Planning: Mise-En-Scene.

The mise-en-scene I plan to use in my thriller consists of the following:


Lighting- We will use low key lighting in the kidnap scene, and the torture scene. The reason for this is to create more fear in the audience, as the scene will look much more eerie because no one will be able to see where the antagonist has come from.

Setting: We have chosen a deralict location rather than an urban one, because this makes the female victim seem much more vulnerable because she is walking home late at night, alone, through a park.

Iconography: The main parts of  iconography that we are going to use will be the shovel, and various sharp objects(knives), as these connote to death and pain.  This will strike more fear in the audience as they will understand the antaginist's intentions.

Costume: The female victim will be quite a subversive character, as she will not be stereotypically wearing white. She will be wearing dark, revealing party clothes so the audience can assume that she possibly has some darker intentions than what we initially see.

Body Language and Facial Expressions: During the beginning of the scene, the female will have quite a relaxed body language as she isnt expecting anything bad to happen to her. As the scene progresses, we will see her starting to get a liitle bit more on edge, and after she gets kidnapped, her facial expression will show her genuine fear as she doesnt know if she will live or not.

Research:Opening Credits and Typography.

The opening credits are important because it gives the audience a little bit of information as to who was involved in the making of the film. Also, the opening credits may have a series of random images that will confuse the audience,as they do not yet make sense.
The information that is displayed in the opening credits is:
-The main cast.
-Film title.
-More actors.
-Casting by...
-Music by...
-Editing by...
-Costume design.
-Production company.
-Co-producer.
-Writer(s).
-Producer.
-Director.
Typography is the font or style of text that is used e.g. credits. The correct font has to be used for the correct purpose. For example, if the movie is quite serious, then the font would be quite plain, a romantic comedy would have an elegant,light hearted font, and an action fil
m would have a really big,capitalised font.

Research:Questionnaire.

Primary research is important when creating a thriller movie because you need to know who your target audience is, and what kinds of things they'd like to see. This means that the movie will receive better results from the audience because their view has been taken on board, and used in the film.
I asked a mixed group of thirty people to answer my questionnaire.



Questionnaire.
1.State your gender.   M/F
2.Which age group do you fall into?

12-14       15-17        18-20      21+

3.Which sub-genre of thriller movies provides you with the most entertainment?


Psychological        Action       Crime        Sci-Fi          Other
If 'other' please specify____________________________

4.What themes are preferred within thriller movies?


Obsession        Revenge        Hatred        Rape        Other
If 'other' please specify______________________________

5.What kind of entertainment do you seek when you’re watching a thriller?


Excitement        Tension        Fear        Other
If ‘other’, please specify:
_______________________________________________________________________________________

6. Do you prefer stereotypical characters, or subversive characters?

7. Which lighting technique do you think would add more tension to a scene?


Low Key        Under lighting        High Key

8. What colour clothing would you prefer the antagonist to wear?


Black        Purple        Green        Blue

9.Do you think the victim should wear white? Y/N
10.Do you think weapons will help add fear to a scene? Y/N Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
11.Should colour be used within the scene (e.g. red mist over an eerie scene)? Y/N Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
12.What editing effects would be most effective?


Fade to black        Slow motion        Jump cut   Dissolves
13.What settings do you think would be appropriate for a thriller?
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

14.Do you think that children add a chilling atmospheres when they are involved in thrillers? Y/N
15.State one of your favourite thrillers, and say why.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Research:Narrative Themes and Plots.

Themes are the elements that are present in a narrative, that make the audience feel a certain way. An audience would expect to see specific themes within the genres. For example, you'd expect to see marriage in a romantic comedy.
Themes are reliant upon the genres because that way,the movie will make sense. If the themes and genre don't really match, then the audience will get confused easily.
Some of the common themes in thrillers include:
-Revenge
-Kidnap
-Rape
-Lust
-Death
-Murder
-Obsession
-Hatred
Each of these themes are all elements that make up thriller movies. As most of these themes occur in real life, it makes the movie that much more scary to an audience, as they will associate the events within the narrative with real life.

Research:Narrative Theory.

Narrative is basically the plot or storyline of a movie. If an audience read the narrative of a film,then they will feel a sense of expectation as to what will happen.

 Propp's Theory: Film As Fairytale.
Propp was interested in the narratives of folk tales, as they would all include the same characters,therefore,the narratives would be similar,as he believed that characters provide structure for the narrative.These characters include:
The Hero- A character that seeks for better things.
The Villain- Opposes or actively blocks the hero's quest.
The Donor- Provides an object with magical properties.
The Dispatcher- Sends her on the quest via a message.
The False Hero- Disrupts the hero's success by making false claims.
The Helper- Aids the hero.
The Princess- A reward for the hero, and object of the villains plots.
The Father- Rewards the hero for his effort.

According to Propp, the characters in folk tales always followed the same stages within each narrative. These are:
Complication- This is where the hero plans action against the villain.
Transference- The hero reacts to the donor.
Struggle- The villain has to be defeated.
Return- Hero returns,but is not recognised.
Recognition- False hero or villain is unmasked,and hero is rewarded.

Todorov's Theory:
Equilibrium(Start) > Disequilibrium(Middle) > New Equilibrium(End).
The equilibrium is how the character appear stable at the beginning.
The disequilibrium is when something disrupting happens, and a change occurs that needs to be sorted.
The new equilibrium is normally when the disruption is sorted and narrative is closed.

Todorov believed that most narratives followed this structure. Later, two more were added to the structure.
Equilibrium > Disruption(Disequilibrium) > Resolution > Restored Order > New Equilibrium.

Aristotle's Theory: The Importance of Plot.
Aristotle believed that the start,middle and end of a narrative needed to link, make sense, and be quite probable. He also thought that it was important to arouse emotion from the audience and this is mainly within tragedy(fear and emotion).

Barthes' Theory:Semiology Within Narrative.
Barthes believed that narrative uses:
Action- Understanding and resolution is understood by action seen.
Enigma- Teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle that needs to be solved.
Symbolic- Use of connotations.
Semic- Denotation.
Cultural Understanding- Events which can be recognised as being part of a culture.

Thrillers tend to follow a mix of Aristotle's theory,and Barthes' theory. This is because the events in thrillers are designed to evoke fear in the audience, and also many connotations and denotations are used in thrillers.

Research:Scream Analysis.

   How is the opening sequence of Scream conventional to a thriller opening?

At the beginning of the opening sequence, an establishing shot is used to set the scene. It connotes that the scene will take place in someone’s house, which is supposed to be a safe place. The image of the house has quite an eerie feel to it, as it is in a very derelict, woodsy area, and it is night time, which already put the audience on edge, as they anticipate something to happen. The fact that this scene takes place at night is conventional to a thriller movie, as the most dangerous things happen at night, when there are not many people around. This will make the audience feel scared for the victim because they can estimate that her safety is in jeopardy. 

At the beginning of the scene, the female victim seems very relaxed in the comfort of her own home; we can see this by her relaxed posture, and facial expression. Even when the phone rings the first time, she is still very calm, and even a little flirtacious. This tells the audience that she feels very safe, and she isn’t expecting anything bad to happen to her. This is conventional to a thriller because the scenes always tend to start off with an equilibrium, with an un-suspecting, innocent, naive victim.

As the scene progresses, we see the victim become more uncomfortable, as her body language is more stiff and ridged, and her facial expression is much more fearful. At this point, the non-diegetic soundtrack starts to play faintly, suggesting that something is about to happen. This strikes fear in the audience as they can sense the action. This is conventional because a fast-paced soundtrack is often used to highlight the action.

Once the female realises that the unknown caller is quite intimidating and suspicious, the diegetic clown-like laughter of the caller suddenly becomes much creepier. A medium close up is used when we see her looking out of the back door. Here, we notice that she is wearing white which connotes to her innocence as a teenager. This is quite conventional, because most female victims tend to wear white to suggest that they are pure, and vulnerable. From this, the audience can clearly identify that she is the victim. Also, the low key lighting of the lights outside, are faintly shining on her face, which highlights her terrified expression, as well as makes the rest of the setting around her appear more scary, as more shadows of the objects behind her, are cast. This represents a thriller film, because shadows and silhouettes create a fear of the unknown in both the audience and characters in the scene.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Research: Mise-En-Scene:Setting&Iconography.

Setting and Iconography are important to a thriller because they can create an initial understanding of what will occur, without the audience actually having to see anything yet.

Denotations are the physical presence of something e.g. a knife, and a connotation is what you can interpret from an object e.g. the knife will represent death, and murder.

The setting of a scene can influence the emotion that is drawn from it. For example in a thriller movie, the locations would normally be in a dark, derelict area. This is because they are quite eerie places, so the audience will become more afraid of the events that are happening. This is because no outsiders would be there to help them escape form the antagonist; therefore, they will know that they are probably going to die. 

The setting of a scene is very dependent on the sub-genre of the film, also. For example, a psychological thriller is more likely to be set in a house, because it makes the audience question their safety of their own home. Whereas, an action thriller is more likely to be set in an urban location, because the action of the scenes ties with the busy atmosphere of the location that has been chosen.