Mise - en - Scene of Horror Films - Practical Task - Natasha McGill

Mise - en - Scene of Horror Films - Practical Task

My inspiration was from a film called Teddy which was released in 2011. It is a horror movie which has a main prop of a teddy bear which is all messed up and scared like it has been possessed. That fits in well with our chosen genre which is horror as the teddy portrays a scary tone. By having one eye and a stitched mouth is quite disturbing and rather eerie. By having the teddy bear on the title page as eel indicates that it is going to be a big part of the movie.

There are other ways in which a teddy bear can be made look creepy. Some of which can include it eyes been taken out or if it was to lose an arm or leg. Other ways to make it look scarier is to burn some of its fur or to cut holes in the bear with stuffing hanging out. There are loads of different ways to make a bear look scary this could be because it has been possessed or its owner doesn't take care of the bear and uses it.

After seeing some photos of bears that have been torn and look creepy, my initial idea would be to try and create a creepy looking bear. This would be appropriate for our genre as it would look good as a toy a child could hold for example in our horror film opening. 

Practical Task:

So to start with I got just a plain bear and covered it in red coloured fruit juice. This is meant to resemble blood but after covering most the bear, it didn't look how I wanted it too. So I decided to use a blackberry and squash that and drip a darker colour substance over the bear to make it look covered in blood. Also in the process of turning an innocent bear into a creepy horror movie prop, one of its ears and arms was completely cut off, whilst one of its legs was half cut off. This makes the image of the bear more disturbing in order to make it look scarier. Furthermore the teddy still had an innocent smile so I burnt the nose and the smile completely to remove this and to add on a scarier tone. Also parts of the stuffing from inside its arm and legs were burn so they went a brown colour, and wasn't just white.

This is the final product: 

As the bear is a small one it can't portray the scarier tone as its relatively small and won't have the same effect as a bigger bear. Even though it is small it will still have an effect if it was used in the correct light and in the right angle. The photos were taken in quit bright light allowing every part of the bear to be revelled and clearly shown but if it was to be revealed at night time being held by a small child it can have a difference effect. Altogether I am pleased with the result and the way the bear turned outs it does look effective if used in the correct lighting but next time a slightly bigger bear or a doll could be used to make it bigger and scarier.