The document discusses costume and prop research and planning for a thriller film teaser. It explains that costumes will reflect the characters' personalities and moods. The main character has two personas - a normal college student and a murderous "devil." His normal costume will be casual, while his devil costume will be all black to disguise his identity. Props discussed include knives, blood, and scratchings to represent violence. The teaser will film scenes inside a bedroom and computer room to represent the character's nightmares and blog. Outdoor scenes will take place on the college grounds and in town to leave the devil's traces.

1. MISE EN SCENE:
Research and Planning

2. Costume: Research
Costume is vital to piece together a story, and carry the genre throughout the film. The use of
planned costume does not always seem obvious; however, for each film and promotional
package created, the costumes are carefully thought out in order to create a perfect aesthetic
for the film. Costume links in directly with character establishment. It tells the audience who
the character, in a way which the audience pick up on their personalities without realising.
Costumes usual have a ‘social truth’ about them, holding appropriate visual looks to reflect
the characters emotion and any social conditions.
The typical idea of costumes in a ‘thriller’ film, revolve around images of dark clothing and
pieces which will cover people up. Although very stereotypical, dark clothing is enforced
repetitively as it creates a darker mood and atmosphere. This is more common for men in
thrillers, but also be seen on female characters. Another stereotypical costume for women, is
usually a dress – in either red or white. This can make them a stand out character with the
colours implying different meanings: red indicating blood or violence, and white showing
innocence.
Example: Gone Girl
The main male character
in Gone Girl constantly
wears dark or dull
coloured clothing
throughout. Whereas, the
main female character
wears white or pale
colours often, to
represent her ‘innocence’.

3. Costume: Research
Analysis of ‘The Girl On The Train’ Costume Use
The main character in the thriller, ‘The Girl on the Train’ is Rachel
Watson. She is an alcohol who has lost her job, obsessed as it seems
with ex husband and his new life. During the film, quite frequently her
outfit mirrors this one on the left. It consists of a pair of dark blue
trousers, a shirt, blazer, big coat and a scarf. As you can see the
overall effect of the costume is quite messy. Her shirt untucked, and
her trousers not fitted. It works in sync with her character to bring
across the correct image for the character’s personality. Although it
isn’t all dark like the stereotypical thriller costume, it does cover her
fully and not make her an obvious stand out character. The costume
has carefully been pieced together in order to give the impression of
how chaotic her life is.
To the right is a clip of a scene from the film. It shows one of
the male characters talking to the main character Rachel.
This character is quite aggressive, and confused as his wife
has been murdered. His costume in reflection fits his
personality well. It uses dark colours of grey and black, to
show his dark personality. It is also quite a fitted shirt, which
allows the audience to see his muscular build and perceive
he may be potentially able of physical aggression.

4. Costume: Planning
Devil Persona
Our main characters holds two personas, good and evil. Part of our main
character is an aggressive, murdering ‘devil’. Due to not wanting to make
the character split in the teaser obvious that it is stemming from one
person, we thought we would go for a more subtle costume for this
persona of our character. Sticking to the stereotypes of a dark costume
to suit an evil, personality, for the devil costume we will get our main
character to wear all black. This will include black jeans, black shoes, a
black t-shirt and a black hoodie or hooded coat. The hoodie/ coat will
play a vital part in the costume. It will be used to disguise his identity in
the trailer, not showing the audience that he in fact is two characters in
one.
Normal Persona
Our main characters may persona will be a teenage boy during his
college years. He is an enthusiastic writer, and keeps a blog. In our film,
that blog has been turned into a nightmare journal. This is where he
keeps records of all the nightmares he has of the ‘devil’ character. This
part of the character is very casual, but quite smart. His costume will be
quite simplistic including: black jeans, trainers, a white t-shirt or shirt and
then possibly glasses to imply the smart element of his character.
Our costume will be for a main male character. He is the only
character making an appearance in our teaser, and part of his
costume will follow the stereotype of dark thriller costumes. As he
holds two different identities, we will need to reflect this through
costume.

5. Props: Research
The significance of props in films can vary from meaning everything, to meaning
nothing at all. They can have symbolic meaning, or represent a character in a certain
way. Props can be an extension of the characters personality, suiting the characters
mood and feelings, then implying that to the audience. In some films, such as Harry
Potter, props are used as clues for the audiences. Hinting them towards what is going
to unfold, or key elements which make the story make sense.
In ‘realistic’ film making, props can mean nothing more than making a scene
authentic. I believe that approach would suit our film the most. The film is a thriller,
with hints of violence. Therefore, the appropriate equipment to make scenes clear is
vital.
There are some ‘typical’ props that people may associate with thrillers.
These can include:
• Knifes – relating to violence, and death. An easy weapon to get a hold of,
making thrillers realistic if they use it.
• Blood – A big part of thrillers can be violence and death. This is easily
represented through blood, and can be frequently used in thrillers. Blood
will be a big part of our teaser, to represent the theme of murder.
• Mysterious Items – These add tension and suspense to thrillers. Thrillers
are full of twists and turns of not knowing what is going to happen when,
some random mysterious items can emphasise this further.
• Masks – our form of this prop is used via costume. Masks can be used to
hide identity, and to create suspicion.

6. Props: Planning
For our teaser, not a large variety of props will be necessary. The props we will be
using will incorporate your ‘stereotypical’ thrillers props. The props we will use will
deeply associate with the different personas of our main character. Below is a
diagram, indicating which different props are needed for two different personas of our
main character.
Knife: Available through college to
use, we will be using a FAKE knife
during the nightmares scenes to
show the murders. It will be fake
and plastic, but the knife does look
realistic in order to keep the film
idea a reality.
Blood: Fake blood will be
used consistently throughout
the teaser. This prop will be
brought in by Alex and I. We
will use this all throughout to
put on actors to show their
deaths, but also on location
to leave the ‘devil’s’ trace.
Scratchings/ Markings:
Although this isn’t really a prop,
we may be creating images of
scratchings, or finding some
real ones; we will film these to
show the devil’s markings.
Computer: The only prop
our main characters
normal persona will have is
his computer. This will not
be something he carries
with him, but something we
will film whilst he is using a
mac computer in one of
our locations. This is where
he will write his blog
entries.
NormalDevil

7. Setting: Planning
Settings highly vary in films, depending on what genre or storyline it has. Typically,
thriller films are more than often set in places with dark natural lighting or at night
time. For our filming day, we will have no choice but to record in natural day light.
We are hoping for a gloomy or cloud day, as in post production that would be easier
to change into a darker setting.
Settings on Filming Day
INSIDE
• Bedroom: In our studio at college, we have a range of rooms used for filming. One of these
is a bedroom, which we will be using dark bedding (which is provided), in order to create a
night time scene. Not a lot of the teaser will be located here, just the beginning as our main
character lives through one of his nightmares. When taking these shots, we will make sure
the lights are off and natural lighting is blocked out through curtains in order to make it
seem like it was recorded at night.
• Computer Room: Using a media computer room at college, we will film our main character
with a singular mac computer. These will create the scenes where he is writing his blog,
explaining all about his nightmares he has. We will get close ups of the computer screen
so the audience are able to read what he is typing.
OUTSIDE
• College grounds: Using parts of the gravel college grounds we will be shooting scenes
where a lot of blood is used. We will be taking multiple close ups within these places, this
will to make it unclear where the events are taking place.
• Town: Using various tunnels and long roads in town, we will be shooting walking clips with
our main character in his devil persona.