Mise-en-scene Part 1

    This will be part one of two planning posts about how our project will use mise-en-scene. The term "mise-en-scene" is a little vague, since it is actually many different aspects of production. It includes how lighting is used, the different costumes, the set design, the props, the overall color scheme, etc. This is most likely why we have to split this planning post into two sections. This post will talk about location, lighting, and set design. So let's start with location.

Location

    The location will be relatively simple. At first, we didn't really know what a therapist's office looked like. We kind of thought it would be in an office building of some sort, and look more corporate. We even started to brainstorm on possibly renting out an office room to shoot at, but before going that far we decided to actually do research. After doing a little looking around with an underground niche searching tool called Google, we realized it is not really like that at all. A therapist's office looks surprisingly casual, yet still decently professional. It is not the corporate office like we had originally thought, and we realized we could probably just shoot it at one of our houses. 

Here are some images I found after a quick search.

    Therapist's offices are still usually in office buildings, but for this type of room, I think it is safe to film at one of our houses. All we would need to do is prepare the room to make it neat and rearrange the chairs/couch in a way that fits the layouts that I found. The setting pf the film would still be an office building, so that would be implied when the assistant walks in (because who would have an assistant just chilling in their house). When Alice goes to her car at the end of the first part, that would likely be filmed at some sort of public plaza parking lot near one of us. This would also keep the allusion that she was at an office building.

Lighting

    For the lighting, I think our film should be pretty bright. I think this really could add to our character's anxiety and overstimulation.

I don't know about you, but the top image would be a better catalyst for stress for me than the bottom one.

    Whenever I go to some giant shopping center and they have insanely bright lights on it sometimes makes me anxious and feel like I need to escape. Is that just me? Yeah? Alright moving on...

    One of our members is in TV production, so she has a decent light at home. We can also just use the normal house lights, and if it doesn't end up looking good we'll just fix it in post. If it looks unfixable, we might just go for more of a medium brightness. Or maybe we make it bright but dim it slightly in post. I don't really know, I just don't want it to look dark because that would make the film feel calmer and somber when I want to go for more of a stressful feel. We will probably talk about this in class tomorrow to straighten things out. Lighting is hard when you don't have a giant professional budget, but I feel that we will make it work in the end.

Set Design

    Ok, set design is really important. First of all, we want it to look like an actual therapist's office. I already kind of touched on that in the location section. The main thing, though, is maintaining continuity. This is a time loop film, so in every loop, the items on desks and shelves have to be exactly as they were before. The same thing with furniture, they can't shift even a little bit since that will break continuity. Also, we need to maintain the lighting exactly the same each time we loop. Everything within the room needs to stay the same for every loop. This was a big talking point when we first met with our teacher to discuss the idea.

    We also want the room to be more neutral in the color scheme. So whites, greys, blacks, beiges,  those types of colors. It will make the room feel more corporate and professional, even though the actual chairs and couch are more casual individually. This is for us to make the audience feel the artificiality of the therapist, and how she doesn't really care that much about Alice. This feeling of artificiality and apathy is also what Alice will pick up on throughout the session, and we will see her feel isolated with some of our shots. One idea of a shot I had is when the assistant interrupts, it will be a medium/long focused on Alice in the background, while the foreground is the assistant and the therapist blurred out while slightly obstructing her. This will add to the sense of isolation Alice feels from the people around her, and will act as a starting point for her character development.

    Alright, that is enough yap for today. I will post the second part tomorrow, which will focus on costumes and props.

Sources:

- Therapy Rooms - The Matlock Therapy Centre. (2023, May 31). The Matlock Therapy Centre. https://www.matlocktherapycentre.co.uk/therapy-rooms/

‌- Gale, J. (2022, July 21). Inside 12 Therapy Rooms. The Psychosynthesis Centre. https://psychosynthesis.online/inside-12-therapy-rooms/

- Vandervort, M. (2025, February). Fun Furniture Living Room. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/961448220453717448/

- CARPETS. (2025, January 29). Apartment Decor Green Couch. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1086915691323488451/

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