Mise-en-scene

Costume:

[the female]
In the opening scene we decided to have the woman dressed in a suit to create a formal feeling and to ease the audience into a sense of security, monotony and dullness. This contrasted well with what was being said in the voice-over about insanity through the doctor’s analysis. By wearing a suit, the audience can immediately connect this with an official everyday job and therefore a pretty normal life. We didn’t want to give anything away in the first scene so we decided to begin with a mundane, typical task of the average person, which would later contrast with the character’s mental disfunction and create a large distinction from the dark twist that comes in at the very end of each dream sequence.
In the second sequence, the female now wears a tracksuit sports type clothing showing that she's just partaking in every day life activities. Again, to lull the viewers into a false sense of secuirty to make the abstract twist at the end of the scene - that much more dark and unexpected.
In the third sequence, the main character is dressed even more informally. She is wearing pyjama shorts and a hoody and is in her bedroom which couldn't be more of a relaxed situation heightened by the relaxed attire.
All the locations and clothing in each sequence emphasises the randomness and maliciousness of the attacks, heightening the suspense for why these occur and what they entail. This woman goes by her everyday life but is still harassed by this killer in her dreams, she is never safe and this is what we wanted to strongly convey.

[the male]
During every single sequence there are very slight variations to the male character or mysterious killer. His attire changes very slightly but a few things are always represented. He's always covered up somehow so that his face cannot be seen and consequentially, his identity is hidden throughout the two minute clip.
We purposefully decided to keep all identities hidden to accumulate suspense, tension and anticipation, feelings all fitting with the horror/thriller genre.
The killer is always dressed in dark clothing to connotate his immoral motives and keep up the sinister feel of the film. It also allows the killer to be unseen in darkness creating mystery and fear from not only the viewers perspective but also the female victim who shares the same fear.

Location:

We chose random locations to fit well with the unpredictability of the murder allowing a 'have to find out more' feel to the film. It attracts viewers, keeps their attention and entertains the mind throughout with a confusing, puzzle styled storyline.
Because the locations are so random and normal, the ability to predict what is going to happen is made slightly more difficult and therefore more compelling. In horror films the predictable scene in which the protagonist is going to be killed is usually made clear whereas this juxtaposition of ideas throws the audience off a common trail.
We purposefully set the final murder scene within the woman's bedroom. People feel that their bedroom is a place of great personal space and security so to have it inavded by someone else and to be at risk of death emphasises the frightening experience the young female goes through.

Voice:

We chose not to include any dialogue from the main character to keep a distance between the audience and her identity for the first 2 minutes so people want to watch the rest of the film and understand her.
We did choose to use a psychiatric analysis as a voice over to play on top of the film. It makes the film quite sinister with the official tone used in the voice over.
Because of the slightly confusing storyline, we realised we needed a voice over to add an extra professional touch and essentially explain what was going on in the film.
The analysis of the young female evokes questions that can be asked by the audience such as why she experiences the hallucinations in the first place and whether they mean anything. By doing this, the audience participate in the need to help the main character and diagnose her key problem which inevitably adds an entertainment factor as you get involved and gripped on the film.

Look and feel:

We all decided our film should be in black and white to convey the fact that the clips are flashbacks of the protagnist's memory not present day. By using a plain, formal appearance, the audience can concentrate fully on the storyline as our film is quite confusing with the changes from past to present etc.
The black and white edit adds an eerie and mysterious look and feel perfect for heightening the emotion filtering through to the audience.