Mise-en-scene

 Although the title of this post is quite vague, this post will be focussing on the set. Since our idea will be a psychological horror about the grief of losing a loved one, our set will reflect the mental strain it puts on them. After the 1 year period post death, the character will be struggling mentally and physically in their day to day life. The scene where we will see this will be the characters room, which is why set design is so important. The room will have to be in deep chaos with objects scattered around the room, maybe unpacked laundry all over the floor. It will reflect the mental state of the character whom it belongs too. Using mise-en-scene in a piece like this is so important because it conveys what we want said without words, which is the struggle our character is going through. We could also show pills and other negative stuff scattered around the room as well. This would also show that the character has not been able to overcome what they have been burdened with, which is that death of the loved one as mentioned before.

We could also use mise-en-scene in our set design to create that horror aspect as well. We can use clever editing techniques like fast cuts or loud stings to create tension and anxiety in the audience. We can design the set and shot to be able to show small details in the room that are indicative of mental hallucination. We can maybe show like false memories of the loved one haunting the survivor, or the survivor can do things that remind them of the victim. We can pair these set choices with sound techniques to create fear in our audience. This is a very common technique used in horror movies up to today. This also represents the psychological horror side of our genre since all of this would be taking place in the survivors head and not in reality.

Scene from Smile (2022)

Above is a scene from the film Smile which is quite similar to what I was explaining about above. The 2022 movie used careful set design choices to create a dimly lit horror-like environment where they could show a hallucination of a character that has been tormenting the survivor. This is just one example of a technique commonly used in some of the biggest productions in the world.

Character Development

 Once we presented our instructor our original idea, she had a plethora of suggestions and revisions for us. Upon hearing these, we had improved our plot idea and came up with a new story. Our original idea had issues with the plot and brought many complications with how it would be filmed. Our instructor also said that the concept was very repetitive, referring to the knife-murder plot.

Our new plot had two people who had been involved in a lethal car accident. More specifically, about the effect of said car accident on the survivor of it, since one would die and the other would not. We would represent character development by showing how happy and upbeat the “survivor” is pre-accident. After the accident, a 1 year time gap will take place. The character development would be represented through the effect it has on her. This will be shown through hallucinations like seeing the dead companion in the corner of the room, and seeing things that are not actually there.

The character development we aim to show is the effect of losing a loved one during a tragic accident. We will do our best to represent the emotion that matches our project most: grief. Our character will represent the “film opening” segment of a film because it sets up the rest of the piece to dive into how our character overcomes this grief and moves on. 

Portfolio Project Storyboard

 

Portfolio Project Plot

Media Theory

 The media theory that I would like to incorporate in my project is Stuart Hall's reception theory. It states that the interpretation of a piece of media is based on how the audience subjectively views it and how the producers intended. This would be easy for our project since it is more of a psychological horror. This means that some scenes would have meaning that are more open ended in terms of context. The audience would be able to draw conclusions between certain scenes. This interpretation paired with the suggested way the scene was supposed to go, is very telling towards what the film is intended to be

The reception theory dictates how fans interact with their favorite pieces, and how it works. Under this theory, the reading of the media text is directed by the audience and the producer at the same time. That being said, media theory is a very important concept in the film world. It will almost be a necessary concept for films in the future since it provides valuable depth needed in a film.

Group Meeting #1 - Reflection

The group meeting that us students had with each other provided very valuable insight to all students involved. It allowed us to present our ideas to each other in a way that had reinforced our idea as a whole. Getting the opportunity to put our portfolio project ideas in words gave us the opportunity to see what was flawed and what could be improved. The group members who were listening to the presenter of the group had been instructed to constructively criticize any flaws in the presenters idea, which helped the presenter refine their idea.

One of my favorite projects amongst my group was by one of my members, Felipe. His idea was one similar to a previous idea I had drafted, a racing scene. Because of this, when he presented his idea, I was able to effectively deliver criticism and propose what I thought to be the biggest challenges in his approach. For filming a racing scene, these challenges consisted of making the shots look fast paced, interesting, and have variety in the shots. Felipe had already thought of these however, and brought up unique things like the use of drones while filming. He had explained that with drones, he would be able to capture top down shots similar to one of his favorite films, Too Fast Too Furious. This was one of the many excellent ideas presented in my group meeting.

Psychological Horror - Film Openings

Smile 2

The Smile 2 film opening captures the psychological horror genre perfectly in every way. It uses lower lighting to establish those dark tones right from the get go. It pairs this with what’s on screen by introducing a character at the same time. It displays this character to be in distress and going through a conflict, which builds up tension in the audience through the film opening. It also uses loud sounds and stings to create dramatic effects to support what is being shown on screen. These sounds are also effective in creating fear in the audience, strengthening the horror genres aspect.

Barbarian

Barbarian takes a very different approach in its film opening than that of smile 2. Barbarian does not directly display any conflicts, but builds tension in its audience in a different way. It uses sounds to create an uneasy feeling in its audience while showing tamer scenes on screen. It uses the perfect combination of awkward silence and loud noises. It draws attention to certain sounds that people would normally not pay attention to. The question is: why? Barbarian uses these sound techniques to make the audience know that something is surely wrong, without directly mentioning it. This is a very effective technique that is representative of the psychological horror genre.

Him

Him also uses a very interesting approach in their film opening. It shows what would usually be a very usual scene and takes a terrifying twist. Almost like something you would see in everyday life, except something is terribly wrong. This is incredibly effective at developing tension because it does not directly state that something is off, it is only implied. The tension this creates in the audience is extremely representative of the psychological horror genre since it plays mind games with the audience during it.