Laith's Media blog: R+P Post 7: Our opening sequence's planned mis-en-scene

Our opening sequence's mise-en-scene will be split between dark, dreary and bright, modern. The purpose of this is to create a stark contrast between the setting in which the news anchor is placed, which seems safe and the setting in which the news reporter goes missing, seemingly haunted.

Camera:

In the beginning of the film opening we will make use of a variety of angled shots, tracking shots and OTS shots to follow the antagonist as he walks through the house and into a room. This will also allow us to express continuity while also building up the tension and suspense of what the antagonist is going to. Moreover, the camera will be strategically placed in each shot to ensure the identity of the antagonist remains a mystery as we believe this is an effective way of creating a sens of danger and fear around the character. In contrast to this, towards the end of the film opening we will incorporate a shaky hand-held camera to mimic a cameraman's actions; we also think this continuous POV shot will immerse the audience into the sequence and in turn make them feel fearful for themselves as well as the characters on screen. Below is an example of film which makes use of shaky hand held camera shots:

Lighting:

At the beginning of the film opening will use low key lighting as this will add to the mystery of the scene an in turn make the antagonist seem even more dangerous as it will help cover up more details of his figure. We will then use high key lighting for the news anchor as this will add familiarity of what the audience would expect to see. In addition to this it will make the news room seem almost 'heavenly' in comparison to the house of the antagonist and therefore make the audience even more wary and fearful of him. To end the opining, the forest scenes will have natural lighting as this will provide realism. 'The Dark Night' was a major inspiration for us when it came to indoor lighting with the antagonist as we thought that the low-key lighting placed on their antagonist, 'The Joker' made him even more menacing.

The Joker, under low-key lighting, in 'The Dark Night'

Settings:

1) My house- Within my house we will use a staircase and room leading off of it. This will act as the antagonist house and to ensure the scene still looks eerie on camera we will creatively position the camera and adjust the lighting to a level that suits the scene.

The room in my house

2) School- We will use a media classroom in our school to film the news anchor scenes as it is convenient as well as having many props which we can use for the scene.

The classroom we plan to shoot in

3) Enfield Island Village Forest- This is where the news reporters scenes will be shot; this was inspired by 'The Blair Witch project' from 1999 as this setting is what made this thriller film iconic.