Part of developing my own movie is analyzing other movies with my shared genre. The clip from the movie Get Out introduces the story by showing viewers the main issue of race in the story, as well as an unknown victim being captured. Get Out gave me a lot of information on how to immediately grab the audience’s attention within the first two minutes, while also leaving them hanging and wanting to know the background.

Race/ Ethnicity in Thrillers

This clip constructs a representation of race/ethnicity through elements of Mise-en-scene such as costuming, hair, framing and blocking. The main character, a black man, is featured in dark lighting and casual clothing, surrounded by an upper class neighborhood that is brightly lit. This portrays him as the obviously poor or lower class character in the scene. The framing is close up and open, which is meant to make his skin color very apparent despite the dark lighting, and also foreshadows to something bad about to happen to him. When the antagonistic character, whose race is hidden by a mask, comes into the scene, he attacks the black man until he is unconscious. The blocking shown here puts emphasis on the naivety and weakness of the black man, conveying his race as inferior.

Frame of Reference

Now when I am creating my film, I am better prepared and will put a lot of focus on mise-en-scene so that way I can quickly portray the genre and underlying plot of my movie without giving too much away to viewers. Another important aspect that I’ve gathered from this clip is the power of voice-overs. Viewers understood in the first few seconds that he was in the wrong neighborhood due to the character nervously mumbling to himself.

Sources: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/get-out-2017