The document outlines the mise-en-scène planning for a thriller film by sjfo productions, detailing character costumes, locations, and props to create a cohesive narrative. It emphasizes the importance of specific elements like lighting and props, such as fake blood and common weapons, to evoke suspense and enhance the storyline. The plan accounts for character relationships and contrasts between present-day and flashback scenes to maintain verisimilitude and engage the audience.

1. Mise-en-scene Planning
SJFO PRODUCTIONS

2. Mise-en-scene planning
• It is important for us to establish the different characters
we plan to use and the MES elements involved in their
character. For example, clothing. However it is also
important to note additional MES elements such as
fake blood, papers/documents etc.
• It is okay if our final idea isn’t entirely following our plan.
However, planning out these MES elements is vital
since it will make things easier when we plan on
actually filming it since we’ll know exactly which MES
elements we plan on using.

3. Actors
• Protagonist (James)
• Victim – Woman (Laura)
• Young protagonist (Billy)
• Younger victim (Danielle)
• Girl’s friends (Tamara, Amaris, Shantay, Renace,
Ella, Megan etc)

4. Protagonist
Protagonist (present) will ideally be
wearing all dark colours and
preferably black. These dark colours
which he will wear will be ideal since
they have connotations with danger
and give an eerie and ominous vibe.
We have chosen James to be our
present day protagonist as we
believe he can act as this character
to a good standard and give off this
eerie vibe.

5. Young protagonist
Protagonist (past)-boy will be dressed
similar to the young girls in the
playground. He will wear a plain white
shirt, a tie and a jumper. The use of
contrasting colours will be
representative of the alter-ego the
young protagonist. Billy is the name of
the boy acting as our young protagonist.
This is since he is of the same/similar
ethnicity as James and looks similar to
him. Therefore we believe it will be fairly
obvious that Billy is the younger version
of James.

6. Victim – Woman
Victim (present)- a stereotypical
teenage girl outfit, jeans and a top with
hair in a pony and converse trainers.
This is the ideal outfit since it creates a
sense of normality which contrasts to
the protagonist who will stand out and
seem out of place with his costume.
We have decided to use Laura as this
character. This is because we feel the
victim in thriller movies corresponds
with Laura and therefore is appropriate.

7. Younger version of woman
(victim)
Victim (past)- a typical stereotypical primary
school girl outfit, black skirt, white shirt and
black cardigan. Potentially black dolly shoes
would also be worn. This is the ideal outfit
since it creates a sense of normality of
school and thus verisimilitude. One problem
we have encountered is the fact that our
school girls do not look as young as we had
hoped. Thus, we must dress them and make
them appear young.
We have decided to use Danielle as this
character. This is because we feel the she
looks similar to Laura and thus the audience
will be able to make the connection that she
is the younger version of Laura.

8. Girl’s friends
Victim and friendship group of girls (past)- girls in primary
school uniform – white shirt, black cardigan and black skirts.
All girls will look and dress similarly to represent a typical
close group of friends in school. This will also represent a
lack of individuality of being in this typical ‘popular’ clique.

9. Girl’s friends

10. Locations
• Bus (INT)
• Alleyway (EXT)
• Dark room (INT)
• Playground (EXT)

11. Bus (INT)
The opening sequence has two-three main locations where
we will be filming. Our first location is on a bus which we
feel fits well with our storyline and shows a sense of
normality and thus brings out verisimilitude in the storyline
for the audience to relate to.

12. Alleyway (EXT)
The alleyway is our second
location. It is the the scene
after both characters get off the
bus (previous location). It will
be filmed in the dark or at
twilight since this will give off
the mysterious vibe we hope to
achieve.

13. Dark room (INT)
Our third location will be in a plain dark room where the
protagonist will make his evil plans. We chose this type
of location as it will create mystery and suspense as the
character is showing his creepy and darker side as he is
planning some sort of murder. The dull, boring and dark
lighted room reflects to the audience the darkness of the
character and the movie

14. Playground (EXT)
We’ve decided to use a
playground setting during
the flashback scene to make
it obvious that the children
are in school and to make
obvious that it is a
flashback. There will be
children both in the
foreground and background
to bring out a sense of
verisimilitude since
playgrounds are normally
noisy, loud and full of
people.

15. Props
• The use of particular props is important in setting
the storyline and adding to the typical eerie vibe
which should be given off in a thriller movie.
• Thus, we will use the following props within the
filming of our opening sequence to add to the
verisimilitude and create a mysterious and
ominous vibe leaving the audience wanting to
know more.

16. Fake Blood
We’ve decided to also use
fake blood in our opening
sequence. Although blood is
very common in thriller movies
since it connotes danger and
death and thriller movies is
about exactly this, we must
make the blood look realistic
but at the same time not
overdo it.

17. Scissors, Kitchen Knife and Rope
We’ve decided to use scissors, a
kitchen knife and a rope since
these are MES elements fairly
common and expected in a
psychological/horror thriller movie
and is therefore appropriate for our
opening sequence. These props all
have connotations to danger, too
and will therefore be useful in
telling the story without dialogue.

18. Lighting
We’ve decided to use two different
lightings for the different parts in our
opening sequence. For the present
day filming, we will use fairly low-
key and dark lighting to connote the
mysterious effect.
For the bus scene, since the natural
lighting will be fairly dark, the lights
in the bus would be on. This is the
lighting that will be used in this
scene.

19. Lighting
However, the flashbacks will
contrast to this and instead have
natural lighting since the scene will
be set outside. This will fit into the
scene but also contrast to the bus
and alley scenes making it obvious
that the different scenes are at
different times on the timeline of the
supposed film.
Furthermore, the natural lighting will
bring out better quality of the
footage as opposed to
harsh/artificial light.