Research - Miseen scene: setting and iconography - Miss Begum

Miseen scene: setting and iconography

definition for setting and iconography

 Iconography is the use of images and symbols to portray a subject, movement or ideal. It can also be the use of certain symbols that convey certain genres such as religious iconography.

setting is the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place.

Why is setting and iconography important and how can it help the audience with the understanding of the film

Setting and iconography are important because the film would not make sense without iconography and setting. Iconography and settings give hint to the audience of what the film is about or what is going to happen next therefore iconography and settings give a huge hint of what type of gender a film is. Without iconography and settings the audience wouldn't understand the film because the film wouldn't look professional. Settings and iconography help understand the film by giving hints to the audience such as if the audience see a knife they would straight think of blood, crime and death. Iconography and settings change the feelings of the film. Setting and iconography are important because they create numbers of different connotations and denotation based on just one location and how it looks. For example, the connotations of the house would be haunted, abandoned, isolated, death, rape etc. This makes the audience have so many different thoughts and this will make the audience feel petrified. Therefore, for example, if the antagonist is holding a gun, this would make the audience understand the intentions it creates from the antagonist and the connotations from this would be murder or suicidal. this makes the audience feel uncomfortable and have so many thoughts about the antagonist.

What are typical thriller settings and why?

Typical thriller settings are in a haunted house  the connotations from the audience of this location would be haunted, isolated ghost and death. This will make the audience feel scared and they would expect something to pop up. Therefore the denotation is a old scary looking house. If a scene is located in the forest the connotation from the audience will be dangerous. and intimidating.



settings and sub- genre

Setting also dependent on different sub-genre to make the movie more interesting and engage more actions to build up tensions and create sensational/ suspenseful actions.

sci-fi settings would be:

1.space

2.fields/ parks

3.factory

4.schools

Action thriller settings would be:

1.streets

2.cars

3.underground

4.air planes

crime thriller settings would be:

1.forest

2.old house

3.bank

4.streets

What are typical thriller iconography and why?

Typical thriller iconography would be blood, knife, gun and medicine. Iconography in thrillers are also include different sub- genres. The sub- genre makes the audience enjoy the film more and it also makes the audience more interested  in the film.

Iconography in action thrillers would be:

1.guns

2. knife

3.cars

4.cigarette

Iconography in sci-fi thrillers would be:

1.aliens

2.robots

3.spaceships

4.electric weapons

Iconography in crime thrillers would be: 

1.blood

2.knife

3.guns

4.drugs

Thriller scene analysis

In the film seven i have chosen to analyse the first scene. In the first scene we can see the police coming in with guns and blood which is are iconography used to show the audience that the police are after someone dangerous.The weapons and blood  give a chilling response to the audience.Therefore, the setting in this scene is in a old dirty house which makes the audience get ready to expect something scary to pop up.The iconography that has been used in this scene highlights that the sub- genre is action and the setting describes a thriller setting.


Conclusion:  When i make my thriller video i will be using a different range of iconography such as blood, drugs and weapons. I will be setting my scene in a forest  and in a hospital.I have chosen a different range of iconography because i believe that using a different range of iconography can give out different feelings.I have chosen to have my video set out in a forest and hospital because my video will be thriller and the settings will match my story line.