Key Thriller Conventions - Location

Locations are used in the Thriller genre to maximise the intent and connotations linked with the situation or sense. I think, after studying the use of location, we should make sure that location is used not only well, but also with meaning and strong connotation.

Examples of good use of locations:

Enclosed spaces:

    The location of a car is a generic location used in the Thriller genre. It is used to show the character in a confined space and show isolation and disassociation. It is also a lot easier for a person to commit a crime inside an enclosed space as there will be less witnesses, if any. Shown here in Essex Boys, in the opening we see Billy in the car. This is used to show his vulnerability and that he could be a target or involved in crime because he is young and naive. The car is also a very claustrophobic place and makes him seem very disassociated as he doesn't show much emotion even when he is being part of a violent crime.

Here in Witness an enclosed space is used as it is the place in which the crime is committed. The use of an enclosed space is to show the isolation and could perhaps, in this case, be used to show social and moral corruption in that crime is being done 'underground' and in enclosed, secretive places - showing the social corruption in America. The direct contrast between this idea and the Amish boy is used to show his innocence and idealism of how his life with the Amish community would be perfect with no corruption, just like originally how the 'American dream' would have thought to be.

Unglamourous Locations:

The murder scene in Witness uses a toilet as the location. It is used to show the pure realism of the crime and that you cannot make a murder a 'glamorous' event. The more realistic a scene becomes, the more eerie and creepy it becomes as it shows the pure realism of a murder/crime. It also shows that it can happen anywhere at any time of day and to anyone - reinforcing this idea of realism. I think this idea and connotations of realism make for an interesting scene and I think we should do something similar in our Thriller as it would be much easier to make the scene unglamourous and realistic rather than using a complicated or glamorous location.

Similarly in Essex Boys, the use of the Essex cityscape is used to show the realism once more. The weather is also a very key aspect in this shot due to it reflecting coming events. The use of pathetic fallacy is used to foreshadow that a crime is about to take place, but also it is used to show that a crime can happen at any time - even on a cold, rainy day in Essex. Although, the location itself cannot be used in our Thriller we could use a similar cityscape to connote more realism. I also really like the idea of using pathetic fallacy and the connotations of rain and overcast weather - being mystery, pain and sadness - to emphasise and foreshadow events to come in our Thriller.

How we are going to use this in our own Thriller:

    We are going to use it by our café location will be slightly unglamourous because the café we are using is slightly old-fashioned and 'run-down' - so it will reflect the mood of the Thriller and also add the conventions to the mise-en-scene. Also the space of a café is quite enclosed, meaning it reflects the girl as being vulnerable.

All Footage - Practise

    This is the practise shoot for the opening to our Thriller - however we will not be using much, if any, of this footage because we think that we can do much better with more time and more planning.

    The main problem with this practise shoot was the mise-en-scene and some of the shots. We were quite rushed, as the woman who owned the café needed to lock up so we didn't have much time to get more than one of each shot.
    The lighting was a key part of why this shoot wasn't a success. The large torch that we used for lighting didn't work as it only lit up a small area of the café and not the whole area, and it also ran out of charge halfway through filming. Next time we will make sure to use different lighting and perhaps use a reflector (left) to bounce some of the light back onto the characters to make them visible on screen to the audience - as most of the shots in the dark cannot be seen on the screen.

    Costume was also a problem due to the man character wearing jeans and also taking his hat off halfway through filming and then putting it back on near the end - changing our continuity. When we re-shoot we will be using a different man for our character of 'Adrian' and make sure the costume is perfectly sorted before the shoot goes ahead.

    The character of the man was also a problem due to him being too young for what the character would be, realistically, thus on our next shoot we will be using Lauren's Dad to make sure we have a reliable person to film with and also somebody who is much older to make the character of the man much more believable.

    The only other thing is that we needed to use more close-up shots to show more detail to the audience.

    When we re-shoot we are going to use a different café which will be much bigger and we will have much more time to shoot and get the shots we need.

Location Shots: Angel Café

    These are the location shots for the 'Angel Café'. We think that the 'quaintness' and 'uniqueness' of the café will mean that we are able to have a different feel to our Thriller, different to other people's.

Characters Names

The male character in our thriller is named Adrian Doyle. After researching the meanings of names, we found that 'Adrian' means 'The Dark One' - which we decided this fits well with the character, he is anonymous at the beginning as you only see the back of his head. The name 'Doyle' means 'Stranger'. This implies that the main female character does not know Adrian or that she has never met him before and he is a stranger to her. 


The female role in our thriller is named Agnes Maplestone. 'Agnes' means 'purity' and 'innocence', this reflects her character hugely and she is very gentle. After deciding not to chose a complicated name we decided that this would be suitable - however just a 'innocent' and 'gentle' main character may be boring as it shows her to not have much personality, so this is subject to change if we decide to change the girl to have a more complex personality.

Jackie Brown (1997) - Analysis: Shooting Scene

Explain how this clip reflects the thriller genre and what does the camera angle connote about the character of Ordell Robbie

    The low angle 'trunk' shot at 3:34 is used to connote a sense of dominance about the characters but also to show the characters to be key characters in the scene. We can see by the screen shot (left) that Tarantino uses the 'trunk' shot a lot in his films and could be seen to be an intertextual reference to other films such as:

- 'Pulp Fiction' : showing a very low angle shot of the two characters to establish them as dominant characters in the scene and also that the trunk may have something to do with them as characters.

- 'Inglorious Basterds': used to show a use of background and also to show the characters again.

- 'Reservoir Dogs' :establishing characters.

- 'Jackie Brown' : it is then used again in the same film when Jackie Brown is putting money into her 'trunk' - showing the connection between the money and her and that she is a dominant character and a main character of the film.

    This clip reflects the Thriller genre by having key aspects of the mise-en-scene related to the Thriller genre. The use of location is key and the locations used here are ones of a confined space such a car or a small hallway. It is also shot at light with dim, chiaroscuro, lighting and the wet streets, also a Thriller convention, reflect the dim lighting - connoting mystery. The relatively simple use of lighting means that the audience can clearly see the main aspects, or focus points, of the scene - contrasting Tarantino's usual style of bright lights and bold natural lighting, seen earlier in the film in the shopping scene.

    Most of the shots are also slightly tilted to connote a sense of mystery about the scene and to show Ordell as a character not to be trusted or as a slight enigmatic figure. The main close-up of the scene is of Ordell just after he has put Beaumont in the 'trunk' of his car - showing an imediate connection between the use of the trunk and the character of Ordell.

Jackie Brown (1997) - Analysis: Shopping Scene

What does this action in broad daylight connote about the character of Louis?

     The scene starts off with the two character leaving Louis' car and walking into a shopping mall. They then continue to swap a bag for a bag they have brought with them, showing the audience that they are both corrupt characters. The character of Louis can be seen from the start to be a deviant character, from the bad language and the mistreatment of women, to the daylight robbery. However, the audience cannot believe the woman to be a perfect women, because in fact she is quite the deviant women, in helping Louis with the robbery and also from being associated with him.

    From about 2:40 in this clip the woman starts teasing Louis as he cannot find his car in the car park of the mall. Mocking him and asking how ever did he rob a bank if he cannot find his car. The clothes the woman is wearing shows a lot about her character; the short shorts and the revealing vest top could connote the dirty aspect of her personality, that she is a cheap person, as her top isn't a full colour; more of an 'off-blue'. Also by her always being behind Louis could show that she is a cheap character who would do anything for money. She also smokes, which is normally thought to be 'unlady-like' - meaning she isn't the normal 'lady' one might expect in a film, thus challenging the stereotype of women, but also majorly conforming to the stereotype as she is completely reliant on Louis, a man, and she also dresses in a certain way to attract attention. However, the ambient lighting is equal on both of these characters, showing them to be equals in morals, but not equal as characters because Louis is always more dominant in the shots.

     Through the whole of the end of this scene Louis is silent as he is mocked by his female counterpart. He then snaps at the end of the scene telling her to not say anything anymore. She

says 'Okay, Louis' and he shoots her a split second after she says the line. Louis then pulls back, opening himself up more to become more dominant in the shot, to replace the lost subject of the woman and shoots her again, after she has fallen.
    This says a lot about his character, especially the fact that the act of crime has been done in broad daylight. This shows the audience that he is a very angry and short tempered character due to him completely snapping after being teased by the women for only moments. The fact that he shot her, not only once, but twice shows that he doesn't have any conscience in his actions and he would do anything to have something his way - showing the audience that he is a cold blooded killer who wont let anyone stop him.
    The car behind them is a deep, rusty, red colour - this reflects the action that is happening in the foreground by showing an unglamourous location and background. The car being slightly rusted reflects the character of Louis even more because we can see that he is much older than his female counterpart, showing that he is an old killer and perhaps he has killed people before, by him being able to kill somebody so calmly in broad daylight.
   As for the character of Louis, this scene is only seen as negative towards his character. The  bright light of the scene, usually ambient, but the brightness of the scene could suggest some non ambient lighting being used  - often used in Tarantino's films - is to show the absolute outrageousness of Louis killing this woman as it is in a public place and also during the day - showing he doesn't care what people think or who sees what he does - connoting continuous violence in his life.

Jackie Brown (1997) - Analysis: Title Sequence

Explain how Tarantino establishes the character of Jackie brown through camera shots and movement.

     Tarantino establishes the character of Jackie Brown by showing her, and only her, in the frame for the opening. It starts with the first shot of a character being a tracking shot of Jackie Brown for 15 seconds - this time is used to establish the character seen as the main character and also a dominant character in the film. Even as the titles roll adjacent to her, the audience are still drawn to her as she is very dominant in the frame, being in blue, therefore standing out, contrasting the lighter, green, background. 

     The next few shots of people do not show their face in any detail, therefore keeping Jackie Brown in the forefront of people's minds. Again, a tracking shot is used, however this time it is a low angle shot; showing perhaps that Jackie is a main character and that the attention of the film will be on her, such as people looking up to her as her being superior. The fact that she is walking towards the left of the shot and everyone else in the shot is walking in the opposite direction, to the right, could be used as a metaphor for Jackie as a character, as she is not moving with the mass of people or 'following the crowd' because she is a black female with a lead role in a film and even at this time it was a brave thing of Tarantino to do. 

     A slightly low angle, medium shot from the front is used next to further show Jackie as a main character. The use of great focus only on Jackie, but having the background blurred and out of focus creates a strong connection to Jackie Brown. The next shot is a close up - relating even further to the character of Jackie Brown. 

     The use of the smart clothing, along with the bold colouring of the clothing means that Jackie will always stand out amongst the public and also the backgrounds - cleverly used by Tarantino to keep the audience's attention on her at all times. Also, a vast majority of the shots are just of Jackie Brown - from close up to low angle tracking shots, everything is keeping the audience's attention solely focused on this character. 

    The tracking shot where Jackie Brown is running shows an aeroplane in the background also moving in the same direction as Jackie. This could be used to show that Jackie is very similar to the aeroplane in that she is going places in her life and is directional in her approach.