Research: Mise en scene: body language and facial expressions - Mrs. Quinlan

Body language and facial expression

Body language is the way characters hold themselves or act. Body language will of the show the characters current mood. Facial expression is the way the characters face is portrayed the audience. Facial expression shows the characters emotion and mood.

 The body language of this character shows that she is scared and frightened. This scene if from the purge anarchy when the sergeant help the victims. The facial expression of this character show she’s scared and helpless. This makes the audience feel pity for the character in the scene as they have no hope of being saved.

this scene is from the exorcist. the facial expression of the character shows that she is frightened and scared. This makes the audience have a psycholigical effect as they would be scared because they don’t know why she is frightened and scared so they are scared to see what is going to happen next.

Examples of characters

Protagonist: the body language of an protagonist is normally firm and strong as the audience need to believe they can they can be the hero of the story because if his/her body language looks like he’s scared and wimpy than the audience will not believe that the protagonist can be the hero. The facial expression also is normally serious because in the thriller genre something bad always happens. so the protagonists facial expression can’t be all happy because the audience will think that he/her is serious enough to be the hero of the story.

Antagonist: the body language of the antagonist is normally strong and firm as they are supposed to show a threat to the protagonist and his team. If it was not firm then the audience don’t think that he is an actual threat and rule the character out to harm anyone and cause dangerous. The facial expression of a character in a thriller film is normally evil and deceiving as they normally have a creepy smile on their face as the character is meant to be scary.

Damsel in distress: the body language of the damsel in distress in normally weak and shivery because the damsel in distress is a character that is meant to be saved by the protagonist and not be strong as she is meant to be vulnerable in order for the audience to worry about her. Her facial expression is normally happy and scared because at times such as the beginnings of the movie the damsel in distress is happy and jolly but the at the times of the disequilibrium her facial expression will be scared and frightened this is also for the audience to think that she can’t help herself and needs someone to save her.

Conclusion (what I will use in my thriller opening)

In my own thriller movies I will be using things like strong and firm body language for the protagonist and antagonist as they are supposed to be a threat to each other and the damsel in distress to have an weak body language as she is meant to be the victim and needs to be saved. Facial expression for the protagonist is going to be serious and firm and facial expression of the antagonist is going to be creepy and scary.