Mise en scene- our film

KOMA- mise en scene

Here is a spider diagram of the mise en scene we decided on before filming and before we had even drawn up the storyboard. As you can see this was even before we had settled on our final film name, with Eyes of Darkness being a title idea we had at the current time.

The spider diagram here shows all aspects of mise en scene we could think of, going from lighting to props that we were going to use. By this point we had the general idea of what we wanted our film to look like and definitely what we wanted to capture. We analyses both characters; Drew and the drunken thug and how we wanted to them to look and act. Drew's appearance was very important to us as we wanted him to come across as a 'weaker' character. Though I do not think we met this in out film, the idea of Drew was a 'geek with very few friends' that we thought we could present in how he was dressed. The hoodie and the skateboard were going to represent his age and general youthful nature, reminding the audience that he was indeed still a kid. The earphones were going to give him a sense of independence and were going to be used as a way of him closing of the world, showing him as a loner. The glasses were going to give him that 'geekiness' and vulnerability that we though he needed to seem as much as a target as possible.

The drunk character on the other hand was going to be the complete opposite and present a much harder personality. The cloths of choice for this character were basically worn out cloths and shoes, a hat and an unshaven face. The actor we settled on using had the facial hair that we felt would fit this character well, so we in a way based the drunken character in this film on the real life person we knew. 

This character was going to be tough and the stereotypical drunk. He needed to have power over Drew so the casting and costume was very important that we ended up with a character that matched this description.

As you can see we discussed various locations we wanted to use, by this point knowing what scenes we wanted and what types of locations to shoot in. The dark alley way and field were very important to us, those begin the basis of our film; the opening and closing scenes of the thriller film opening we are shooting. The alley way needed to be dark and dingy enough to seem unsafe and uncomfortable, so that the audience could relate to Drew in the sense of unease he was feeling whilst in the alley. The field was part of the the 'dream' idea that we decided on. Whilst being in a coma, Drew would have the dream of being in a mysterious field, a field that looked realistic enough to be an actual field yet slightly off looking, highlighting that thus was indeed an illusion.

The lighting we were going to use was also very important to us to create the specific mood of the situation. In the alley way scene we wanted Drew to look innocent where as the drunkard to look threatening. Using different positioning of lighting would create this effect. For Drew shots the idea was to have above lighting, illuminating Drew as if he had a halo above his head. The drunken character on the other hand was to have below/ under lighting to make him look much more sinister. The below lighting would cast shadows and shading on his face, defining his threatening facial features. The below lighting was intended to make him look powerful and freighting, an evil force in the shadows.