Research into miss en scene - Miss Georgiou

Mise en scene

Mise-en-scène is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which essentially means "visual theme" or "telling a story"—both in visually artful  ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. The film clip that I will be analysing is from "insidious". I have chosen this clip because it has a lot of clear mise en scene techniques in it and the scene is a typical of a thriller film.

Setting and iconography

The clip I have chosen is set in a dark bedroom. This is too make the audience feel tense b because they cant see every corner of the room. This makes them feel like anything could be lurking there watching and waiting to strike the vulnerable character. Dark settings are very common in thriller films because they are mysterious and leave the audience feeling wary and cautious. There aren't many props used in the clip I have chosen. The only main props are the bed the boy is laying in and table that the family are sitting round discussing what happened the night before.

Costume, Hair and make up

At the end of the clip we are introduced to a creature with a red and black face. This creature is meant to represent a demon like beast that has come from the underworld. This creature is wearing a dark cloak as seen in the bedroom and it has tentacle fingers which we see when it is pointing at the young boy in the bed. All of these things are made up by make up and costumes. The detailed make up makes the creature look life like which makes the audience afraid of it more because they feel like it could be real. The dark costume makes the creature seem mysterious and dangerous because it can just lurk in the shadows watching its victims. This makes the audience feel tense because the creature could pop out from anywhere and attack. Dark costumes are used a lot in thriller films because it represents danger and uncertainty.

Facial expressions and body language

When the old woman is telling the story about her dream she has a squinted facial expression. This shows that she is deep in thought about her dream and what she experienced the night before. This makes the audience really listen to what she has to say because she seems really haunted by the events that occurred. The creature in the clip is shown as a up straight figure, standing tall and towering over the other characters. The technique of doing this makes the audience scared of this character because he seems more powerful and more superior then the other characters in that film. Thriller films often use tall dark figure as there antagonist because they are more threatening and dangerous looking.

Lighting and colour

The lighting and colour in this film is very dark in scary/tense scenes. Jumpy scenes were made even more scary by black shadows and dark objects lingering in the corner of your eye. Thriller films use this technique a lot to create tension and to make the audience afraid to watch that certain scene. Normally colours like black and red are used in thriller films to represent danger. This is backed up in insidious because the demons face consists of red and black colours. This is showing that he is a dangerous figure that wants to cause one of the characters harm.

Conclusion

From analysing this clip It has given my ideas for when I have to make a thriller sequence. I have learnt that using colours like a black and red will make the audience recognise that it is a clear thriller film and that it can also cause tension. Eerie setting and backgrounds keep the audience on the edge o there seats and it also adds suspense. Antagonist character should be wearing scary make up and wear dark costumes to make them stand out as the man threat to the other characters.