Research: Mise En Scene: Costume, body language and facial expression - Mrs.Begum

Research: Mise En Scene: Costume, body language and facial expressions - Mrs.Begum

Costume hair and makeup body language and facial expressions are another part of the Mise En Scene. these factors are important to the thriller convention because they give viewers an incentive as to who the characters are (in terms of roles) or they can use that to their advantage by tricking the audience into thinkin a character is something their not, it's important to stick to the conventions because you don't want to confuse the viewers with unessessary costumes, you need to make a clear bold statement as to who a character is and that makes it even better if you intend to misguide the audience with a specific character or two.  

Certain costumes, hair and make-up over the years have come to be a stereotype within thriller film however it's not so much the specific charater models that dragged on to the next film it's the ideas taken with them, for example their can only be one scream character because it's a brand but we still see the concept of the outfit in film till this day. Antagonists in all black with some kind of mask or makeup concealing the identity of the person and bearing in mind scream came out in 1997 so this was clearly an affective costume idea.

They are also important because the connotations are also a statement to the persons intentions within film for example we know that the guy in a black rope with a concealed identity and a blood stained knife is up to know good. However this is a key factor to a physcological thriller because our own beliefs and stereotypes can misguide us a good film example of this would be 'Devil 2010' a film based in an elavator with different types of people in terms of age, race,gender and general background one by one a person is killed when the light goes out and the viewers along with the people in the film are trying to find out who is the devil who is disguised as one of them. (SPOILER ALERT)  (First link 'Devil') trailer showing the different types of people. Second Link the end scene who it is) 

in the end it happens to be the old white lady which out of the possiblilities who was in the elavtor. This was quite a shock to the audience because one expected it to be the most fragile innocent looking one of of the bunch, but like the trailer says "someone is not who they appear to be". 

In a thriller a strereotypical victims would be regular colthes and hair (with no make up) which connotates that they are ordinary people but the colour choice would be brightly coloured clothing which is a symbolism to innocence and purity. 

During the film their costume may change throughout the film to match the changes made to them in the films for example in the beginning the costume is every discribed in the first stereotypical victim/protagonist paragraph (above) however throughout the various stages of the film and by the end thier costume maybe torn dirty and stained, hair maybe undone and messy from all the ostacles they haver individually had to overcome during the film but this is also symbolism as to they're innonce and cleanliness has been torn apart after being put through such events. This shows through the way the characters have changed from the beginning and are willing to do things they would'nt have in the begining. 

A stereotypical antagonist would wear alot of dark clothing, this symbolises the bad and dark intensions along with the characters actions a more basic idea as to why darker clothing is used is because it helps the antagonist not to be seen when moving around in the dark and in thriller there are alot of sneak attacks and scares to make the audience jump this is affective because the attack happens so fast and to have the antagonist jump out and cosume the screen with a darker colour they are wearing it would shock someone when happening unexpectedly. In terms of body language they tend to be big and muscluar a classic body language was slowchy and sloth like movemnets like zombies and Jason from 'Friday the 13th' however the game has changed and it's no longer believable because a person would get away so the antagonist tends to be alot more agile and mobile in morden day films.

Facial expressions are another key element to both antagonist and protagonist because the way the appear on screen has to be believable yet strike fear into the viewers with just a glare from the bad guy. The best example of this i know would be the late  Heath Ledger who played as the joker in the second Dark Knight film. His brilliant acting along with the make-up artist helped him pull off the look incredibly. Another reason i have chosen this is because the joker is a chasracter who shows more than one look on his face and this image shows this. (BELOW: The Joker) 

Stereotypical victims hair costume and makeup are the opposite of the antagonist because they are sometimes also unaswer that they are under attack until it happens. They tend to wear brighter coloured clothing which is symbolism in the sense that they are usually innocent and don't have murderous intentions towards others. However througout the course of the film this may change along with their outfit. It could be a complete darker change of outfit or the begining outfit could be ruined via stains of blood or mud with some tears and wholes. this is also symbolism as to due to the characters expeirence in the film they have had a slight personality change and are willing to do thngs they wouldn't have in the beginning in order to survive. As for facial expressions and body language they must be believable and look quite shaken up during a tense scene. (Below is an example of this 'Scream' attack scene.   

In this scene we can see just about everything i have covered to do with the 'Scream' movie we see the use of costume, body language and facial from both our antagonist and victim (Drew Barrymore & Scream) and how all of them combined are used to make the scene what it is.

In my thriller I will have my protagonist in all black with a concealed face until the final 2 minutes of the film in order to create affect to shock my audience my protagonist also needs carry the right body language and be able to pull of striking facial expressions whivch will be assisted with and hair and makeup if need in the narrative.