Designing the mise-en-scene

The elements of mise-en-scene relevant to Seventeen are the costume and makeup, colour design, properties, and set design. The costume and makeup were key in conveying certain ideas about the age of the protagonist, Sasha, as she is shown as both a 17 and 30 year old in Seventeen so I chose a simple white hoodie with black jeans and sneakers with minimal makeup for our actress to wear, as typical to teenagers, in the scenes where Sasha was 17 whereas I instructed her to dress in all black attire and contoured her face to make her face thinner and to make her look older in the scenes Sasha was 30. The costumes factored into the colour design as their colour was deliberately for added depth and meaning as Sasha wears white and black clothes when 17, signifying her youth, innocence and the balance of light and darkness in her life whereas at 30, she's shown wearing all black, with black symbolising her loss of innocence and the darkness consuming her life.  The properties used were a bicycle for the second part of the first scene that we borrowed from my friend, a journal and a cardboard box filled with books that belonged to me for the second scene, and a glass of juice and a glass bowl of food that we ordered at the cafe where we shot the first part of the first scene which was set in a cafe. We also used fake blood, which we needed for the second scene, that we made at my house with the aid of my mother. Every part of the first scene was shot on location in various places around Islamabad so the importance of my role as the set designer came into play in the last two scenes for which a set was necessary. For the second scene, it was important that where the scene was set, the bedroom, be designed in a way that conveyed the idea that the protagonist, Sasha, was in the process of moving due to which she stumbles upon certain artefacts from her past that set the narrative of the film in motion. To achieve this, I used several cardboard boxes I found in my house that I arranged around the bedroom along with other things such as paintings, books to create an unruly state of disarray reflective of the actual process of moving. The third scene was set in a bathroom with a fogged up, hazy mirror, which was the most vital visual element of the scene, which was achieved by running a hot shower for several minutes so as to achieve verisimilitude. However, the execution of this scene left something to be desired as we did several takes during which the condensation on the mirror gradually evaporated as it was difficult to maintain and we were loath to waste any more water than necessary.