Mise-en-Scene in The Thiller Opening

As our opening sequence of high pace and ultimately a chase scene, we had to choose locations with great thought. We discussed for a while where this would be best done for the film, and concluded that the area of the college where there is woodland and then large rubbish skips/ other large containers close by. This gives the opportunity for us to have a tense chase in a woodland that can disorientate and cause confusion, and the large 'abandoned' objects provide a good location for a sequence of cat and mouse scenes; in which the protagonist is hiding from the antagonist, and eventually the protagonist only just gets away.

This fits in quite well with the action/thriller conventions of setting, as it provides good area for a lot of action to take place, and is not in a crowded place. The lack of people in the area would provide, if we were able, availability to cause blockbuster explosions or other special effects. As the shooting will be done in winter, the scenery will lack bright colours, adding to the convention that thrillers are not widely colourful in presentation, as it would ruin the atmosphere of the film. It will also add to some of the feelings the audience will have when watching, as the location gives off a lonely vibe, with no one nearby to come and help if someone was to call out.



A shot of the woodland the protagonist will be chased through.


A shot of the woodland meeting urban areas, specifically, a rubbish site.

These shots are similar to several action/ thriller films, such as the scene in the James Bond film Casino Royal in the construction site. Although it's a longer chase then ours, and is more colourful (in order to go with the overall location where the chase scene is, Madegascar), the locations are similar in the fact that they are slightly different of everyday places, and our location and the Bond location is able to provide areas for action stunts and special effects.



Another similar chase scene, which however turns into conflict, is near the beginning of the film Stormbreaker in the junk car yard. This is also similar in the idea of junk being used to the effect of stunts and special effects with little care for the damage caused in the immediate area, which, if we had more time, could be done in our opening sequence.


For the clothing in our opening sequence, our protagonist will be wearing fairly normal clothing which is seen in films like 'James Bond' when he is undercover. The Antagonist will be wearing darker clothes and a mask, this gives mystery to the character because you cant see who it is. It also makes it more scary because the viewer will have their own opinion of what the antagonist looks like. The antagonists look is also seen in films such as 'The Interpreter'.

We are going to use camera angles such as hand held camera, this builds tension because it creates confusion so the viewer doesn't completely know what is going on. This will be used quite frequently as a lot of the opening is a chase scene, this type of camera angle is used in films like 'Blair Witch Project' and 'Cloverfield'. Other camera angles that we will use are angles like low angle and high angle shots. This will mean we can put our antagonist in a position of power and our protagonist in a position of weakness. This is very common in thrillers such as 'Avatar' and 'Se7en'