Mise en scene blog

Location: Industrial place. In our production we want to illustrate the sort of places where main crimes happen and the sort of lives that these criminals lead. The location tells a lot about the character so we want to include the correct sort of location in order for the audience to understand their social and economic class. This will help the audience to understand the story more if they can relate to the sort of lives that the criminals lead. The location therefore sets the scene and illustrates the genre type straight away.

Costume- Gangster working class sort of look. Clothes can obviously express a lot about the character and the image we want to create is criminals looking lower and less important than the main character. We want the main character to look important and therefore to highlight that he is the main character. The clothes in which the criminals wear will immediately show their social and economic class and the audience will be able to relate to the characters behavior and attitude. We want the main character to be looking fairly casual for instance jeans and a smart shirt. This will show his power over the criminals.

Lighting- The lighting will want to be kept dark and gloomy to relate to the criminals lives. It would make no sense if it was in a really lit up area with the sun out and blue sky's. In order to keep it fairly gloomy we will have to film in the dark areas of the industrial area with the use of shadows etc. Hopefully we can film in an overcast this would help to express the characters a little better.

Camera shots- We want to keep the camera shots fairly simple, for instance over the shoulder, 180 degree rule etc. In order to create tension throughout the scene we will need to film quite a few close up and reaction shots for the audience to understand the tension between the characters. Facial expressions also create the pivotal points throughout the scene, for example when the chase kicks off. We will also need a few hand held fast shots to create exhilaration and adrenaline throughout the chase, otherwise it will be boring and will not interest the audience. The whole point of an opening sequence is to introduce characters, set the scene, illustrate the genre and to grab the audiences attention usually through action, in this situation crime chase. The whole idea of camera shots in this opening sequence is to keep it fast and exciting to keep the audience asking questions.


Editing- The editing will also be kept fairly simple we will include the basics such as, jump cuts, credit sequence, effects etc. The idea of using lots of jump cuts is to keep the scene exhilarating and fast tempo'd in order for the audience to want to keep on watching. We will include a credit sequence obviously to name the actors, editors, sound producers etc. We want to make the credit sequence look as professional as possible so we might use the credit sequence on for instance an establishing shot. This means that there is more to look at and more to understand about the location. We may also use some effects to create the mood a little more for instance dimmed clips to make it look even darker or perhaps glow effect to exaggerate facial expressions etc.

This blog was created by Toby Moffat, George Tibbett, Graeme Beck and Andrew Thomson.