Mise-en-Scene

     Mise-en-scene is a very broad topic to research when it comes to making a film. However, based on notes I took earlier in the year, they can be narrowed down to a few aspects. This film, based on the plot, will be realistic.

• Lighting
• Set Design
• Costume Design
• Make-up
• Color

    These elements obviously defer depending on tone, context, and characters. For my group's film opening, this is one of the most important things we need to focus on to create contrast between the two characters; even our peers during group discussions pointed that out. We can use all of these elements to contrast.

Color

    Before I begin thinking of the other parts of mise-en-scene, I want to focus on which colors work best for each character. As each color develops different meaning, I want to establish a single color for each person.

    I'm hoping to ask my teacher next class if I should mix different hues in the film or if its a bad idea. While warm hues represent excitement, cold hues represent calmness. Shots that center around Mara will obviously have a cool hue, but I'm wondering if I should make shots focused on Valerie a warmer hue, as she is more positive and enthusiastic. Warmer colors consist of reds, oranges, and yellows, while cool colors consist of greens, pinks, blues, and violets.

    For Mara, I've always pictured her with desaturated blues. When it comes to psychology through American representation, desaturated blues can mean sadness, depression, and negativity. Valerie, on the other hand, is more complex. I see her more with pinks, representing tranquility and comfort, and violets, representing beauty and inspiration. We could also incorporate whites when it comes to her to show innocence, which will most likely change throughout the film. This is also making me realize - how do Valerie's colors change during the time jump?

Lighting

    Just like the hues, I'm not sure if adding too much contrast in lighting will make the film look good. Something subtle that I do want to add is Mara's bedroom lights being off while everything else is turned on. However, I also want to keep natural lighting from the sun in Valerie's room, as it feels more refreshing than a room light. This means that I would have to just make Mara's room a little bit darker than Valerie's, but still make it visible enough for people to see everything in the beginning. So, lighting could be pretty difficult in this opening that involves a lot of detail, for not much effect. I'm not sure if I should use that or just keep the lighting neutral for all of the rooms. I will need to discuss with my group about this.

Set Design

    Set design develops the setting to create an intended atmosphere, and attempts to make the set look lived in. We also need to pick a specific location. As the story is intended to take place indoors, as long as we have a house to film in, the specific city or location doesn't matter much. We want to film the opening in Andrea's house, as she has two bedrooms similar in size that we can use along with a bathtub.

    Set design should especially be incorporated when it comes to the contrast between Mara and Valerie's rooms. Obviously, when I googled "how to make a room look messy", the exact opposite results showed up. So, I took this to my advantage and looked for things that the articles would say not to do. With articles like "5 Things That Are Making Your Bedroom Look Messy" (found here), I was able to create a list with props and other aspects that can make Mara's room look given up on and a mess.

• clean or dirty laundry
• open closet
• cluttered surfaces (with items on it)
• a lot of pillows
• singular shoes

    I also looked for inspiration from other teenage rooms in films, using an article that ranked them from worst to best. (found here).

    Along with articles, I also simply looked for images of common messy teenage bedrooms, as that as specifically what I am looking for when it comes to set design. Using the image below and others I found online, I listed more items we can bring on the day of filming.

• papers/schoolwork
• backpack
• books
• sports equipment
• stuffed animals
• plastic bottles/wrappers
• photos/posters

    Our group also wanted to add a physical picture of Mara and Valerie together to be displayed in a shot during the credit sequence, to show they are close at times and not absolute enemies. We will take the picture this week.

    When it comes to Valerie, I want to make it perfectly organized and nice. We can do this easily by cleaning everything up, making the bed, etc. There's not much inspiration needed, as most clean bedrooms online pretty much look the same. Valerie's room won't be displayed much, so all I want to focus on is organization and maybe a bit of color incorporated, especially white (emphasizing innocence). Overall, I want the colors in their rooms to be mostly neutral colors to add balance to the film.

As seen above, many "clean" rooms rely on whites and natural lighting

Costume Design

    This is where I think most of the color should come in. For Mara, of course, I want to focus on desaturated blues and greys. I've noticed in many coming of age films with sad or anxious teenagers, they use navy blue sweaters and very neutral colors.

Melinda from Speak, struggling to make friends
after going through a traumatic situation

Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower,
grappling his friend's suicide

    They have a common trend of wearing navy blue zipper sweaters, very comforting yet casual clothing to blend in with everyone else. This fits Mara's character well, as she won't even be the main character later on in the movie. Below are two pictures I found that would fit the character. I like the idea of sweatpants or pijama pants, showing she doesn't try much anymore.

    If you haven't guessed it already, Valerie could use a light pinks, purples, and white in her outfit, as I believe it would showcase her personality the most. As I was looking for outfits from coming-of-age films to take inspiration from, I realized that the contrast between Valerie and Mara is really similar to the contrast between Nadine and Krista, two best friends from The Edge of Seventeen.

Krista from The Edge of Seventeen wearing light pinks 

compared to Nadine, wearing dark blues to show 

that Krista is the more positive, enthusiastic person.

From there, I found some outfits on social media that we could use for our film, that fit more common standards today.

        

Although these outfits are still casual, they feel more put together. These combinations of neutrals and color make the film not feel too over-exaggerated; there are already many aspects of the film opening that are emphasizing their contrast. We could also add accessories and jewelry to Valerie, such as earrings, bracelets, and necklaces, to show that she is put together to see a friend.

Make-up

    To be honest, I don't know much about make-up in general. However, I feel like for Mara, we don't need to add much, or we can maybe even emphasize lack of sleep by coloring under her eyes. Valerie could be wearing nicer make-up. If this is discussed within our group, I'll write more about it soon.

    After doing research on costume design and color, I believe that for the last scene, Valerie can put on a dark grey or navy blue sweater/shirt. It would show the impact the suicide took on her emotionally, eventually leading her to even change her wardrobe. The make-up could also become a lot less, maybe even none at all. Also, due to scheduling issues, we can't film on Wednesday, March 6th. I'll dedicate this time for more researching and blogging. See you then!