THRILLER PLANNING | Location and Mise-en-Scene

LOCATION:

The location of our film is going to be set over a few different locations. The first location is a garage/warehouse, where the antagonist will be holding the protagonist hostage. Our reasoning for this is how it conforms to the common conventions in a thriller, and more specifically crime-thriller. In a crime-thrillers there is often a dark, isolated and mysterious location in which some of the story takes place. We have chosen this location as it is very dark and isolated, which will reinforce the idea that the hostage is out of sight and in danger. The dark location is also a visual representation of the antagonist and his personality. It's the idea that like the location, the antagonist is isolated from society and avoided because of his looks.

Another, potential, location is just a generic living room. It may seem lazy, but from the location the audience can infer how relaxed and unaware that Ben's character is, and how oblivious he is to the fact his 'gang leader' has been kidnapped and being held hostage. The idea is that Ben's character will be casually relaxing and then receive a phone call from the antagonist making him aware the protagonist has been captured. Like the garage, the location also represents Ben and the protagonist’s personality. Because the room is so generic it represents that they themselves are generic and fit into society, unlike the antagonist. This, again, just reinforces the idea of how different the antagonist is.

MISE-EN-SCENE:

The lighting of our film, will be intentionally low-key, and we will use chiaroscuro lighting when filming in the garage. The dark lighting creates mystery and can leave the audience disorientated at times, which is what we want to do during the opening of our thriller whilst conforming to common conventions. During the interrogation scene we will be using rim light as it defines the figure of the character that is talking, this will give the antagonist a definate figure and make him stand out and almost intimidating.

Written by Ben Ambrose