Research into mise en scene - Miss Georgiou

The above clip is from the iconic 1997 American horror/ thriller 'I know what you did last summer' starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr (prior to their marriage), Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ryan phillippe as a group of teens who are being sought after for revenge for accidentally hitting a man with a car last summer. This man will stop at nothing in order to seek revenge leading to a variety of tense senses however not everyone survives.

Each aspect of mise -en -scene has hidden meanings within a film and sends signals to the audience about how we are supposed to feel at a certain point. The five elements of Mise en scene include setting and iconography, costume, hair and make up, facial expressions and body language, lighting and colour, positioning of characters/objects within the frame.

This scene portrays uses of many stereotypical thriller devices including techniques of Mise en scene, the clip showcases a young pretty blonde as our protagonist/victim, she is seen running, screaming and clearly fearing for her life all stereotypical traits for a damsel in distress, showcasing that something bad is likely to happen to her. All of these techniques are put in place to demonstrate how weak Helen is and the power our antagonist has over her. By displaying her weak side Helen becomes much more innocent she is no longer 'Miss beauty pageant' but an innocent victim that the audience is routing for and fearing for her life. Naturally this makes her more likable to a wider range of people as not only is she seen as more human and therefore she is seen as having more common ground with everyone else. The effect of having Helen as a character that the audience will like makes certain scenes with her much more intense for the viewer as they hope that she survives. This is conventional to the thriller genre as having the audience grow to Helen more as a character means that they are building a stronger relationship with her hence making the watching of her chase scene a more intense viewing. This shall also add even further sadness onto the death of Helen hence adding more emotion to the film.




From the off set and throughout there are many uses of low key lighting, low key lighting can create dark shadows and therefore silhouettes, as you can see from where the clip is paused above this effect is used during the chase scene between Helen and the antagonist, the audience isn't shown any of his facial features, or anything else personal to him other than his hook all we see is the outline of his body this provides him with power over both Helen and the audience as it creates themes of fear of the unknown this man (hidden identity) could be someone we've already been introduced to and we don't even know it. Low key lighting is also able to produce sharp contrasts of light and dark areas this is also demonstrated throughout as we are watching Helen attempt to escape her antagonist we are not shown much of the area surrounding her, this adds to the fear factor as often people are said to be afraid of the dark, also as we know it would be a lot easier to attack even kill a victim in the dark as it would be a lot harder for somebody to witness it. It would also be harder for Helen to spot the killer however he appears to be use to this type of scenario providing him with further power making the situation making it much scarier for Helen another typical trait of the thriller genre. As it is so dark during the scene it can be difficult to work out exactly what's happening  hence gaining more of the audiences attention as they need to focus harder and adding to the tension and suspense as it adds to the possibilities as to what could happen and makes it scarier as we have less information as to what is going on.


The scene contains a lot of chaos, this is conventional to a thriller film as it displays various different problems the characters face as well as things to be feared, we see a man dressed in all black any body parts completely hidden indicating that he has something to hide therefore someone the characters need to watch out for come out of some plastic. After which the camera pans, the audience watches the sweet innocent victim run for escape, where she opens a door and finds a dead body blood is shown coming from the body not only doesn't the body show the brutality of the killer as well as what they are capable of but the blood represents the harsh killing, it reminds us of danger, pain and suffering blood is typically seen within the genre as it represents so much for it.

Through out the majority of their chase Helen and 'the fisherman' (the killer) they're mainly based in areas which are quite creepy, the audience isn't easily able to work them out gaining attention and adding suspense, this is conventional to a thriller film as these places tend to have a lot of running space perfect for chase scenes, as well as various places to hide and tools etc for the characters to use as weapons.



There is a display of fireworks going off just as both Helen and the audience think she has got away this is our main source of light creating further suspense along with the music (often used within thriller films to add to the story or create a certain atmosphere) and the sound of the fireworks, the audience can just about make out a figure behind her from the randomly off going fire works this creates fear as the figure is likely to be the killer also the audience wants Helen to be able to see the figure and escape. During Helen's death scene we aren't shown much just what we capture from the light of the odd firework this again adds to the film building/creating a tense atmosphere we don't quite know whats happening we can just about make out them fighting, we can also hear her scream which is frustrating as she is an open space just hidden in the darkness behind the Tyre sacks and purposefully being loud yet no one could hear her over the parade it's both sad and frustrating for the audience that she was unable to get away especially as unlike many other typical thriller female victims before her she really did try her hardness and for the most part made sensible decisions at points it really looked as though she might be able to get away with the 'fisherman'. Helen's death adds further power onto the antagonist, this is done often throughout the genre as it displays what the killer or killers are capable of, it is also a good way to build up to the main event i.e whether or not the main character or characters will survive till the end or even whether the antagonist themselves will.

The character of Helen herself is a convention to the thriller genre along. Within thriller films audience members would expect to see a character such as Helen, beautiful, young, innocent and fairly weak meaning that they are the perfect victim for the antagonist.