Q1:Conventions (Mise-en-scene)

By Josh Davey

Settings:The settings of these scenes are in

every day locations, the first being a room in an everyday house, and the second being at a school. This is to emphasise the fact that the setting is an everyday location which the audience can therefore relate to as it makes it more of a believable plot.

The second scene is full of shots from a variety of different locations, which can therefore show that not just a specific group of people take the pill, and that everyone in the world uses it, which gives more of the plot away and shows that it is an unknown world-wide pandemic, creating tension which is conventional.

Settings:The first setting is in an alleyway,

which is a conventional place for a mugging, and instantly the target audience realise that something bad is going to happen in the instance that the setting is shown, therefore being a conventional choice of location.

The second setting is in a school office and is meant to pose as a government agent office/briefing room, which it does as it shows a professional office that allows the shots to look professional. This is conventional as it is a typical setting for antagonists.

Settings:Both of these locations are

conventional, and match the storyline as they emphasise that it is set in an everyday location, and they both emphasise the age of the character as he’s walking around in a typical street and is seen conversing in a bedroom, yet if the character was older he would be shown conversing in a study room or something more professional and of his age. But as these settings are used it emphasises what is needed and is conventional.

Settings:This setting is conventional as it

creates tension as it is an eerie location and therefore being conventional as it generates themes that are conventional of the genre and it gets the audience interested as they want to know what’s going to happen to the character, leaving mystery.

Costumes:In the first image, it shows the two

main protagonists within the film. These are both dressed casually to emphasise the everyday characters in an everyday setting, but not only this, the lead protagonist is wearing dark colours which connotes mystery which is a conventional theme of the genre.

The second image is from the pill taking sequence where all characters are dressed differently to emphasise that all different people in many situations take the pill, emphasising that it is used everywhere and not just in a specific location.

Costumes:The costume of the mugger is

conventional as he’s wearing tracksuit bottoms which are stereotypical of a lower class person who is more likely to commit a mugging. He’s also wearing a hoodie with his hood up, which allows him to look more intimidating which is conventional of the genre as an antagonist is made to generate fear for the protagonist and the audience, which this costume aids.

Costumes:All of these costumes within the

government agent/antagonist scenes are conventional, as they are all smartly dressed, with the lead antagonist dressed even more smart than the rest, allowing him to stand out.

This is conventional as it shows their power and generates fear and tension when they’re involved because of this power.

Props:As with the other antagonists,

this other antagonist is dressed smartly, and is also using a conventional prop, being a gun which is a conventional icon of the genre and allows the target audience to identify the genre through the signifier.

Also pills were used throughout and from my research I found out that it’s conventional for there to be some sort of drug use, in which it goes hand in hand with the psychological effects, therefore making it conventional.

Lighting:The lighting used within the

trailer is high key involving all of the antagonist scenes, and is then low key for the majority of protagonist scenes. This is to show who’s in control of each situation, as the high key lighting shows they’re powerful and positive, compared to the low key lighting showing the protagonist is in fear and is weaker than the antagonist.

The scenes of the protagonist hallucinating is in high key lighting to show the difference in his mental state, prior to the extreme fear.