Practical Investigation of Mise En Scene of Killer's Den

I attempted to make my garage look like the killer's den. and worked in sections as that made it easier for me. Whilst working I realized just how small my garage is, thus making it harder for me to do the mise en scene. This may be advantageous because the smaller it is, the more intense, however, in terms of recording with lighting, props and the crew, the size would be a disadvantage.

I mostly focused on the desk and the area near the shutter as this is where the killer will be during most of the opening. We have not worked out what our desk will look like yet, and as this is a rough plan, I improvised and used old sheets of paper and placed them on top of an old TV stand (the desk). Next to the desk is where the killer's weapons will be. Having a closed box for where the weapons will be kept is intriguing because the audience will start to think about what is in the box. During the opening, we will have a few flashbacks to when he is operating on his victims and this may be when we see what is in the box, if we are to incorporate a weapons box.

 Behind the desk there will be a black bin bag, which again the audience will question, and my group and I were thinking of having a bloody hand coming out so the audience know what is in there. This will also make the killer look ruthless and cold-hearted because he sees his victims as objects, not people.

This is what the garage may look like in the final project if we are to use this garage. There will be paper scattered on the floor to show his carelessness. As an addition idea, there could be some blood splattered on the shutter, and because it is white, the blood would be more prominent. Also, we could put some bloody hand prints along the walls from where victims have tried to escape.

 The mattress was placed in the middle of the garage and it is very old and is ripped so we can see the springs. This would be a good prop to use because it is already dismantled and dirty, again emphasizing his negligence of where and what he uses to kill his victims, he just wants them (and their fetuses) dead. Next to mattress, however, he could have some plastic around it so that no blood gets on the floor. This obviously clashes with the careless attribute associated with him, but it could also make it look even more disturbing - that he allows bloody handprints on the walls but wants a clean floor. Often, killers have strange habits and this helps add to their mysterious character.

This is the mattress and around it, it's dirty and there is a saw on it. This was an improvisation as we have yet to plan which tools he will use to cut open his victims. Saws are less medical and safe ways of cutting open victims, if a saw was used it would be very painful for the victim and more blood and pain is a very common slasher convention.

The problem with my garage, as mentioned before is that it is very small. Especially with the shelves in the corner and mattress in the middle, it limits the space further. It would be impractical to use this garage, however, if we plan the space properly so the crew, props and tools could fit, we could use this garage and would work well as a killer's den.