Monday 23 January 2012

Location Shots for our Thriller

This is the boy's bedroom which will be used in the first few shots of our thriller. The cluttered, unorganised room could reflect the character's personality, while the posters and objects can reflect his interests and nature.
This is the upstairs hallway of the house. The dark room at the end of the light hallway suggest a darker secret to this house - something could be waiting in the darkness. The hallway is narrow and claustrophobic, creating a generic thriller environment.
This is a high angle shot of the stairs down to the ground floor of the house. They are narrow and suggest claustrophobia, again, and the contrast in light from upstairs to downstairs creates a sense of mystery and danger at the bottom. The high angle shot also creates a sense of vulnerability.
This is the bottom of the stairs where the boy will come down as you see something flick past in the background. The Rule of Thirds is used here - two parts stairs, one part hallway. There is a vanishing point at the end of the hallway, suggesting that there is something hiding at the end.
This is the front door that is used by the main character, the boy, to escape the house. The contrast between the white door frame and walls and the dark outside creates a huge sense of unease, suspense, and danger concerning what lies beyond this door in the night.
When the boy leaves the house, he will go down this path. The cobbles highlighted by the light show his path, and are an intertextual reference to the cobbled streets used in "The Third Man" (1949, directed by Carol Reed). The light shining on the cobbles connotes nightmare and mystery about what lies beyond the house and it's path.

This is another shot of the path - this time from the perspective of the enigmatic figure who will watch the boy from this window. The spots of rain on the window cause a disturbance on the window - this connotes impurity and corruption. The high angle shot makes the path and everything on it seem vulnerable. The white van on the street also creates a sense of danger, as the white van is a thriller convention - it is used frequently by criminals in thrillers. This is similar to the next shot, where the white van's importance is further analysed.
This is the street outside the house that we will be using for the shots outside the house. The vanishing point at the end of the street creates a feeling that danger could be hiding just at the end of it. The street lamps are a great example of chiaroscuro lighting, as the few orbs of light from the street lamps light up the whole street, reflecting off the wet tarmac and cobbles - this is another intertextual reference to the cobbled streets in the aforementioned film "The Third Man". The white van further connotes danger as it is commonly associated with criminals and dangerous people in thrillers - a good example of this is in "Essex Boys", when Jason uses a white van in the opening scene of the film as he attacks someone.






These shots were taken by James Winterburn.

1 comment:

  1. You have explained the generic significance of your shots excellently. Remember when shooting tilt, low angle and close ups. Don't excaggerate tilt shots too much, be subtle.

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