Research of Mise-En-Scene - Miss Georgiou

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Mise - en - scene


It is made up of 5 elements:

• Settings & Iconography
• Costume, hair & makeup
• Facial expressions & body language
• Lighting and colour
• Positioning of characters/objects within the frame

The settings and the iconography is the background and the extra elements such as the objects that are scene in the film, for example this scene is taking place in a classroom so the iconography is the tables, chairs and boards. This isn't your typical thriller setting, normally a thriller scene would be set somewhere dark, maybe an abandoned place with the victim being all along however, in this particular scene the victim is surrounded by many other people in a school classroom, i think that this is a good thing as it makes this thriller unique and different to what you would expect to see and it shocks you how she's in that setting, so you aren't expecting anything bad to happen and all of a sudden as she falls asleep it changes to her being by herself in the classroom, dark and all the iconography you could see was a few desks, this is as she meets her killer.
The costume, hair and makeup is what the character is wearing and how they are looking, for example in this sequence it is filmed in the characters high school so she's wearing quite plain clothing such as jeans and a jumper with quite natural makeup and hair to show off her innocence in some way, this gives us an understanding of the film as her killer knew her from when she was a little girl so to him she's still shown to be that innocent child she was when she was at the primary school with him.
The facial expressions and body language presents how the character is feeling weather she is scared or happy, this gives us an understanding of how the character is feeling in certain parts of the film, for example at one point of the film she is sleeping so to everyone in the room she seems relaxed by her body language and then she sharply wakes up screaming and you can tell by her facial expressions how scared the character is, as she falls asleep and comes into contact with her killer, you can tell by her facial expressions how scared she is, with her body straight and upright with her shoulders back showing that she's in shock, she also frequently is gasping for air showing she's struggling to breath and her voice starts to tremble as she speaks this is evidence that the victim is very afraid and quite nervous.

The lighting and colour is quite important especially in this film, it gives us an idea about what could happen in the film, for example in this film the girl had fallen asleep in class and the lighting and colour started off bright and bold which senses to me she is in an safe environment, but as she fell asleep and started dreaming the lights fade dramatically and the colour turns dull and dark, most of the iconography had disappeared giving us an idea that something bad is about to happen, and theres nothing and no one left to protect the victim.

The positioning of the characters / objects within the frame is where the characters are positioned within the frame, weather their in the middle of the shot or are in the back. For example, in this film the main character in the sequence was filmed in the middle, this is because she is the most important character in the scene, if she was in the back of the shot she would be quite hidden and you wouldn't have a clear understanding of what is happening in this particular sequence, with all the extra people on either side of her. The way she is positioned when her killer is approaching shows us his empowerment as she's sitting on her desk, he is standing over her whilst confronting her, showing her lack of protection and her vulnerability.

Summary

This research will help me plan the production of my thriller sequence as its given me an insight as to what kind of iconography and background i should use to make my sequence different and unique to everyone else's, it's also helped me understand how my victims body language and facial expressions can really help to create something real and interesting to watch, this is one of the most important elements as if the audience dosen't feel the victim is very afraid then it will not create as much of an impact on the audience.