Mise En Scene

The mise en scene in any film is crucial for encoding and decoding meanings, because what we see on screen forms the fictional world we are watching. Therefore everything included in the frame needs to be a conscious and deliberate choice that adds something to the narrative. My screenplay, storyboards and location scouting have already started to compile ideas about my Mise-en-scene, but I shall elaborate on the symbols, props and other objects that I hope to use in order to bring more depth to the subtext of my plot. 

1. Gun: Using a gun in my short film is fairly self explanatory. It will establish and foreshadow the possibility of violence in the suspenseful build up of the narrative, and also imply the sort of background my main character has grown up in. Access to a gun suggests that he has been raised in an unstable environment, and when accompanied with his clothing it starts to form a stereotypical depiction of a thug. It also contributes to Dylan as a threatening character at the start. 
2. Flowers: Symbolically, the flowers are the most integral part of the mise en scene in my opinion. I want them to enforce and represent the contrasts of my two main protagonists/antagonists. The flowers being two very different colours should reflect the differences between my characters, and how each one could be seen as either the protagonist or the antagonist. The flowers laid by Dylan represent loss while the flowers left by the Father represent guilt and regret, which is why I am insistent on them being different colours. 
3. Cars: The cars in my film aren't used for anything symbolic, but are needed to add realism and maturity to the narrative. Presenting Dylan and the father as people who can drive adds credibility to them as realistic characters. Since our family have two cars (one for mum and one for dad) I intend to use the car with the roof rack as the Father's car because it reflects how he is a working class man, meanwhile the grey Ford Fusion works for Dylan's car because it adds to the grey areas of morality he is caught between. 
4. Alcohol Can: The empty can of alcohol that I am going to have thrown out of the car at the start should mislead audiences into thinking Dylan is a careless and rebellious character. However as the flashback will show the drinking is clearly a coping mechanism and a way of dulling the pain of his brother's loss, going against the view of teenagers as abusive drinkers. It shall also contrast the way that Dylan and the father cope, Dylan expresses it through violence but tries to suppress it with alcohol, whilst the Father softens his pain by being a good parent and facing up to what he has done. 
5. Road: In terms of locations, the roadside has the most emotional relevance to my narrative.  It is a simple but necessary reference to the events of the car accident which aren't shown on screen, instead it is inferred through the subtext and through some of the dialogue. 
6. Weather: Weather is not something that I have much control over, but it is still quite an important part of my narrative in terms of the symbolic value it has. For example I have used the sun in the flashback to the roadside and at the end with the Father at the roadside as this could allude to the enlightenment that both characters feel as they face their realities. The point in the story where Dylan lowers his weapon is something I wrote with blue skies in mind, reflecting how he has emerged from the concealment of the trees into a state of open-mindedness. 
7. Clothing: For the 3 characters in my film (Dylan, the Father and the Son) I made conscious decisions about what I wanted them to wear as a way of developing their characters in a way that dialogue couldn't. 

As modelled above, my brother will take the role of the Son in the film, and I wanted his clothes to represent both his age and his symbolism. The choice of white and light blue is supposed to reflect his innocence and signify how he is the important variable that stops Dylan from pulling the trigger. The connotations of white as being light and innocent helps to establish the contrast between the darker clothes of Dylan and the Father. Also the trends in clothes such as the ripped jeans, branded hoodie and stylish trainers depict teenagers in a realistic and stereotypical way; as being modern and trendy. 

I wanted the Father to wear dark clothes. This isn't a way of implying that he is a dark and cruel man, only that mentally he is in a dark place. When in unison with the Son the subtle contrast of light and dark should hint towards how the Son is what gives the Father hope, as well as how he gives Dylan cause for hesitation. Unlike the Son, the Father is dressed in a simple and practical way, and I think that again this is fairly stereotypical of a middle aged man. The pink/red shirt underneath is also noticeable, and this is supposed to reflect the love and passion he has for being a parent and man of emotion. 

The colours on Dylan are intentionally dull. The way that he is wearing an entirety of grey is my way of encoding his self-doubt and inner conflict. Grey is commonly acknowledged as the colour in-between white and black, so this symbolises how he is torn between revenge and forgiveness throughout the narrative. Black, white and grey are all unique but also varying shades of purity, and this is emphasised and personified through my characters' clothing in the film. The tracksuit is also a fairly stereotypical look for a thug or delinquent, and even though the fashion in my short film is largely stereotyped, I have done this to evoke certain connotations of lifestyle and character that I wouldn't otherwise have been able to build up in five minutes of narrative. So Dylan's clothes immediately draw awareness to a narrow view of his social upbringing, but I later subvert this stereotype by characterising Dylan as forgiving and considerate, not just violent and reckless.