Research : Mise en scene Setting and Iconography

Setting is the surrounding/ environment where an event takes place. Changing the setting can completely change the context, mood, emotion and seriousness of the event. In addition it helps the audience have a better understanding of what’s happening for example if the setting is in a hospital immediately the audience can infer that it’s something serious and that someone’s been hurt or needs help.




Different settings are used depending on different genres, sub-genres and themes. For example if you’re filming a romantic comedy you wouldn’t film it in dark scary woods at night as it would give a negative and scary effect that wouldn’t work. However, if you were to record a thriller with vampires and wolves it would certainly work.



Typical thriller settings:
 Both the settings of a deserted land and farm is typical as they’re both very distant from people and therefore the victim can’t call for help and is very isolated which makes them vulnerable and makes the audience feel sorry for them.
 Similarly, a forest is also very typical as it clearly shows the audience that the victim has nowhere to run from the antagonist as the forest will lead to nothing and has no roads nearby they could get help from. This also makes the audience feel sorry for the victim.

 A big house is another example of this, people usually feel safe at home however, by placing an antagonist into a victims house makes the audience feel uncomfortable as its somewhere they c could also relate to. An example of this would be ‘Scream’ as the victim didn’t expect the antagonist on the phone to be able to get into the house.

Iconography is objects/ props that cause an effect into the scene or setting. The most typically used iconography in thrillers is: weapons such as knives, guns, saws etc. In addition iconography can give hints about what’s going to happen in the film. Similarly in the starting scene in ‘Scream’ the victim was playing with the knife then got killed with it, and therefore it gives the audience little clues and hints about what’s going to happen.
Iconography can also help the audience understand the characteristics of the antagonist and what sub genre it is for example if the antagonist has an space gun we can infer that its scfi etc.
In conclusion, in my thriller film i would use a dark forest setting as it refers that something is going to happen as the victim can’t escape at all. In addition the piece of iconography id use is a knife as it’s a most commonly used weapon to kill or torture people. Also little fire lamps so the victims can run with in the forest.

Setting is the surrounding/ environment where an event takes place. Changing the setting can completely change the context, mood, emotion and seriousness of the event. In addition it helps the audience have a better understanding of what’s happening for example if the setting is in a hospital immediately the audience can infer that it’s something serious and that someone’s been hurt or needs help.




Different settings are used depending on different genres, sub-genres and themes. For example if you’re filming a romantic comedy you wouldn’t film it in dark scary woods at night as it would give a negative and scary effect that wouldn’t work. However, if you were to record a thriller with vampires and wolves it would certainly work.



Typical thriller settings:
 Both the settings of a deserted land and farm is typical as they’re both very distant from people and therefore the victim can’t call for help and is very isolated which makes them vulnerable and makes the audience feel sorry for them.
 Similarly, a forest is also very typical as it clearly shows the audience that the victim has nowhere to run from the antagonist as the forest will lead to nothing and has no roads nearby they could get help from. This also makes the audience feel sorry for the victim.

 A big house is another example of this, people usually feel safe at home however, by placing an antagonist into a victims house makes the audience feel uncomfortable as its somewhere they c could also relate to. An example of this would be ‘Scream’ as the victim didn’t expect the antagonist on the phone to be able to get into the house.

Iconography is objects/ props that cause an effect into the scene or setting. The most typically used iconography in thrillers is: weapons such as knives, guns, saws etc. In addition iconography can give hints about what’s going to happen in the film. Similarly in the starting scene in ‘Scream’ the victim was playing with the knife then got killed with it, and therefore it gives the audience little clues and hints about what’s going to happen.
Iconography can also help the audience understand the characteristics of the antagonist and what sub genre it is for example if the antagonist has an space gun we can infer that its scfi etc.
In conclusion, in my thriller film i would use a dark forest setting as it refers that something is going to happen as the victim can’t escape at all. In addition the piece of iconography id use is a knife as it’s a most commonly used weapon to kill or torture people. Also little fire lamps so the victims can run with in the forest.

Research: Narrative theory

A narrative is a brief explanation/ description of the film. It’s important to the audience as it gives them an insight of the film without watching it which helps them decide whether they’re going to like watching it or not also to see if it’s suitable for them.

Vladimir Propp – film as fairy – tale
Born: April 17, 1895, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Died: August 22, 1970, Saint Petersburg, Russia

Each character had their own detailed characteristics

Propp was mainly interested in narrative folk tales. He believed that folk tales were about the same basic struggles.

Complication    à Transference à struggle à return à recognition                            





Tzvetan Todorov
Born: March 1, 1939 (age 74), Sofia, Bulgaria Tzvetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher.

Equilibrium – How the characters appear table at the beginning

Disequilibrium – something disrupting happens and a change occurs which needs to be resolved

New equilibrium – usually disruption is sorted and the narrative is dosed

Equilibrium à Disruption à resolution à resorted order à new equilibrium







 Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.

Born: 384 BC, Stagira, Greece

Died: 322 BC, Chalcis, Greece

The importance of plot

He believed in having a beginning, middle and an end. The events must casually relate to one another as being either necessary or probable. In addition he also believed that it is important to arouse the emotion from the audience and this is mainly within tragedy (fear and emotion)







 Roland Barthes

Philosopher

Born: November 12, 1915, Cherbourg-Octeville, France

Died: March 25, 1980, Paris, France

-Semi logy within narrative

He believed narrative can be defined by using five of the following things:

1- Action – understanding a resolution is understood by the action seen

2- Enigma – teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle that needs to be solved

3- Symbolic – connotation

4- Semic – denotation  

5- cultural understanding – events which can be recognised as being part of a culture.
(Halloween)
 - Denotation – pumpkin
-Connotation Halloween                                   

                Thrillers usually use Roland Barthes structure in their thrillers as it teases the audience the most and keeps them on the edge of their seats and therefore i will be promoting this idea in my own thriller by including cultural understanding (Halloween)