Q1

In what ways does your media product use/develop/challenge forms

and conventions of real media?

Location

In our thriller opening we made use of the generic conventions associated with locations. Our production opens in the underpass of St. Stephens roundabout in Norwich. This location, I believe, enhances the film’s gritty nature, being a rather unpleasant area.

Later, Sam moves to an isolated suburban location where he is attacked; developing the convention that quiet, suburban landscapes are associated with crime.

St. Stephens underpass in our thriller opening

The Dartford tunnel in Terry Windsor’s ‘Essex Boys’ (2000)

We took inspiration from Terry Winsor’s ‘Essex Boys’ (2000) in which the main characters are shown to drive through the Dartford Tunnel. The long stretching tunnel, with vanishing point, in this sequence gives the audience a sense of claustrophobia and entrapment, instilling a sense of fear.

Likewise, I believe that by incorporating a tight, enclosed space into our opening, the viewer will immediately recognise the likeness between the two locations, making them relate the character of Sam who is seen to walk into the underpass, to the two characters in ‘Essex Boys’ who are seen to drive into the tunnel. The use of claustrophobic locations connote menace and this is something that fans of the genre will recognise in our opening.

Sam, as seen in the underpass during our thriller opening.

Harry Lime is confronted in the sewer in Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’

The unglamorous underpass setting in our thriller opening presents Sam as being vulnerable and at risk due to the claustrophobic setting and the connotations that such areas have, such as an association with crime.

A thriller production which also creates this atmosphere through location is Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’. The enclosed space of the sewers create feelings of intensity when Lime is seen to be entrapped. We decided that our underpass setting would create a similar mood, with the enclosed underpass representing danger for Sam. Viewers with a knowledge of Reed’s thriller will note the likeness between Sam and Lime and relate this similarity to the way that Lime is chased and tracked down, foreshadowing the inevitable fate of our lead protagonist. Based on the thriller texts that I have seen, I can say that my group has made use of the generic conventions of the thriller genre regarding location, in that claustrophobic spaces are used to create an unpleasant mood and instill a sense of fear on the audience.

In order to maintain the suspense throughout the opening, we decided that the suburban area, where Sam is attacked, should appear risky. To create this, we decided to make his journey to his resting spot as treacherous as possible , emphasising the area’s danger.

One way that we tried to instil a sense of fear on the viewer is with the use of steps, like how staircases are used in ‘The Third man’ to create tension. A location with stairs is generic for a thriller film, as they suggest a lack of escape and pose an obstacle. A similar location is seen in the opening of ‘Wild at heart’ with the sweeping flights of stairs adding ambiguity and disorientation, holding the audience’s attention. This soon becomes the scene of a murder with the stairs reinforcing the brutality of the act, another way that we created meaning in our thriller film by complying with the generic locations of a thriller text.

‘Wild at heart’ (1990)

‘The Third Man’ (1949)

Sam climbs steps while finding a place to settle.

Sam settles in a suburban, residential location

A quiet, residential area is used as the location for the murder of Beaumont Livingston

We decided to use an unglamorous, suburban location as the site of Sam’s attack in order to give the audience a sense of isolation

Using this location is another way in which we followed the generic conventions associated with location in a thriller text. Our inspiration for using this location in our thriller opening came from Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, in which Ordell Robbie forces Beaumont Livingston into the trunk of his car before murdering him in a secluded area. Viewers of our thriller who recognise the isolated area that Sam settles as being associated with crime will be aware of the danger that it poses to him.

Another example of a film where an unglamorous location is the scene of a murder is in Peter Weir’s 1985 ‘Witness’. Here, an Amish child witnesses the murder of a police officer inside an unpleasant railway station toilet, making the association between undesirable locations and horrifying events.

Viewers who recognise this intertextual reference in our thriller opening will immediately make the association with the fact that Sam is put in a position of great danger, showing how we used the generic thriller conventions to best effect in regard to location.