Film: Mise En Scene

Mise en scene means "placing on stage". The mise en scene is basically everything within a particular shot and the arrangement of it. Before creating a film, you have to know what is going to be in each shot and the purpose of it. In my film, the key aspects of the mise en scene I will be focusing on in this post are costume, lighting and acting.

Costume:

Our leading protagonist is going to stand out against her surroundings. From our preliminary filming shots, the red jacket was very successful in making our protagonist stand out. Not only does it help to establish her as the prominent character, but the colour red also signifies a number of things. Red can be seen to represent love, romance and femininity. Woman are often portrayed this way in films as it follows the .."not sure".. code. We want the protagonist to project a feminine gentile facade as it will to highlight her insecurity. Other props we could use to highlight her femininity would be a handbag and lipstick. Another reason for using a red coat is that the red signifies death or blood. This helps to create an element of suspicion within the audience to whether she is in danger. Bright coats can often be linked to childhood. Many children in playschool wear brightly coloured raincoats. This could further connote her innocence and vulnerability. Other readings of the red could be an increased heartrate which would fit with the running scene.  

 This is a image from Schindler's list. Schindler's list is based around the time of the Holocaust. A colour filter was used in this section of the film to highlight her prominence to Schindler. It could have been done to highlight the child's innocence. The colour filter shows the contrast between him and the child and the red could represent the blood of war.

Here is a link to the extract in the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1VL-y9JHuI&feature=related

Lighting:

I got inspiration from the film Jane Eyre (2011). The film was shot rurally and much of the locations reflect where we are shooting. The dark, menacing atmosphere created in many of the shots on the more land, and in the wooded areas were filmed in overcast weather. Therefore both me and my filming partner will be organising film shoots when the weather forecast says that it will be overcast. We are using natural lighting to create a realistic ambiance, helping the audience to get drawn into the film. We will be filming in daylight, but in the afternoon when lighting is slightly dimmed.

Acting:

To reflect the femine clothing, we will be directing our actress to project femininty through her body language. Stepping gently, twidderling her hair and raising her hands slightly are all visually signify femininity. We also want her to look vulnerable when shooting close up shots.

Storyboard and Animatic

 This is potentially our opening scene, if we choose against a circular narrative. The opening shots will be tracking shots of her cycling into the woods. We will then use a variety of shots including close-ups and high and low angles as she gets off the bike and removes her helmet. The helmet is significant for a number of reasons. It firstly shows that she is cautious and likes to stay safe. The removal of the helmet could signify her safety diminishing. Sound in the opening shots are going to be quiet to slowly build up the tension. Feedback from the practise film indicated that a circular narrative would be more effective as it would instantly attract the attention of an audience, using Hitchcock's bomb theory. A match cut would be used to create a smooth transition from the ending to the start.

She is then depicted walking into the woods. This would be the section of the film in which we begin to build the tension. Using close-ups and tracking shots we will show her increasing vulnerability and anxiety. The storyboard shows the part where she takes out her photography assignment shoot.

A close-up shot of her looking a map be used to cement her in the location. We may also use an over the shoulder shot and POV shot. It will help the audience to connect with the protagonist and establish the narrative. We want to get diegetic sounds of the paper being unfolded.

Here are some more ideas of shots we could include in this section. We want good lighting in this section so that the writing on the sheet stands out. We could also do a close-up of her eyes looking at the sheet. This is the section in which she takes out her map to signify her vulnerability as she is not used to the location.

she will then take out her photography assignment to cement her in the location. We may also use an over the shoulder shot and POV shot. It will help the audience to connect with the protagonist and establish the narrative. We want to get diegetic sounds of the paper being unfolded.




The next sequence involves a number of tracking shots, filmed on a tri-pod. Another shot depicted in the storyboard is an overhead shot in which we film her from a height. This makes her look small and signifies her vulnerability

Our protagonist is then going to take our the camera from her handbag and her purse is going to fall onto the floor. Shots used in the section are POV shots, mid-shots of her taking photos and close-ups of the purse falling to the floor. Sound in this section could either be fairly quiet, to slowly build up the tension of we could use dissonant diegetic sounds as the purse falls to the floor to indicate that it is a poignant section in the film. Dissonance will also indicate danger, something we want the audience to predict.

Tracking shots will then be used as she walks into the denser, darker areas of the wood. A number of close-ups will be used to show the protagonists increased fear and anxiety. When directing our actor we will try and make sure that her facial expressions become more fearful as the film progresses. We will direct her to look around to show the protagonists increasing distress and paranoia.

High angles will reinforce the vulnerability of the subject. We will also include cutaways and close-ups of her feet as she walks into the woods. The sound, increasing in pitch and tempo, will also be used to build up tension.

We will then do handheld tracking shots to be used as a POV from the antagonists perspective. Handheld shots will signify the shot as being a POV and will create suspense. Close-ups of the protagonists face and extreme close-ups of her eye will help to show her increasing fear and apprehension. It also connotes that something bad is about to happen.

Whether she actually hears, See's or just imagines the antagonist, she runs away in fear. One prominent shot in this section is when the protagonist tilts her head around sharply. A loud dissonant sound whether it be diegetic or non-diegetic is used as the non-diegetic sound reaches it's climax. The non-diegetic music then stops and a new track fades in with increased tempo to represent her panic.

As she trips over a POV shot may be used as she falls to the ground. We could use a slow fade to transition from the POV shot to connote her being dazed by the impact. The non-diegetic sound could reach its peak as she falls over then stop as she hits the ground to signify a change in atmosphere.

We could blur the focus when doing a POV shot from her perspective as she is still dazed. As she tilts upwards the antagonist will be filmed without showing his face to hide to his identity. It will focus around his legs and hands. We may direct the actor to clench his hands to signify aggression. A close up shot will then be used to signify the protagonists fear. Focusing on the psychological aspect through close-ups will conform to existing psychological thrillers.

An extreme close-up will be used as he reaches into his pocket. This is typically associated with western films in which someone pulls out a weapon and should hopefully make the audience think that he is going to pull out a gun or knife. If we used a circular narrative then this could be the opening shot so that the audience are instantly gripped. We are still undecided on whether the ending is going to reveal that he has picked up her wallet or leave enigma so that the audience can decide the ending.









Animatic:

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=306796636017764&id=564257234&ref=notif&notif_t=video_wall_create

Film Title Ideas

It is important to create a good title when producing a film. The title is vital in attracting a target audience. If you're film was called "fluffy kittens" and was a horror film then it would probably fail to attract its target audience. However, a title like "killer rampage" would signify the horror genre making it easier for the target audience to associate the title with a film based around themes of brutality and death.

The film title is an audience’s first encounter with a film. Using the enigma code I want a title that leaves the audience intrigued. Therefore the film titles that I have thought of in my thought shower above are all short, concise titles that give an insight into the film but leave the audience with little information. This should help to attract a larger audience, making them interested in finding out more about the film. An example of a film title that I don’t like is “rise of the planet of the apes”. I didn’t think that it was a very well constructed title and it was too long winded. An example of a film title that I think is good is “black swan”. It’s concise, connotes the narrative and grabs your attention.

           

One of the favourite titles I came up with was “paranoia”. However, using this title would give away the fact that the subject is paranoid removing the enigma of the film. Both my filming partner and I both liked the title “blackout”. This is because it refers to the stage in the film where she becomes unconscious. This should help to interest the audience from the start of the film as it connotes that something bad is going to happen. It also reflects the horror/thriller genre, as its literal meaning is “dark”. “The obscured” and “followed” are other title’s I quite like. It automatically suggests to the audience that she’s being watched or that she’s not alone. “The hunted” is another title I quite like that isn’t on this thought shower. This would connote to the audience that she is being followed and that she is vulnerable.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4399991/Film_Titles

Using wordle I have made a visual display of the film titles I like the most. It includes some film titles not shown in the thought shower above. I have used both colours and fonts that I feel reflect the genre and would work well in the film.

Short Film Practice

Weather Forecast:

We wanted an overcast day to film. It is important that we don't film when it is raining as it could damage equipment, effect sound as the rain may get picked up too strongly, and would make conditions more dangerous. Therefore we used BBC weather forecasts to predict times in which we could film. The practice shoot was filmed during school time as lighting is poor shortly after school finishes. We managed to organise when all of our filming crew were available.

We decided upon Tuesday as weather was clear from rain. Although we wanted to film on an overcast day when the weather would reflect a more eerie atmosphere, as it was only a film mock up we decided it was an appropriate day to film.






Link to my film on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPQ-ZrL2u8

Here is the short film mock up. This has been edited using Vegas 10 and iMovie. Although I liked using both pieces of software, it is likely that I will be using iMovie for the editing of the actual film shoot. The film shown below is lower quality to the one on youtube.

Online Feedback:

Class Feedback:

Mrs Elliott:

 Our teacher said that it was a good first attempt. She liked the colour filter and the way in which the red coat stands out against the backdrop. She also liked some of the shots used. However she thought that the editing used too many slow fades. She also thought there were not enough close-up shots. These are vital in the psychological genre to establish how the protagonist is feeling to an audience. Close-ups are also used to create a connection between the audience and protagonist. If an audience don't connect with the character then they wont care when something bad happens to them.

Other Constructive Criticism:

Tash Harmer:

"I think there needs to be a back story". As we only shot a section of the film people didn't see the back story. This emphasises the importance of one.

"The breathing sounds are too quiet". During the preliminary editing, I used a sound effect to create the breathing. During the shoot we will use an actor to do the breathing effect, so will make sure that it is picked up on the microphone.

James Osment:

"The tracking shots from behind the tree are too close to the subject". Both me and my filming partner are going to film some tracking shots from the stalkers perspective from further away in future to make it look more realistic.

Alice Saunders:

"The lead up to the action was a bit too slow". Therefore we will use editing techniques to create a more flowing buildup such as cutaways to keep the audience intrigued and jump shots to increase the pace of the film. However. I feel that it is important to have a slow pace at the start to create an effective contrast between equilibrium and disequilibrium. Another way in which we could grab the audiences attention immediately would be to use a circular narrative. We could use the ending at the start and use a match cut to create a smooth edit from the ending of the film to the beginning. This could be as simple as a close up of the protagonists eyes.

Personal Analysis:

• The location wasn't quite right. We want a more densely wooded area to create a darker more isolating atmosphere.
• The music doesn't fit the genre very well. I will look for different music that could reflect the genre and create a more intense ambiance.
• There wasn't enough diagetic sound as I had to find a lot of sound effects in the preliminary film.

Here is a few shots taken during our first day's filming. It also shows some of the equipment used. We first needed transport provided by someone in sixth form. We also brought a map in case we got lost. Camera equipment used includes the Nikon D5000, a 18-55mm lens and a tripod.

Improvements for the actual shoot

We were happy with our preliminary filming but have come up with a few quick ideas to improve the film:

• tracking shots behind her using tripod
• tracking shots behind 
• when shooting the protagonist needs to be walking before we shoot to make sure their is continuity
• bike scene

Practising with Equipment, Filming and Editing

Equipment Testing

Before producing our film we wanted to practice using equipment.

We shot this with some of the camera equipment, and shows us getting to grips with our tripod. We also practised with the video camera. Here is some practice footage using the camcorders:

This is me and my partner practising the scene is which the protagonist is running away from the antagonist. We took one tracking shot of the protagonist being followed and another using a POV perspective. This would be done when filming so that we could do a multiple of fast cuts to intensify the fast paced section of the film.