Monday, 14 October 2013

Mise-en-scene- Pretty Little Liars



‘Pretty little liars’ is a mystery/thriller TV drama. Set in the fictional town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, the series follows the lives of Spencer Hastings, Hanna Marin, Emily Fields, and Aria Montgomery, who are four girls whose clique falls apart after the disappearance of their queen bee, Alison DiLaurentis. One year later, they begin receiving messages from a mysterious figure using the name "A", who threatens to expose their secrets. At first, they think its Alison herself, but after her body is found, the girls realize that someone else knows their secrets—including long-hidden ones they thought only Alison knew. "A" also stalked Alison, and the girls continue to discover more and more information about "A" and Alison's disappearance—all while risking their lives.
Setting
The setting for ‘Pretty Little Liars’ is based in what seems a ‘normal’ town. The audience see the four main characters in surrounding that are very typical for teenage girls for example in school, in their bedrooms and shopping malls. These setting are used to show that the main characters are just normal people who have leaded normal life until this drama unfolded. Also, it makes the audience able to relate to the main characters as the most of the audience are teenage girls. However, there are scenes where the main characters go to dark, spooky and abandoned settings for example a haunted house, a graveyard and an old playground. These are used when they are confronted   with ‘A’. This shows the thriller side to TV show, as they always create tension, mystery and at times even scary.
Costume
The costumes in ‘Pretty Little Liars’ are all very normal and typical of the characters. The four main characters are always made to look attractive- wearing clothes that are fashionable and flattering to their figure. This is done to show once again that these are normal, very stereotypical teenage girls and it also create a slight ‘sexy’ appeal, as they are four very attractive women. However, when faced with the character ‘A’ we see the characters wear very dark clothing. This is done to emprises the dark side to main characters life and suggests that when faced with their problem they don’t want to standout, but what to remain mysteries and in the shadows. Also the character ‘A’ clothing is always very dark and the audience can never see his/her face. This is done to create mystery, add drama and make the character seem more sinister.
Props
There are a couple of key props uses throughout the series, all of which help build more suspense.  The four main characters mobile phone always are used as this how they get messages from ‘A’. This is allows the character ‘A’ to stay a mystery as the audience don’t know how the text message are being sent or who sending them. Also it helps emprise that these are normal teenage girls.  Another key props is whenever character ‘A’ is shown, he/she always has a touch with them. This helps the character see things around him/her without people seeing them. Which create more mystery and confusion for the audience. Also whenever ‘A’ has been somewhere, the person writes an ‘A’ on something, so the main characters know he/she has been there. The ‘A’ is always written in red, which represents blood and offend a colour used in thrillers. This makes the character ‘A’ even more creepy and mysteries.  
Lighting
As the show is set in a normal town, the lighting is offend very natural and represents the weather. This is done to show that things like the storyline of the show don’t usually happen and it makes the scene where the character are confronted with ‘A’ seem even darker because it shouldn’t happen in a town like its set in. So this means that in darker, scarier scene in the show the lighting is dark and offend hard to make out what going on exactly. This is done to add more tension as the audience can’t tell who there and what is going to happen.

 

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