Application of MRANG by Maria Beardall

Media Language:

Mise En Scene:

Our Mise En Scene is set in various places, such as at home, in school, down in Brighton and at a graveyard. We have chosen these places as they all represent a day in a usual life of the main character and protagonist Amy, and also cover good areas for topic. Amy would have been at home with her whole family, which is now minus Ashley, which is good to show and represent her mentality through the beginning of the film as it leads the audience to believe her older sister is still alive - which is our goal. We also set some of the film in school, a place to see where she is bullied and highlight her insecurities. We then wanted to film in Brighton, as apart from it being a local and therefore convienent place to film, it also adds a new setting and keeps the film interesting in popular areas of Brighton. Lastly, we decided to film at a graveyard as it heavily connotes death and is so highly contrasting to the happy area of Brighton that it changes the tone and works well with changing the equilibrium.

We will have the girls dressed in black and white costume attire to connote sixth form clothes and also to represent the depression and grief that has always been carried by Amy, and works subtly.

Camera:

We have shots such as close ups, high angled, low angled and tracking shots all to convey different meaning. For example, the close ups will emphasise a feeling expressed on a characters face, and a high angled shot can show and exaggerate isolation, and tracking shots and establishing shots focus on a main character and introduce the audience to a new location without having to say where it is explicitly.

Editing:

Editing is very key for us as to show the death of the sister and also the mentality and harsh reality of the younger sister's life, we want to show flashbacks of moments seen with the sisters together, yet without the sister in them. This will explain the narrative and also add understanding from a personal level of the sister's mental illness and struggle to let her older sister's death sink in. Therefore editing is key to make an impact on the audience as they have been led to believe the sister has been with them up until that point.

We wanted to use something similar to the first five seconds of this clip, yet at the end and as an abrupt ending; not a premonition:

Sound:

For the soundtrack, there will be soundtrack to convey a tone to the audience, and will change from happier times, such as when the film takes place in Brighton, to a sadder time in the graveyard to connote sadness. There will also be dialogue used as sound bridges to introduce the characters back or talking between the sisters echoed into another scene to emphasise the content of their conversations. Also the bullies voices may be echoed perhaps to show the mind process of the main character, along with drowning out audio and increasing selected sounds using foley microphones in post production to see where the focus of the film is at that current moment, along with sound effects such as POV ringing sounds in the protagonists ears, which we can create or download from online to show she is overwhelmed. The clock ticking in the school scenes will also connote ellipsis.

Audience:

The audience is aimed at 16-25 year olds (primarily girls, as stereotypically boys aren't popular with the genre of our film), and we intend to keep the topic current, relatable and modern to entice our demographic. For example, the topic of death of a loved one is unfortunately very relatable and also the bond of siblings is very relatable as most people have a sibling, younger or older and therefore can relate to the film immediately which will grab their attention. The topic of mental illness is also very 'hot' right now as the new generation are generally very accepting of mental health and is spoken about more, therefore such realist, current and important morals and messages in our film will strike a cord with the accepting and modern audience. Lastly, the modern use of Mise En Scene in popular and interesting places such as Brighton, relatable situations such as school and the current trends such as 'selfies' keep the audience watching and will also interest them.

Representation:

The representation in our film can be seen physically but mostly uses representation in the non stereotypical way a film does in terms of mental state. As issues covered in our film are mental health such as grief and depression after losing a lost one we decided this would be a formidable way of expressing it.

The main way we express her mental state and blinded sense of reality is through editing and narrative - saving the shots of her doing the same activities yet without her sister, and this gives the shock factor we wanted to express and also shows the 'made up' world the main character has created for herself to never feel her sister's absence.

We also can see representation through mise en scene - such as body language, dialogue, costumes, setting and lighting.

For example, body language and dialogue can be seen as very shy and angry to show her mental state bleeding out into her physicality. The costumes of the main character show her stage in life, and settings can also show that and give hints to her age and again link back to her mental state and her age.

The lighting and perhaps filtering can also show her grief as is seen in a light mise en scene, until the end when the narrative and her actual reality is discovered.

Narrative:

Our narrative is very selective on who knows the whole synopsis of the film, with the audience not knowing until the end the 'true' narrative of the story - they are told a selected part of the story.

This makes the audience believe they are being shown the disequilibrium of the main character being bullied, yet the shift in the unresolved narrative shows the disequilibrium at the end where the audience discovers the sister has always been dead, which adds a shock factor and hints leading up to this in the creates enigma and an unsettling sense of oddness.

Genre:

The genre of our film is a psychological social realism.

Definitions for those terms:

psychological - of, affecting, or arising in the mind; related to the mental and emotional state of a person

social realism - the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment

We wanted to concentrate our short film on these genres as the topics we could work with are interesting, current and relateable to a wide audience. It's also a genre we have never worked on before yet we are passionate and intent on creating a important and telling dictation of mental illness and how it can effect an individual and the others around them.