Research : Props For Our Film (Mise En Scene)

This evening I have been thinking about how we are going to set up the dinner scene for our film. I made a list of props that we will need and have also thought about colours and connotations of certain props to create a deeper underlying meaning to the piece. Mise en scene is a very important way of telling a lot of things about the house, and characters in the scene almost immediately. It gives suggestions of class, wealth, personality and what sort of thing is happening in the scene. For that reason we had to think long and hard about various props needed.


Della and I thought we needed:


1. A Candle : We are going to place it in a wine bottle because we feel this looks cute and because the people are both quite young they wouldn't have the money for an elaborate candlestick etc. I think we should have a black candle, I did some research on connotations of candle colours - from http://www.ehow.com/facts_5759230_meaning-black-candles_.html - and discovered that a popular connotation of the black candle is witchcraft, which ties into our film's topic of visions and seeing the future.


2. Wine Bottle (+ 2 small glasses of wine) : To make it look more like a date I think we could have two small glasses of red wine for the characters; it creates an ambience and adds a more romantic feel to the scene; which will contrast well with the forest scenes. We will obviously need a wine bottle to put the candle in as well.


3. Flowers : Tomorrow I will go the the plant nursery in my village to see what flowers are avaliable, I think maybe using a passionate colour, such as red, or a warm colour, like yellow, will make the setting look more inviting and also would contrast with the negative connotations of the black candle; maybe showing the two sides to the boy's personality.


4. Glasses, Cutlery etc : We want to go for quite a formal feel, so nice knives, forks, spoons and plates. Some napkins (either red or black, red connoting passion and love, black connoting death, depending on which ones we can find) and posh wine glasses. All of this will make the scene look really cute and as thought the lead male has tried really hard; hence giving us a good first impression of him and shocking the audience completely when they see the drowning scene.


Also, for the getting ready scene, Alison will probably need some form of make up to be putting on, and maybe a hair brush / comb and Will may need some form of hair gel etc. I have all of these items at my house, so it won't be expensive to use them.