Planning: Mise En Scene

The term 'mise en scene' is a french term that translates roughly into 'put into the scene'. Some examples of mise en scene include costumes, make up, props etc. Here below are some examples of the mise en scene that was included in our film opening;

This is a Stanley knife. This will be used several
times in the opening to perform tasks such as
cutting through the pages and slicing up pictures
of victims. The use of this suggests that the killer
is very precise and particular in what he does. The
fact it's a knife also obviously indicates danger and
brutality.

This is a stapler. This isn't used in the
opening but is present on the desk of the
killer. The presence of this object again shows
the organisation of the character as it allowed
the papers to be organised and therefore the
character could refer back to important
 information easily.  

This is a pen. This is used on several different
occasions during the opening where the psychiatric
makes notes with the pen, twiddles the pen in between his
thumbs etc. this suggests the killer pays a lot of attention to
detail and the camera will be focused on the hands with the
pen in it to create a sense of mystery and enigma. 

This is a hole punch. This will be used to hole
punch the paper that the killer had made notes
on. The aggressive way in which they use this
tells us they have a vicious side to their character.
Also, the use of this object shows that the killer is
very organised and he orders the papers, straightens
them and uses the hole punch. This shows organisation
and that they are a meticulous planner. 

Planning: Casting

After completing the treatment, screenplay and storyboard it came to doing the cast for our film opening. We knew from this previous planning that the only casting required for our film opening is a pair of hands. The was only several criteria we needed to follow regarding the pair of hands required for the film opening. We wanted a pair of males hands as the character in our film is going to be a psychiatric and therefore we felt it would be more suitable to use a pair of male hands for the filming. Also, we wanted the fingers to be quite long for several. Firstly, it fits the stereotype of all medical professions such as doctors, dentists etc. that all males in a medical profession have fairly long thin and long fingers. Also, we believe these characteristics create a sense of creepiness and enigma. In addition, if we were to use short, stubby hands we believe it wouldn't be able to create any sense of eeriness. In the end we used the hands of one of our group members. We believe that the hands shown below fit the characteristics we were looking for in order to film the opening;