Deconstruction of the Mise en Scene of the Killer's Den

So that we can plan and create our own "killers den" for our film opening, I decided to do a deconstruction into the mise en scene of the den, thinking about what type of things are in it, how tidy or messy it is, how spacious, where the killer's plans develope, whether the "den" is where the killer takes his victims, or if it's his own little place and finally the placement of different objects that we plan to have in our film opening.

ATM

So, yet again, I looked at the film ATM. This film, however looked at a few times previously by others, I wanted to look at again, specifically focusing on Mise en Scene, and where different things were placed, ignoring the killers attire, unless it linked to the layout of the scene. Knowing that everything in each scene within a film is put there for a reason, I took screenshots of the scene that showed the killer's den, analysing it. This is shown below- within the screenshots, it shows the "play" button for the film, which I was unable to get rid of-:


Within this film, the killer's den seems to be some kind of storage unit within a public building. To the left and right, you can see the look of the outside of the den.


As it shows the killer open the door to his "den" within the storage unit place, stacked up brown boxes are shown to be in the room- nothing special-, however, these boxes and this room is just a "front" so that if anyone went in there, they wouldn't see the real purpose of the room. There is a hidden compartment that when the killer moves a section of the wall away, leads to the killers main room.



The killers real den isn't shown at much length or in much detail, but what is shown is his desk, where he draws up his plans, with photographs and drawings littering the wall surrounding his desk. The small room is quite cluttered and messy, but in the "killers mind" organised so that he knows exactly where everything is.



From what I could see in the different angles and the editing of the film, I drew up a simple diagram of how I think the layout of the killer's den looks like:

 Pretty Little Liars- A's Den

I then went on to look at the Mise en Scene for another "den" of a killer/stalker within the tv-series "Pretty Little Liars". The killer, "A", has an apartment as a den, full of large, framed, expensive photographs of the girl that he is stalking.

 Two large white boards reside in the "living room" of the den, holding a timeline with photos, notes and mementos from when the killer first started stalking his victims, to the present day.

Below shows a wall covered in photos of different people in his victims life, such as friends, family etc.

As the camera moved into the "den" further, the computer system where the killer puts all his research, surveillance material and information that he has collected about his victims that he uses for blackmail.

This "killers den" is much tidier, organised and spacious, linking to the different profile that this killer would fit. Having a large apartment to fill with the materials that he uses to commit his murders, he has filled it appropriately, indicating that he spends a lot of time in here. The room being so organised, however, gives the impression that not just one person goes in this room, possibly two, needing it to be more organised so that they can both still use that materials that they have collected- different to ATM.

The floor plan that I imagined, from the angles and editing that were shown, is shown below:

Our film opening floor plan

Now that i have done two deconstructions of two different "Dens", I have found the following "rules" that we should follow when designing our killer's den:

• When there is only one killer, the den is quite messy, but organised so that the killer knows where everything is- it is quite dependent on the type of killer.
• There must be a desk with the killers notes
• There must be a "collage" of photos, mementos, notes etc on some part of the room
• The objects in the room can make it cluttered or spacious, depending on the size of the den- but if its larger, the room must be full, not empty.

Thinking about all of this, and knowing that we are going to use Raman's garage as our killer's den, I drew up a simple first draw up of what our den should have in it, and where it should be placed:

 

Because we want the killer to kill his victims in his "den", I have indicated a "torture table", chair, table and plastic covering in the top left corner of the room. The torture table is where the victims will be tied down, the chair is where the killer will sit when he cuts the foetus out of his victims. The extra table is where the killer will place the organs and intestines, in a dish, along with his tools, such as a surgeon would have. And finally, the plastic covering is there to catch the blood that might fall onto the floor.

The table in the top right corner holds the record player with the song that the killer plays when he kills his victims.

And finally, the desk, two shelves and chair is where the killers notes and plans and photographs will be kept along with his diary.

Deconstruction of Killer's Den:

Deconstruction of the killers den:

ATM (2011):

~ In ATM, three colleagues are trapped in an ATM by an unknown man, two of them die and the third one is framed for the crimes (as 'THE MAN' did not make himself shown on the security cameras), in the final scene of the film, the hooded man is returning to his lair (a storage locker). It all looks normal until he moves a few boxes and we can see there is a hidden room behind one of the walls, containing all of his information.

The Man opening the locker.

~ I like this shot as I think the silhouette of the hooded man is really effective against the white of the locker. We still don't know who the hooded man is and I think it is clever that he does not have an identity or personality at all. I think we should definitely consider the idea of the killer remaining anonymous, or only revealing certain aspects about him as it can be good to leave the audience in the dark for the majority of the film. I also think that if the majority of our film opening is filmed in the killers den, it would be extremely important how we should the location on screen and the mise en scene. The killers den is often an extremely vital insight into the life of the villain and who he is exactly.

The 'normal' room.

Secret door.

~ I also like the idea of the villain having a way of stopping people from entering their den, like seen in ATM, he has a normal room, so if someone were to open the locker accidentally, then they wouldn't be suspicious of what they would find, as it all seems like a normal storage locker. I think when considering the location of our villain's den, it would be important to consider how easy it would be for someone else to enter it, for example the police, if making a raid. Also the idea of a secret room shows his intelligence and his urgency of not wanting to be found.

Sitting at his desk.

''

Desk

~ Then we get a shot of the wall above his desk, and it is filled with bits of paper which we find out are things like maps, pictures and blueprints. This shows that all of his murders are extremely planned out, and the pictures of the security cameras with details is clever, meaning that he is never caught on tape and so is never seen as playing a part in these crimes, making the victims themselves look extremely suspicious and often getting blamed for the murders.

~ The fact that the lighting comes up through the tracing paper makes his hands look darker and more like a silhouette, adding to the creepy effect. We can also see the detail that he goes into when annotating his sketches and blue prints. A small detail but important, the pen he uses is red, symbolising the blood of his victims, it's the small details like these which can be really effective if the viewer is paying enough attention to pick up on them and that is why mise en scene is extremely important in a killers den.

~ Here are some more examples of the things located around his desk. There are the blueprints of a building and he would need to use these to plan out exactly where everything will happen, including himself. The picture of the security camera looks like he has taken it himself and I can personally imagine him going to these areas before hand, to check whether they would be suitable for his plans. He's also written on it that the focal length is 120, this would be useful so he knows where to stand without being seen clearly but also must be quite difficult to find out, assuming he had to research the specific type of camera and this shows the depth he goes into to find out out the correct information.

~ There are also a few maps on the wall, this would be needed so he knows where the best locations are to commit this type of murder, obviously he likes the idea of ATM's and my guess is that he goes to all the local ATM's and checks whether his idea would work successfully or not. In the last screenshot, he is drawing a line with a ruler, I particulary liked this as I thought it represents his mind almost, that everything single thing has to be precise and accurate and that everything must go according to plan.

~ I believe that the general area that our film is set in, isn't as imporant as some other aspects as we are limited with locations to choose from, not being able to travel too far. I think it would be more important and also effective to focus on the killers den, as the villain is the main part of our film opening, and with our current idea we are planning on focusing on them more with flashbacks of their previous murders, and if they are mostly inside then the outside location isn't as important as the inside of their den.