Mise-en-Scene: Part 1

Mise-en-Scene: Setting

The house setting is most significant in the scene of my project in Cambridge portfolio named Stay Inside. The atmosphere of the place in a thriller must be the kind of a chilly hangout that transforms gradually into an evil trap. I would like the living room to be designed in the manner of a place incorporated by two friends hanging out on a Saturday. Therefore I am getting down to little things such as messy furniture, half-filled soda cans and muted lights creating a warm and friendly impression at the beginning. Making the house look shaggy and recognizable, I am giving the viewer a chance to relax before the emergency news station switches the switch. 

This surrounding must demonstrate the idle atmosphere of Jay and Marcus, which I imagined as a Beavis and Butt-head fugue. The couch is literally the throne and the stack of snack bags and video game controllers is the testimony that they are residing in their own indolent world. And that is what makes the emergency broadcast so out of place when it intrudes into their utopia of chilling. The strongest tension of the scene is the contrast between their easy postures on a comfy sofa and the severe and chilly world of a threat of a possible danger. 

The main reason to utilize such a home environment was the movie The Strangers. 

In the same flick, the regular house becomes a frightening prison. Similar to my project, it tries to create fear with household items. A plain passage or a front door can become an instant hideout of some sort just at the end of it. I would like to get back to the experience when all those dark spots in the corner make you believe that it is a danger and transform the room where you see your sleep spot into the room of watching. 

The house setting plays a significant role in creating the atmosphere of suspense because the characters are walking outside of the comfort of the couch to the front door. I will take the physical distance to make the audience to be feeling vulnerable. At the moment when Marcus runs towards a hallway, the picture behind him must appear open and vacant. Through these details of the setting, I can make an otherwise simple living room a place of severe psychological fear without necessarily having a huge budget or even elaborate special effects.