RTND productions

1. MISE-EN-SCENE PLANNING
RTND PRODUCTIONS

2. ACTORS/ACTRESS’
• When auditioning actress’ and actors we wanted to make sure they would portray the correct key
elements of their characters
• The main actress needed to come across as young, innocent, naïve, harmless girl- she needed to come
across as a victim in order for us to mould a character that would make the audience beginning asking
questions.
• In comparison, we decided the male (possible) antagonist should be a similar age as our female
protagonist so that we could use him to create flashbacks of their life prior to her death, presenting them
as a young, romantic, “stable” couple. In addition to this we wanted an actor that would be able to
portray both the roles of the romantic and the suspicious possible murderer.
• The final character we included in the opening sequence was a police officer for the second scene, we
wanted to have a character that was portrayed as smart, dominant, the “alpha male” of the scene and
powerful. We chose a middle aged actor because we felt he would portray these features the best when it
came to over powering the evidently younger actor in the scene. In addition, we chose a white actor
because we wanted him to be portrayed as professional, in a high position and have a certain amount of
power- positions that MEG actors often do not portray within the media.

3. THE VICTIM- ACTING CHOICES
As stated on the previous slide, we wanted
our female lead to be able to portray a range
of characteristics, including innocence and
vulnerability.
In the auditioning process, we decided on the
actress to the left. This is because when it
came down to the still shots of the actress she
seemed the most convincing as a victim of an
accident. In addition, she was also able to
portray the romantic girlfriend (necessary for
shots of her an the antagonist before she
died).

4. THE VICTIM- COSTUME CHOICES
• We chose to dress the victim in simplistic clothing, this
allowed us to “dress it up” with fake blood in order to
emphasise that she was in a struggle. In addition, the
utilisation of simplistic clothing does not give away too
much about her character- it doesn’t say whether she was a
girly girl or a tomboy, whether she liked to be portrayed
sexually or innocently. This further allows the audience to
make their own decisions about her based on other
information they are presented with.
• The top we intend to cover in blood and hand prints, and
the leggings will be ripped- again revealing cuts and
bruises. This will portray has a victim and evoke emotions
of sympathy for her character from our audience.

5. THE ANTAGONIST- ACTOR CHOICES
• We chose this person to act our antagonist
because we felt out of the people we auditioned he
was the most well suited to play both sides of the
character (the romantic and the rebel).
Furthermore, it was convenient because he
understood what the opening sequence was about
the most and where the film would go from there.

6. THE ANTAGONIST- COSTUME CHOICES
• The costume choices for our antagonist were purposely chosen to
give a bit more away about his character, in hope to evoke
emotions of suspicion and doubt about his character. We dressed
him in clothes stereotypical for a deviant teenager from an urban
area. This included a black hoodie, a sports cap and tracksuit
bottoms, as well as trainers (although the likelihood that you
will be able to see them in the shots are low).
• We dressed him this way because of popular stereotypes of
teenage boys that wear hoodies- that they are “thugs” or “yobs”,
the are violent and probably involved in street crime.
• In addition, this fits with popular stereotypes of how teenage
boys are presented in the media already, we felt by dressing our
character this way it would further make our opening sequence
fit with the stereotypes of this social group already present.

7. THE ANTAGONIST- COSTUME CHOICES
• In contrast, in shots where the antagonist is seen with
our protagonist, he will be dressed more smartly. This
suggests that something drastic happened between
the time that they were a couple and when she died,
giving the “good boy gone bad” effect. It could further
cause our audience to ask questions such as what
happened to make him change so much? Did she
personally do something to him to make him “go bad”?
Does this have any correlation to who killed her and
why they did?

8. THE POLICEMAN- COSTUME CHOICES
• Like earlier stated, we wanted our police man to come
across as professional and someone in authority.
Therefore, we chose to dress him in quite smart attire
(with a suit jacket, shirt and tie and suit trousers),
the contrast between his costume and the costume of
the other actor in this scene (the antagonist)
highlights his power and dominance over the
situation, it puts him in a position of control as he
seems like the more professional and respected
character. It also allows him to be trusted more by the
audience as they do not view him as a shifty or
suspicious character as a result of his clothing, like
they would our antagonist.

9. THE SETTING (EXTERIOR)
• The Barn Hotel
• We chose this hotel as our location because the
mock Tudor style houses have a eerie and
possibly creepy effect to them, which will add to
the genre conventions we are trying to portray
as a thriller film. In addition, the “traditional”
and “old fashioned” style is stereotyped as more
scary than modern and contemporary housing,
therefore following the mind set we are trying to
get our audience into.

10. THE SETTING (INTERIOR)
• We chose one of the more simplistic rooms in the
hotel to film our opening sequence in order to
make it realistic as a location a teenager would
be in rather than one of the more extravagant
rooms. In addition, we plan on making the room
messy, with smashed props (e.g. smashed
bottles, smashed lamps), untidy bedding,
scattered pillows etc… This will add the effects
we are looking for in the genre conventions of a
thriller (suspicion, mystery, chaos etc)

11. PROPS
• 1. Weaponry
The use of weapons for example, the knife, highlights
the violence and adds an attack theme to the scenario.
The use of a knife in particular evokes more feelings of
empathy for the protagonist because it is clear that it
was used against her, in addition it highlights that
“street criminal” aspect of our antagonist and adds
suspicion and feat to his character.

12. PROPS
• 2. Evidence of a struggle
We plan on using smashed glass as evidence of a struggle
between the protagonist and antagonist, the glass could
come from a variety of sources including wine bottles and
a smashed lamp. The glass could have blood on it, or other
props such as the weapon beside it to add an element of
danger.
Again, this highlights the “savage attack” aspect of what
could have happened before the opening sequence and
allows the audience to ask questions being creating
intrigue and mystery.

13. PROPS
• 3. Alcohol
We plan on using alcohol as part of the
stereotypes of teenagers, this creates questions
within the audience about who the alcohol
belonged to. If it belonged to the female then it
contrasts earlier portrayals of her as sweet and
innocent and could even suggest that she was
drunk enough to start the fight, that she
unfortunately lost, if it belongs to the male then it
underlines his dangerous “delinquent”
characteristics of a teenage rebel that are already
portrayed in the media in other shows such as
Skins.

14. PROPS
• 5. Fake blood
Fake blood is likely to be one of our most key
props, this is what we are going to use to make it
evident that the protagonist is dead, it is also
going to be used on props such as the glass and
alcohol bottles, over costumes such as the
protagonists clothes and as stage make up to
make clear signs of a violent struggle between the
antagonist and protagonist. In addition blood has
connotations of pain, death and danger, which are
conventions that we plan to expand on within our
thriller.

15. LIGHTING CHOICES
• 1. Int. Hotel Room
As a thriller film, we found that it was most
appropriate to utilise lowkey lighting
throughout. We planned on ding this in the
hotel room by shutting any curtains or blinds,
using light only from a few lamps or from
torches rather than using the main source of
light. We hope that this will give the opening
sequence a creepy aura, especially as it tracks
over the dead girl, who will be in light but also
in shadows like the picture on the left.

16. LIGHTING CHOICES
• 2. Ext. Hotel/House
Again, low-key lighting will be operant in any
establishing shots of the house and if possible we
will film in the night, where the only available
lighting would be natural light (e.g. moonlight or
light from windows of the house).

17. LIGHTING CHOICES
• 3. Interrogation Room
Lighting in this scene would hopefully be as
similar to the picture to the left as possible,
harsh and bright on characters such as the
antagonist’ face with other characters such
as the police man more in the shadows, this
would hopefully give the antagonist an
uncomfortable “dear in the headlights”
aura, whilst the police officer is left in a
calm, controlled state.

18. LIGHTING CHOICES
• 4. Flashbacks
For the flashbacks we hope to use more high-
key lighting to possibly making the lighting
either more harsh to add the effect that they
are painful memories, or we could use black
and white to make it more nostalgic.
However, we will be using some sort of effect
or lighting change to make it evident to the
audience that the flashbacks are past tense
and not part of the present scene.