Essex Boys Opening Scene Case Study

Essex Boys Opening Scene Case Study

In the first shot of the film, we see the protagonist opening a garage door and getting in to the car we see in shot. He is seen a shadow because of the positioning of the light and how he is hidden behind some objects which are in the way of him. The only source of light is on the back wall and is a typical use of chiaroscuro lighting which is evident in most thriller films and a classic convention.




This shot establishes the other main character: Jason. This is a typical thriller shot because it reveals an enigma as towards who is this man and what is he doing standing there? We do get a little intro narrated by the protagonist and that sets up what is going to happen for the rest of the film.

 

 

In this shot we see the protagonist and Jason in the car going through Dartford Tunnel. The reflection of the lighting on the car is foreshadowing what will come for them and suggests that they will lead a life of crime.

 

 The long shot of the car entering the tunnel and looking down it could represent the barrel of a gun and foreshadow what the lives of the characters involved are going to embark on.

 

 

This classic POV mirror shot is also a well constructed shot because it shows Jason and a guy he obviously knew having a scramble and is shot from the POV of the protagonist in the front of the van. This allows us as the audience to learn and pick up on things about this character as well as him chucking acid into the unsuspecting mans face.

 

Possible Thriller opening ideas

1. A man is standing on the hillside by a railway track as a train goes past. He turns around and heads back through the cemetery towards the grave of his wife. As he is walking towards the centre of the cemetery he is confronted by a silhouette of a man. Then another silhouette appears behind him and the man drops dead.

2.  A man is standing on the hillside by a railway track as a train goes past. He turns around and heads back through the cemetery towards the grave of his wife. As he is walking towards the centre of the cemetery he is confronted by a silhouette of a man who is holding a knife.

3. A man is standing on the hillside by a railway track as a train goes past. He turns around and heads back through the cemetery towards the grave of his wife. As he is walking towards the centre of the cemetery he sees a statue of an angel. He walks over to it and gazes at it. As he turns around he sees a man sitting on the bench by the angel and he is holding a knife.

4. A girl is placing flowers on her granddads grave. Whilst she is doing this there is a shot of a man getting into a car. the next shot is of the girl walking down the road by the cemetery with her headphones in and listening to music full blast. She goes to cross the road and as she does a car comes round the corner and hits her. There is no footage of the car hitting her but simply a black screen with the sound of the car hitting her and speeding off. Then the title of the film comes up and is left on a cliff hanger.

thriller locations (continued)

How Sergio Leone establishes and develops the thriller genre conventions within mise-en-scene.

Two locations that are within the opening few minutes of once upon a time in America that establish the thriller genre are the dimly lit, wet street and the old style lift and the shaft. The wet street which is dimly lit is used to show the dark side of a thriller and can produce a menacing shot for which the audience feels overpowered and scared. Also the lift would be used because a low angle shot can make the lift look menacing and dangerous and makes it out to be a symbolism of death and pain.

Two archetypes that Sergio Leone used in the film are those of mobsters on the rise in New York and those of gangsters who liked hurting and killing people. These archetypes are used in most generic gangster a mobster films and they are the some of the most generic archetypes. He also uses Eve as the generic archetype for a femme fatale. Normally femme fatales are used in most noir and mobster thrillers. The name Eve relates to the biblical character Eve who is mischievous and daring and in the film Sergio shows her to be someone who is a bit like that because of how she enters the room carelessly and not checking to see if anyone is in there and how she just casually draws back the sheet of the bed to see the outline of a body. This shows that Sergio was trying to create a link between the two characters and try portray his character Eve out to be the same as the biblical character. Another archetype that is used in quite a lot of thrillers is death. Death is used a lot to create a suspense and chilling feeling of seeing a dead body on the ground. Another thriller that uses death well to create suspense and a nerve racking feeling is the movie ‘Time Lapse’. The killing of the friend by the husband creates a plot twist and gives a chilling feeling to the audience because you don’t expect that to happen.

The film is considered an example of a film noir. In the opening scene when Eve walks in through the door it is black and the only lighting is on her pearl necklace and part of her face. Pearls are mean to symbolise tears which are related to death. The effect of this is to make her seem mysterious. The use of white on black shows that it is a noir film because white on black is a generic convention and a generic archetype of film noir is the use of black which is used to be mysterious and also to symbolise death and pain.

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