Plan of Mise-En-Scene

Plan of all costumes, props, locations, actors and models that I will use throughout the construction of my coursework. The planning of the mise-en-scene is one of the most important aspects of my coursework because I need all of these to make my trailer effective. I decided to do some research on other psychological horror films and look at their costume and props before deciding what we will use in our film. This is important because I need to ensure that I stick to the typical codes and conventions of psychological horror films to ensure that I attract the audience to my film. I looked at psychological horror films. Some of the films that I looked at are:

• Orphan
• Silent Hill
• A Tale Of Two Sisters
• Insidious
• The Forgotten
• Black Swan
• Devoured
• The other
• Devils Due

Research-COSTUMES

Orphan

Antagonist: Esther is the ‘antagonist’ within the film orphan. Esther is wearing old-fashioned clothing which would differentiate her from the other characters within the film as the rest of the family don't dress like this, which represents her as being isolated and different. However, the school uniform like costume and pig tails represent how young she is as she still goes to school, which gives away more information about the film as she could go to school, where other incidents happen within the film. However, Esther's costume in this image is juxtaposed because her pale face makes her come across as innocent but in contrast her dark hair makes her seem dangerous and evil. Esther’s her pale skin could make her come across as innocent but as an audience, we know that her dark hair has a massive impact on this as it can make her seem dangerous and evil. In addition to this, her dark eye make-up, gives her a witch-like and scary, evil appearance that immediately leads us to see her as evil and not the innocent child that everyone thinks she is. Esther wears ribbon in her hair and a band around her neck and wrists which suggests that she is trying to hide something and most of her outfits are not in colour, which adds to the old fashion clothing theme and gives the horror film a scarier effect. These bands are burgundy, again having connotations of blood and evil.

Protagonist: The above picture denotes the parents, John and Kate who are the parents in the film Orphan. Kate is the protagonist within the film. From looking at the protagonist in psychological horror films, it is important that I stick to the codes and conventions as there is a very specific costume that everyone wears. The protagonist tends to wear ordinary clothes in a psychological horror film for example, jeans and a top. This gives the film a sense of realism and to show that they’re an ordinary person. Furthermore, this allows the audience to put themselves in the characters situation and give the film a sense of realism.

Research- PROPS
Orphan

Props are an important aspect of any horror film and any film uses them. All great horror films have their memorable moments and their respective props as they help to add value to the killer. Every great horror killer has an equally great prop with them. Even movies without a killer, e.g a ghost movie or vampire movie have props. An actor can only do so much to make the film scary. Give an actor a scary prop and it immediately adds a massive effect to the film. Props tell a story without words and express the thoughts and feelings of the characters. Props make it easier to replicate realistic situations without having to implicate the actors’ physical well-being. Without the use of props, creating realistic killings, stabbings, fatal injuries etc would be made very difficult. Orphan, uses many props related to horror to add a scarier effect to the movie. Props that feature within the movie, include; knives, guns and phones (which also feature in films such as Silent Hill!) which are normally used as a means of communication between different people in the film. Knives are more effective in films because it’s that sound of metal scraping slicing and the fighting in close quarters. Mainly because you can actually see the knife approaching and about to go into them. A knife, you know exactly when it is about to happen. Whereas, guns are so powerful and efficient from even a distance that it removes any suspense and therefore you expect it to happen and knives you are always 'on edge' waiting to see what will happen. Other props that feature within horror films are knives, guns, axes, hammers and swords, ropes and chains are also very popular.

Research- LOCATIONS:

Orphan

Often, places with a 'dark' history are generally used in horror films. In addition to this, the location is often isolated because it wouldn't make sense to set a horror film in a busy area where somebody can come along and save the person being killed. There would be no point in doing this because it would take away the scary effect of the film. Most horror films are set in the following locations; woods, quiet village, haunted house, river/lake, school. Orphan has locations in the woods, the house and Esther's school. 

Research- ACTORS/MODELS:
Orphan

The protagonists in horror movies are predominantly females as the audience are more likely to understand this. This is important because women are seen as more innocent and would therefore be more scared of the antagonist whereas the man would have to act more manly.  The protagonist wears normal clothing and minimal make-up to give it a sense of realism and the audience can therefore picture themselves in the characters situation. Many horror films are normally focused around a family and the antagonist is a child. The antagonist will also be a member of this family. It is easy to distinguish the difference between the antagonist and the protagonist due to costume and props. The antagonist normally has dark make up and ‘old-fashioned’ clothing with minimal colour. In orphan, Kate the mother within the family is the protagonist and Esther, the child that the family adopt is the antagonist. 

After I had done some research, I could now decide what to use in my 'Melinda' horror trailer.

My 'Melinda' Trailer Mise-En-Scene planning

Costumes

Our movie is a psychological horror based on a possessed missing child. Our costume ideas are similar to 'Orphan' as we feel that they created a frightening antagonist Esther. This is why our antagonist, Melinda, will be wearing a white dress portraying innocence. However, this white dress will be juxtaposed by ‘Melinda’s’ dark hair and make-up. The other characters within the trailer will be wearing normal clothes to give the trailer a sense of realism and allow the audience to image themselves in that situation.

Props

As a pair, we mutually agreed that the props we are going to use are a ‘teddy bear’ and a ‘knife’. Melinda will be holding this teddy bear in the woods. From my research I can see that props are a necessary part of any film and add a big effect and I knife is one of the main props used as the audience are always left wondering what is going to happen. The knife will have blood on is and the teddy bear will also look dirty. This teddy will give Melinda a child-like effect and portray her innocence. 

Locations

The main locations within our film are our school and Ruislip woods. We decided that these would be the most effective ways because it helps the audience to further understand the story line. The woods is an isolated area adding a scarier effect to the film. Furthermore, a woods means that we are following the codes and conventions of a horror film, further attracts the target audience to the film. 

Actors/Models
Protagonist (Lucy)- The protagonist will be played by Lucy Morrissey

Antagonist (Melinda)- The antagonist will be played by Shannon Morrissey

Lucy's Friend- The friend will be played by Beth Hayes

Make-Up/ Hair
Melinda (played by Shannon) is the antagonist within the film and therefore needs to look the scariest. Melinda’s hair will be curly to give her a child-like effect and she will have ribbons in her hair to give her a scary personality. However, we are going to make this hair messy and untidy to show that she has been missing for a long time and to make her look scarier. Lucy’s hair will be kept straight and neat to create a contrast between the two characters. We thought that it was important to show that Melinda was an outcast by having the rest of the characters look neat compared to her. 

Melinda will be wearing dark make-up, giving her a 'witch-like' effect to portray the fact that she is the antagonist within the trailer. Test shots that we tried out on 'Melinda' (Shannon) can be seen below. From doing this, we have recognised that she needs to look like she has been missing for a lot longer and therefore needs more wounds and 'dirt' on her face. The images from the test shot:

Ideas for make-up came from research and looking at YouTube videos. Some of the videos that I looked at include: