The Prestige

Mise-en-scene
The costumes in the Prestige are very important to set the time period of the film. Everyone is dressed in dull colours as during this time the technology wasn't available to produce the colours. However when the magicians are performing they wear more elaborate clothing.
The make up is minimal in this film to make it seem more realistic & simplistic. The females however wear a little make up when performing to make themselves appeal more to the audience they're performing for.
Lighting in The Prestige is minimal, and dull, to emphasize the time period. I feel this because this was a very industrial period, and poverty was high. This is portrayed in the dull, negative feeling the lighting gives off. Also the confusion of the film is shown in the darkness of the scenes, as the viewer is unable to see some small details, which means not too much is given away. therefore the viewer can't predict the ending too hard, following the theory of voyeurism.

Narrative themes
The theme throughout The Prestige seems to be rivalry, finding out why, how or when, a lot of the time. This is underlying the most obvious theme of the movie; magic.

Character roles
The roles of the males are to figure out what each other are doing (the binary opposites)

Conventional for a thriller?
The Prestige is conventional for a thriller because it asks a lot of questions, which are not answered until the last scene. All the way through the viewer is wondering how things are happening & why they're are happening.