Characters/mise-en-scene

The way a character is dressed and the mise-en-scene are very important as they are the setting to a characters persona and background, the mise-en-scene gives you hints and tips to what is expected and create a picture for the audience.

This is a scene from the theatrical trailer for the film ‘The Tourist’, Angelina Jolie is dressed in a very formal and sophisticated manner symbolising a high class in society and good relationship with money.
Angelina Jolie is a very well-known successful and beautiful actress; therefore by casting her in the role of a strong minded, successful spy, I feel that it will make more of an appeal to the audience. After all she definitely made quite an impression on the male side of the audience in Tomb Raider, so what’s to say she wouldn’t in this film? It becomes very obvious that when casting a successful actor/actress the film will appeal more to the audience. Truth be told the film may be horrendous, but generally when I top actor or actress is cast as the lead role, the audience will naturally think they were good in ‘X’ and ‘Y’ so this must be a good film.
The film is orientated around spy work and investigation; therefore the way in which Angelina Jolie is dressed becomes very significant to the role of her character. I would say that the characters in this film are very stereotypically dressed. For instance, the women are not seen in anything other than elegant dresses and formal skirts and blouses, and the men are dressed in formal suits or tuxedos. – This is something I will be needing to think about for the representation of my characters, I don’t think I will be taking the roles of gender to such an extreme, but the colours I will use I would like to separate gender with.

In the film ‘Burlesque’ the cast is somewhat unexpected, Cher and Christina Aguilera are the two names that stand out to an audience as singers and Pop performers, not names you’d expect to see headlining a film. – However it works because the film is about performing. Straight away the audience appeal has been set with top very successful singers being cast the lead roles. The costume used in this film is very over the top and showgirl-like bringing the film to life and setting the tone. The Mise-en-scene sets the scene perfectly, it is evident that the majority of the film takes place in a Bar called Burlesque, where they perform nightly, everything captured in every scene is there for a reason, and this is very evident. When building up to the stages of filming my trailer I will need to really consider everything I capture within my shot as everything contributes to the story, and anything that isn’t relevant will take away my overall objective and aim.