Props Research

Props are often an essential part of a films mise en scene and can sometimes also be part of a characters representation or plot. In the film industry, special care is taken to get props looking as authentic as possible to make the film world easier to get pulled into.

We decided to use a minimal amount of props for two main reasons: firstly, as our character was technically on the run, we thought she would only carry the essentials with her. And secondly, there was only so much we could take to filming due to practicle reasons. We had two main props that we included for a reason, so as to save on the ammount we had to carry and also to focus the audience more on these things.

The bag was not only a key part of costume but also as a stand alone prop. Discussed in my post on acting earlier, with Meryl Streeps portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, the bag was also important to showing who Ariadne was as a character.
The bag was filled with more props - many sheets of paper filled to the brim with writing which echoed her thoughts. It was meant to symbolise her way of getting all the thoughts trapped inside her unspeaking mind and how they escaped. The way in which people can see and understand her state of mind through film. The bag also contained essentials for living, such as a little money,
                                                      some snacks and water.



In our opening two minutes, we use a map blank of names, a rough out line of London, as a McGuffin. This sparked a sense of enigma in our film, raising questions that the audience will hopefully want answered. The map has red dots placed on it, and pencil-marked ticks, plotting out her journey. The red marks symbolising key places that she will visit were also useful in providing focus points for our slow motion drop sequence.