Research - Mise En Scene - Costume, Body Language And Facial Expressions - Ms Begum

Mise En Scene - Costume, Body Language And Facial Expressions

Costume, Hair, Make Up, Body Language And Facial Expressions are all important conventions to films in general. They are important because they express characteristics and emotions thoroughly through the characters in the films and relate to other films in their genre. This can help with character representation because it can illustrate characteristics easily in the way they dress, and how tidy their hair and make up is.

Costume, Hair and Make Up can all be similar in particular genres in the film industry. For example, in horrors, all female victims look similar in this particular bit of mise en scene, (normal clothing, pretty neat hair and girly/natural look to their make up, this shows innocence in their personality). Another example is in action films, the protagonist is usually in smart/casual clothing with neat hair and generally quite attractive for the audiences eyes, this is for the audience to like the protagonist as he is the hero. A typical antagonist costume would be quite rough clothing with messy hair and usually wears heavy make up or a mask to hide his real identity, this is so his identity is hidden from the public of the film world and the audiences eyes.
                               

Body language is important to films characters. It shows the audience a lot in the character and how a character feels towards a particular event which takes place in the film. For example, usually, when the victim is being attacked, hunted down or chased, their body language portrays them as weak, this is shows through their posture. Another way the victim shows its weakness is through the way they move.  On the other hand, antagonists are generally quite upright and strong when doing their business in the scene as they do have power over the weak victim a lot of the time.

Facial expressions show the characters personality and emotions a lot. The meaning that is given to the audience through facial expressions gives off a lot from the characters. For example, a stereotypical victim in a thriller would show fear and sadness whilst being attacked, this effects the audience a lot as it makes them feel what the victim is feeling. Another example of facial expressions shown through thrillers, is the antagonist because that character shows so much evil, hatred behaviour. But, still the antagonist is so calm in its facial expressions which scares but interests the audience.




I analysed the scene from the thriller "would you rather" where they all try and escape and their was big commotion. The hair and make up was overall messy and smudged because the things they had to do in the rounds and how the group of antagonists were treating them was aggressive and rough.
This showed a big difference from the start and to then because of how they was tidy and then the outcome of the torture they was facing. Also, the costume was smart and neat at the start but by this scene their costumes were ripped and had blood stains from the torture. This shows the audience what they have been through in the film.


Overall, hair make up and costume do make a big difference to the film. It shows characters personalitys and their way of representing themselves. This particular part of mise en scene shows characteristics and how much the character has been effected by the events of the film. I will think carefully about what sort of style i would like my characters in my thriller to have because its important for the characters to have this. I would like my antagonist to wear all black and a mask or hood to hide their identity. Finally I would like the victim to wear bright clothing to show signs of innocence and vulnerability.