulk is muscle which makes him perfect for action films.

Jennifer Lawrence
Although she is a woman and is quite new to the acting scene Jennifer Lawrence is known for action films. Her first big part was in X Men: First Class which was a huge action film and she is now starring in the highly anticipated film, The Hunger Games. Like most Hollywood stars she is of small build and her blonde hair gives the idea of innocence but her ability to act well in action sequences means these things dont stop her being in action films. for our film we need the girl to seem innocent so the audience will empathise with her, she also has to have a youthful look to her and long blonde hair makes her seem more feminine and could make her seem immature.

Olivia Saltmarsh

Common comedy film actors

every genre has a few token actors that appear frequently in films of that genre. By seeing one of these actors in a film it establishes the genre further and draws people into seeing the film as part of the audience might be at the cinema because of the genre, some because of the content and some because of the big name actor. For example some common comedy actors would be,

Adam Sandler
Sandler has been in many very popular comedy films and if he was seen promoting a film most would assume straight away that it was a comedy. He has been in films such as Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore and Don't mess with the Zohan. He has recently moved onto the genre Rom-Com, although this is a different direction he is still involved primarily in comedy as the Rom-com films he has been in have the comedy elements to them, (50 First Dates, Just go with it) His use of accents and childish characterisation makes him fit in the stereotypical comedy films.

Will Ferrell
Ferrell is known for being in a mixture of very high and very low budget comedy films, people know him straight away due to his trade mark afro hair, his image also makes people think of comedy staright away. He hasn't been in many films of a different genre, there was Stranger than Fiction in 2006 but he had two very big comedy films come out just before and just after this one (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Blades of Glory) These two high budget comedy films outshone the low budget dramatic Stranger than Fiction.

Olivia Saltmarsh