Thriller Costume/ Props/ Setting/ Mise en scene
Costume
I have done some research into costumes used in psychological thrillers, and I also have my own opinions on what works well with the genre.
Here is an example from the movie ‘Gothika’
As you can see, her clothes are quite plain. You can see where she has struggled and the trauma she has been through by the distressed look to her clothes. We plan to use quite plain clothing for the main scene of our thriller, as labels, words, pictures and sometimes patterns can detract from the main plot of the thriller.
In this case however, we will be using one distinctive piece of costume to link the first scene in the park to the scene in the garage, to allow the viewer to realise that these events probably happened within a short period of time and to know that this is the same character in the two scenes.
The above picture shows the gloves we are using for the antagonist in our Thriller. We felt they would increase the mystery as the skin cannot be seen. No stereotypes are reinforced, it could be a man or a woman of any ethnicity, but from the manly clothing a viewer may create there own image of what the antagonist may look like, which is what we intended. If this continued to be a whole film, the range of characters the antagonist could be is wider, creating a more interesting plot.
Props
The above photo show the photographs that are the basis of the main narrative of our thriller opening. They are to show the obsessive nature of the antagonist, as every picture is of the protagonist and all other peoples faces are scribbled out.
This next photo shows the power drill the antagonist starts up in the first part of our thriller. This prop creates the mystery and suspense of what the antagonist might do with that drill, and creates malicious images in the audiences mind of what he might do.
The mirror was a planned prop so the protagonist was able to look at her face and see the blood, and it was also to create opportunities for interesting camera angles. The blood and the picture on it were for the mise on scene of the trapped feeling and disturbing nature of the blood seeping through the picture, as if this was an indication of events to come.
We decided to use the camera so the protagonist could look through recent photos of herself, as everything she discovers becomes more disturbing as she realises she has been stalked. We used a professional looking camera, as we felt this fitted the obsessive nature of the antagonist, the quality of the photos being of importance to him.
We also used a desk lamp to light the setting, as it lit the room interesting with alot of contrast. It also created a work type of setting, to reinforce the mise en scene of the antagonists hideaway workspace.
Setting
We chose a garage for our setting as we felt the dark space would be unrecognisable until the garage door was opened, and it seems like a hideaway, a dark place where nobody can find you or you could escape from. The contrast between the normal, comfortable nature of outside the garage and the trapped feeling inside was also a reason we chose to use this setting.
Mise en Scene
The aim of our attention to detail with costume, props and setting created the mise en scene of a secret place, with a obvious familiarity to the antagonist, and a scary, nightmare experience for the protagonist. The dusty random objects create a scene which gives the scary impression that no ones ever goes in there, so it is an unlikely place to be found.
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