(12) Costuming and Mise-En-Scene

I've just realized something that's really important!

I never thought about talking about some other production components such as mise-en-scene and costume design nor have I really put much thought into those two things, so in this post I'll take the time to shell out some planning and research for it. I want to make sure that I cover every single aspect of the filming process within my blogs and I want to make sure I don't overlook the smallest of details, so let's get to it! >:D

For the mise-en-scene of my film I am mainly going to be using my bedroom as it is. Because this film is does have my own perspective and experience within it I plan to not manipulate what my room looks like and keep it in its most 'natural form'. I want to be able to reveal how my bedroom has been a space for me to go through the motions of grief and how in some ways its been a safe-haven. Having a space that is completely unique to me has given me the room to express myself freely, whether it be how I spend my time in my room or even just how I decorate it. 

As I mentioned briefly in some other blog posts, I want to use stop-motion in order to capture scenes and settings that portray various emotions of the grieving stages. I want to focus on using them for the stages with more intense emotions such as anger, denial, or depression. For me, going through those stages often feel like an out-of-body experience. At times they're so overwhelming that I don't feel grounded within my bedroom, and so I want to use more 'alien' sets to depict that. Since my film is an arthouse movie, I have the creative liberty to interpret these scenes in the way I feel about them. 

(I'm not a really great drawer so I pulled some images from the internet that sort of capture what I want to depict within my stop motion scenes :P)

Denial feels like you just got pushed put into the deep ocean without a warning. I feel like it can make you feel very exposed, so I want to set the stage of denial in a deep ocean scene to exemplify those feelings of vulnerability.

Bargaining is one of those harder emotions to put into moods, but if I were to imagine it as a setting I feel like it would be an endless maze. You're trying to escape by making compromises but when it comes to grief there is nothing you cannot bargain your way out. 

I feel like feeling of anger is pretty self-explanatory, and in my head I feel like if anger was a setting it would be like a hot planet such as Venus. It's desolate yet chaotic; your emotions are so intense that it can make you feel very isolated from the rest of the world and everyone else. 

In terms of costuming, I'm thinking of just planning to keep a simple outfit that doesn't obscure my movements. My inspiration is coming from performance art pieces in which subject wear basic clothes and colors to highlights their motions or props rather than drawing attention to their outfits. I also think wearing a simple outfit like basic jeans and a shirt will make it easier to prevent any continuity errors as I'm filming since I imagine it'll take me a few days to film all of the live action shots.  

And with that, I think I explained and shelled out those two components well enough. :D I'll keep you guys posted!