The Third Man (1949) - Analysis

The Third Man was directed by Carol Reed in 1949 and is considered to be the original 'Noir' Thriller of which many, if not most, of the contemporary Thrillers are based off of. The music used in the film is called 'Harry Lime' which is also the name of the main character, who isn't actually introduced until halfway through the film. 

The location of the film is Vienna and usually it is thought to be a very glamorous and beautiful city, but in this film it is shown to be unglamorous, dirty and the centre of a black-market. This is because we are presented with post-war Vienna. The use of dead bodies and a broken society makes it seems more real to the audience and also adds a shock aspect.

Carol Reed's cinematography is beautifully presented in this film through the mise-en-scene. The main use is camera angles because many tilt shots are used in this film. Titl shots are used to connote mystery and danger. The tilt shot of the doorway with the cat in between Harry Lime's legs is used to scare the audience because Harry Lime is believed to be dead. It also adds a real element to the film because Holly Martins is finding out Harry Lime is still alive just as the audience are. However, the tilt shot is mainly used to connote confusion because the audience and characters are confused about the situation of Harry Lime.

Thriller Mock: Animal Kingdom Analysis

Once Upon a Time in America (1984) - Analysis

Directed by Sergio Leone in 1984 this film uses many conventions of the Thriller genre such as Noir lighting, the Femme Fatale and isolated figures, categorising it as a Gangster Thriller. 

The film starts with a sound bridge from a black screen to the music of 'God Bless America' which is use ironically because the film itself is about the corruption and gangs in 1920s/30s America and used in even more irony due to the fact that the director is Italian, not American. This is also a direct intertextual reference to 'Deer Hunter' (1978) where the director uses 'God Bless America' in the final scene. 

The first figure shown is a woman dressed in 1920s clothing, setting the scene and mood of the film for the audience. Firstly the only thing shown are the pearls around her neck, used to connote tear drops and as foreshadowing to her death. Unusually for a woman she is shown in harsh key lighting, the noir lighting that is very poignant of the thriller genre. This is unusual for a woman, because the usual lighting on a woman is soft, ambient lighting to show purity and fragility. However, the strong noir lighting is used on this woman to show to the audience that she is the Femme Fatale of this film. The pearls also connote wealth, showing that she may be connected with the gangsters and the wealth of the time. Also the use of a close-up shot gives the audience someone to directly connect with at the beginning of the film. 

As more characters enter the scene the camera changes to behind the woman and she is entirely framed by the doorway and by the men - showing that there is no escape. The men then kill her and she falls onto the bed, but before they leave one of the men turns of the lamp beside her as the lamp is a metaphor for her life because the film started with her being shown in the ambient light of a lamp. 

The next scene is of a man being punched and abused by gang members - establishing the genre to be a thriller film as it very gritty and real. There is a low angle shot of the man falling to the ground, showing that he has fallen and broken due to the torture from the gangsters. A worm's eye view is also used from this man's point of view showing not only his helplessness but also the authority that everyone else has above him due to him being weak and vulnerable. 

The slight tilt shot of a man smoking a cigar is used to show him as an enigmatic figure. The low-key lighting and lift shafts are also thriller conventions due to the lighting giving a mysterious and enigmatic feel to the mise-en-scene and the lift shaft is a claustrophobic space which connotes danger, the sense of the unknown and also the fear of confined spaces. 

Essex Boys (2000) - Analysis

     Essex Boys was made in 2000 by director Terry Winsor and it was shown across 54 screens on the opening weekend, 16 July 2000 - making a total of £111,548. The film is a Crime Thriller with a fairly low budget - which adds to the realism of the film.

   The opening of the film starts with some very effective chiaroscuro lighting (the technique of using light and shade in pictorial representation) to evoke mystery and to give the audience a focus point as the lightest place in an image is where the eye is drawn to firstly. The strong shadows means that the audience is constantly drawn the brightest part of the shot, being the area closest the the lighting - meaning the director is able to confine areas in which the director wants the audience to focus on. An intertextual reference to this is could be the scene in Fight Club (1999) where the light is shining on character to illuminate and show the character to the audience, but at the same time the audience is focused solely on that character without being distracted by any light in the background.

    The use of lighting is further seen when 'Jason' appears in front of the car as the windscreen wipers are turned on to clear the dirt. This is used to connote dirt and filth about Jason as a character, that he is a troubled character and also a dirty character that is involved with the underworld of society. The use of lighting is to focus the audience directly onto Jason as the lighting is only on Jason, nothing else is illuminated around him - showing him to be a main character.

     Thriller conventions are used to show the genre, the wet streets and unglamourous location of the concrete filled streets of Essex make for a dim location that crime such as this could occur. Also the 'run-down' car makes it seem that these people are of a lower class living in the suburbs of a city.

     The next key location is the tunnel, although it looks harmless to begin with, when looked at in depth it hides many metaphors about the characters - foreshadowing events to come - also because it is a vanishing point the audience knows that there is something going to happen at that point.
    The tunnel itself looks like a barrel of a gun, which is a thriller convention in itself because guns connote violence and death - which could be seen to foreshadow upcoming events to do with the characters in the car.
    As the characters drive past there are signs on the floor and on the side of the road. The sign saying 'STOP' could indicate that the character driving the car should stop the car because they are going to put themselves in danger or somebody else - which is shown to be true later in the scene.
   Another sign, on the floor this time, says 'STAY IN LANE'. This could be said that it was used to show that they should stop and stay in the correct lane of life, a metaphor for Jason  being a bad influence on Billy and that he should concentrate on being on the correct path of life and stay away from the dirty underworld that Jason belongs to.
    

The 'loud' shirt and the laid back pose suggests to the audience that Jason is very vain and arrogant. The bright colour shows that he is a dominant male and demands attention, but the relaxed pose suggests that he is very comfortable with everything in his life and he is aware of the fact that he is very dominant and can ask for anything and get his own way because he has power in his domain. 

The reflection of the lights on the tunnel onto the car that Billy's driving is used purposefully by the director to connote prison, violence and danger. It also is used to show Billy as a weak, easily lead character and Jason in the background very dominant and laid back about the situation. The bars connote jail and the car connotes a journey, showing to the audience that Jason is guiding Billy on a dangerous journey towards a life of crime and perhaps jail as that's where Jason has just arrived back from. 

  The Thriller convention of a seemingly endless landscape is prominent in Essex Boys, such as when Jason attacks the man in the Essex marshes. The vanishing point connote danger and shows the audience that something is going to happen before it happens, such as Jason throwing acid over the man. It also is seemingly endless, which along with being a Thriller convention it shows that Jason has no moral boundaries - that he will do anything for revenge or his own pride without thinking of the consequences or the impact upon others.
  The use of this long shot as the van drives away reinforces this idea of Jason having no moral boundaries or stability because there is no limit to the landscape - used as a metaphor. Also the use of the white van is because of the connotations of danger and the enigma around 'white vans' - this is used to try to show them as enigmatic figures because the audience doesn't know much about them as of yet and it also connotes the danger aspect as well as the fact that they want to remain enigmatic to hide their identity from any crimes committed. 

   

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.

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. 

Thelma & Louise (1991) - Image Analysis

     Directed by Ridley Scott, this film was released on 12 July 1991. It was nominated for 6 Academy Awards (USA) - but only won 1 of the nominations for 'Best Writing'. It was also nominated for 8 BAFTA awards. 

     Ridley Scott utilises Thriller conventions in an interesting way to establish the genre, but he also mixes them with unusual conventions to challenge the genre and the social context at the time that the film was made. He achieves this by manipulating usual Thriller conventions and changing them to something unexpected; especially in the conformity and representation of gender. 

    One of the ways that Scott uses these Thriller conventions is through Location. The location of a car park behind a bar is perfect for a Thriller and is a typical convention of the thriller as it is an enclosed/claustrophobic space, but feels open because it is so large, although barriers are present when in a car park. This could be used to represent that Louise has enclosed the man to this point, in location and time, and therefore he has nowhere to go both literally and metaphorically - thus this is used to make the location and scene much more threatening towards the man. Another Thriller convention used here is the enigmatic white van behind the man - which could represent that the man himself is an enigma as he is unknown to the women in this film, but he is trying to become known to them - the same as a white van is used to create mystery and an eerie feel to a scene. 

Jackie Brown 1997

     The use of characters is another Thriller convention, but challenges the genre in the roles of these characters. Firstly, upon looking at facial expression we can see that the man teeth are gritted and his eyes are looking back towards Louise and her eye direction is directly towards him. This is used to establish a negative relationship and that she has a negative attitude towards him, but his eye direction is still quite sly and sadistic like he thinks he is still going to get away with it because he's a man and she's a woman. However, the audience can see that the woman is very dominant in the shot although there is a clear height difference. The difference in height is used to challenge gender conformity in that although she is significantly smaller than he is, Louise still is dominant and makes him show fear. Showing that just because someone is larger than you, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are stronger or more dominant, which challenges the social context for women at the time as the Femme Fatale and woman dominated men in film was unknown at the time. This reminds me of the scene in 'Jackie Brown'  (above) when she pulls a gun out against the dominant man in the scene - showing a reversal of gender roles and also challenging the representation of women. 



Heavenly Creatures 1994

       Furthermore, lighting is another Thriller convention used in this shot. It is non-ambient lighting, meaning that studio lighting has been used to increase the amount of light in the shot - we can see this from the lighting being a bright white lighting and evening lighting or ambient lighting from indoor lights would have a yellow tone to the light. A similar technique is used in 'Heavenly Creatures' (right) to add more light to the scene. This type of lighting is used to put the audience's focus onto the characters in the foreground of the scene. It also dulls the background even more to make sure the audience doesn't stray off from the action to a brighter object in the background, therefore the background is kept dark and unlit. This lighting puts a lot of focus onto the gun as it makes it the brightest part of the shot and a person's viewpoint will always go towards the brightest part of a shot before looking at the rest of it - therefore it establishes the situation very clearly and abruptly to the audience. Another use of camera and lighting is that a depth of field is used, meaning that the background is blurred/out of focus, as the foreground remains in focus. This technique is used in Photography a lot - shown by the ladybird (above) - as Photographers will want the audience to focus on a specific point before looking at the rest of the image. This is a concious decision as the background could be in focus in the photo (above) and the Ridley Scott's shot here. Therefore he chose to use the blur in this instance to make the audience focus very clearly on the situation and characters in the shot. 


     The use of camera angles is key to this shot/scene as it establishes the characters. This shot is a medium close up of the two main characters of this scene. In the shot as a whole, Louise is very much more dominant in the shot and her arm is stretched out, thus making the man have to stand straight and still, being less dominant in the shot. This is used to show her overall dominance in the situation and that she has the upper hand by having a gun pointed to his head. This camera angle is also used to make it much more limited in the use of space as not much of the background is used - meaning that the these two characters are very important and that they are the only two characters that matter in this shot. 

Essex Boys 2000

    Props are also used in this scene which have Thriller conventions. The gun is obviously the main conventional prop used here and is used to show violence and establish Louise as a 'Femme Fatale'. It also challenges the genre because it is not normally women who hold guns or shoot people in films or Thrillers even though the Femme Fatale in not uncommon, shown by Jackie holding the gun in 'Jackie Brown'. The clothes are a key prop as the man's shirt is white in colour which is a colour that connotes innocence and purity, however the colour is more of an off-white colour - showing that he is a not innocence or pure, but he is trying to appear to be. This is shown when he tries to 'kiss' Thelma as an innocent act, but then turns violent when the act is refused. The blue jacket that Louise is wearing is used to show a complete contrast between her and the man. The use of prop in film to represent a character is used a lot as it can compliment or contrast their character and personality, which reminds me of Jason in 'Essex Boys' as he is wearing a very loud, obnoxious shirt - which is used to reflect his obnoxious, selfish and vain personality. 

Key Thriller Conventions - Camera

Camera Angles - The use of strong and visually interesting camera angles is essential in encapsulating an audience and adding tension or mystery to a scene. I think we should utilise camera angles with utmost priority.

Examples of good use of camera angles:

Close up:

   The close up here in Witness is used to add to the tension and suspense of the atmosphere of the scene at this time and make the audience sympathise with the boy as he is struggling to close the door and could be killed if he doesn't - making the audience fear for his life. This is used to great effect and makes the audience feel more connected with the character of the boy.

   The close up used in Animal Kingdom is to make the audience directly associate with the main character, 'J'. As the film progresses, more and more close ups are used to directly associate the action with 'J' and to make the audience feel as if they are experiencing it from his perspective.




Long shots/Landscape shots (used to establish location):

    This long shot of the Australian landscape is used in Animal Kingdom. It is used to reflect the character in the scene as a morally corrupt, in that the landscape seems endless and limitless - reflecting that his morality, or lack of such, has no boundaries or limits and he will continue to do whatever he wants without consequences. Also the desolate wasteland that is shown in this image shows that his mind is in the wrong place and his judgement is wrong and he's gone insane with worry and anxiety. This kind of representational image could be used in our Thriller as we have the facility and idea to use a limitless landscape of the countryside.

 

This very barren landscape in Essex Boys is used to connote very similar meaning, in that the man is beating up a 'friend' as it is describe by the voiceover, although we can tell this is not true. The limitless landscapes reflects his limitless personality and morality in that he's just come out of a sentence in prison and the first thing he does is nearly kill the person who meant he went into prison. Although this is very graphic, the idea and connotations behind it are very strong and could be used in our thriller.

    Planning:

    In our Thriller I do think that we should focus very clearly on trying to use some of these generic camera shots as it would add more to the film rather than just having simple camera shots - as we only have 2 minutes so every shot and every detail must mean something, as I think that we should use clever narrative techniques, such as foreshadowing and connotations.

    The use of a long shot to establish a location could definitely be used as the girl is walking home as it would show her location, and it could be used again to show the man's house. We have already decided on using an establishing shot near the beginning of the film to show the girl in the café and establish the location and the whole café to the audience.

    As we develop our shot list further we will be able to establish which camera angles we are going to use and why we are going to use them. Such as a long shot to establish location or a high angle shot to show dominance in a scene.