Research: Mise en Scene (Costume, body language and facial expression) - Ms Begum

Mise en Scene

Costume, Body Language and Facial Expression

What is Costume?

- Costume is what the characters wear in the film.

- This should be conventional to the genre.

- This should be easily read by the audience and allows them to interpret the characters and their intentions.
- In thriller films, conventional characters are antagonist, protagonist, the female victim and the child.

The antagonist usually wear dark colour clothes with a mask purposely to hide their identity and create fear, plus curiosity to the viewers. They often looks serious and carry dangerous weapons to show their intentions in thrillers. They're also hide their identity by having long messy hair with their face covered with face paints. This makes the audience feel patrified and panick when seeing the antagonist face. Steoreotypically, this allows the audience to easily identify this character as the evil character.

The protagonist usually wear nice clothes could be bright or could be dark colour to shows that they're justice and almighty. They often looks kind, smart, confident and also serious in different situations. They also carry weapon and normally in a rescue to show their intentions in thrillers. Stereotypically, this allows the audience to identify them as the hero.

The female victim in thrillers usually looks attractive and girly. Their costume would be white and normally have blonde hair, this makes them look physically weak and vulnerable. Their hair and make-up often looks clean and tidy to attracts the audience and to shows that they are innocent which also shown that they have no dark intentions in thrillers. Stereotypically, this allows the audience to easily identify them as the victim.

The child in thrillers usually looks similar to the female victim. Their costume would be in bright colours to shows that they are clueless and innocent. Also the child might be the evil character in thrillers, their costume would be in bright colour covered with blood or dust, their hair might be messy to creates fear. They often hide weapons under their costume to creates unexpected moment to lead the audience to climax. This allows the viewers to identify them as the victim or villain based on their costumes.

What is Body Language?

- Body language is a character actions, their movements and they way they present themselves.

- The way characters hold themselves or act, will be conventional to the other films of the same genre.

- The body language helps the audience to understand who they are and how they will be presented.

The conventional body language of the antagonist are tall, muscular, confident and strong. This represent them as the evil character, they often look confident, arrogant and looks like they're ready to hunt or commit a crime.  Stereotypically, this is conventional to thriller genre because it makes the audience response by being frightened towards the character because they see them as the villain.

The conventional body language of the female victim or the child are small, girly, innocent and vulnerable. This represent them as the victim, physically weak and always end up in danger. Steoreotypicaally, This is conventional to thriller genre because it makes the audience response by having sympathy towards the character because they see them as the victim.

The conventional body language of the protagonist are also strong, muscular, smart and confident. This represent them as the hero and the saviour. Stereotypically, this is conventional to thriller genre because it makes the audience response by being admire and have faith on the character because they see them as the superior.

What is Facial Expression?

- Facial expression is how the characters emotions are portrayed to the audience. The look on their face and the meaning this creates to the audience.

The conventional facial expressions for the antagonist are serious, scary looking and cold blooded. This represent themselves as the evil character, this helps to create fear from the audience as they will feel uncomfortable and frightened when looking at the antagonist face. Steoreotypically, the audience can easily identify this character as the antagonist.

The conventional facial expressions for the female victim and the child would be innocent, attractive and clueless. This represent themselves as the victim, this helps to create vulnerability and requires sympathy from the audience's. The child could be an evil character, their facial expressions would be screwing, straight looking to creates discomfort towards the audience because they see them as the antagonist. Stereotypically, this allows the audience to identify them as the victim or villain.

The conventional facial expressions for the protagonist are attractive, smart/serious, confident and strong. Steotypically, this represents themselves as the superior, this helps to makes them look more powerful and gain more faith from the audience as they see them as the hero character. This

In thriller films, conventional characters are antagonist, protagonist, the female victim and the child.

This is an opening scene from a thriller film called 'Halloween'. As we can see the female victim is in her school uniform with a pink jumper showing the stereotype of a typical blonde girl. This shows that she's innocent and vulnerable. She looks relax as she's in a safe environment, she is also flirting with her boyfriend in her front room. This makes the audience to not anticipate anything bad to occurs yet as she's secure within her own home. She also look quite small and short showing that she's physically weak and pure. She looks comfortable as she is brushing her hair in her bedroom.
However, as the female notice the antagonist is standing behind her and ready to kill, she started to panic and her body language curls up as she's trying to defend herself. She looks confused and petrified as she's being attacked from the mysterious killer and her facial expression was screwing and suffering from the pains. This makes the audience to feel sympathy towards the female and makes the audience to questions themselves who is the killer behind the mask and are able to see the victim's being attacked from the killer's views.
The killer appears to wear a clown Halloween costume with a mask and holding a knife with blood stain on it. As the killer moves around the house, he looked confident and calm as he know what he's going to do and where he's going. This makes the audience feel curious as their view is limited from the killer's point of view so there's not information being provided to the audience. After killing, his identity is being reveals by his parents and appears that he was an innocent little boy with a emotional-less face showing that he's confuse and unaware of what happened. This makes the audience feel shocked as they've found out the killers identity and wouldn't expect the killer to be a little boy.

Conclusion

- All the informations above has helped me to have a deeper understanding of how costume, body language and facial expression are conventional to thrillers and creates different emotions and connotations. I am planning to use all of these elements in an effective way so the audience could tell the different between each characters, also through body language and facial expression to gain as many marks as necessary.