Finalised Locations

Primary Location: Weybourne Beach

I suggested that we include a beach setting in our thriller production early on in the course, as it is in some ways an odd location to use. Beaches are often associated with childhood and happy memories, days out with your family and good holidays. It's easy for an audience to conclude that beach locations are bright, populated places and not at all correct for a thriller to be centred around. My group and I agreed on this idea and thought that we would utilise a local, less populated beach in cold January to reinforce the fact that desolate beaches in winter are indeed a convention of the thriller genre. We additionally thought that by playing on an audiences natural association, between 'beach' and 'childhood', our opening would appear somewhat contrasting, perhaps even a little disturbing, and challenge the viewer to link old haunts to less pleasant happenings.

Although, unfortunately, we obtained no footage of the barbed wire surrounding Weybourne Beach and therefore it doesn't appear in our piece, it rendered our primary location more menacing. The low angle shot above is particularly evoking and in fitting with the thriller genre, as the sky darkened just in time for the shot, almost silhouetting the sharp spikes.

I used another low angle shot to photograph the cliff face because this, likewise to the cruel steel spikes of barbed wire, rendered the image more menacing. The height of the cliffs proved hard to truthfully capture, both in picture and in film, but I think the photo above does them a little more justice.

The chalk faces were indeed very tall. Again, although sadly no significant footage of the fog engulfing the cliffs in the distance was caught on camera, it helped us when shooting; the misty horizon constantly reminded us that we were filming a thriller. Like the barbed wire, the fog was in keeping with thriller convention and it's a shame neither will appear in our two minute opening.

An aesthetically pleasing and scenic view of the beach from the waters edge. Luckily, on both days of shooting at our primary location, if ever there was a blue sky in sight the cloud cover was always heavy. We all considered it crucial to not include overtly sunny shots that could potentially detract from the gritty nature of our piece. Since the editing process began, we have in fact added filters to any such shots that demonstrate too much colour or ones that appear inconveniently and unfittingly 'happy'.

Secondary Location: Stuart's shed/garage

We concluded to no longer feature Baconsthorpe Castle in our film, so decided to use a different secondary location that would be more fitting. We scrapped all the castle footage and opted to use a more claustrophobic 'place of death', Stuart's shed/garage, due to unsuccessfully creating a stark contrast between our beach setting and Baconsthorpe.

The shed, from outside, barely appears menacing. Owning a storage place is in no way unusual nor intimidating, so the viewers' interest will be held because initially there is a break in the sense of menace created during the previous beach scenes. This also acts as another factor which contributed to our changing in stationing of our secondary location; many people have a shed in their garden, so there arises a sense of grim realism to our new shed setting. A fundamental message of our piece - any of us can experience foul play and bad fortune - is better connoted using Stuart's shed. By nothing appearing abnormal in owning a shed our thriller suggests that such an ambush can occur anywhere, both to and by anyone.

Once inside however, Sam discovers, with the aid of her pocket torch - a generic thriller convention, a large saw, suddenly sending the scene into panic.

As mentioned previously, the shed was employed primarily because it has a far more claustrophobic feel to it than the largely exposed grounds of Baconsthorpe Castle. By our secondary location being a relatively confined area, our latter scenes become, appropriately to the thriller genre, unnerving. A common fear is that of small spaces, hopefully creating tension and anticipation within most viewers.

Focusing upon the padlock used to open and close the only door of the shed, the atmosphere becomes more ominous than ever. As if to foreshadow the gruesome thought that Sam may never leave the location again, an over the shoulder shot concentrates on her unlocking of the lock at the start of the scene.

By the shed very much lacking sufficient space to comfortably move about in, our audience should feel entrapped with the victimised Sam. If an audience member empathises and sympathises with her character, they will be more likely to feel comparable emotions to that of which she would be feeling; fear, anxiety, despair, all of which heighten audience experience.

A rough medium shot of the shed shows how, despite being located in an urbanised area, our secondary location is still rather 'natural'. Thick green shrubbery surrounds the little wooden room, tying our primary location neatly to our ending one, creating a contrast whilst successfully maintaining the somewhat primal, predatory elements of our first location.

Cobwebs on the wooden beams of the door structure made the shed appear abandoned and neglected, which is of course in fitting with conventional thriller sets such as the garage used to open Essex Boys and establish it as a thriller film and many of the one-off seedy locations featured in Spooks.

The apparent contrast of our locations, we feel, is reflective of the apparent contrast of our two characters, Sam and Ian. Sam conforms mostly to the innocent youth stereotype particularly applied to females in the media, as Ian's character type is cryptic and unexplained, forcing viewers to guess his motives as opposed to have him explain them to them.

Likewise to the cliffs at Weybourne, I used a low angle shot to capture the roof of the shed and the top of the door. Much as I wished to render the cliffs to be looming ominously over the beach, I wanted the picture above to turn the wooden stature into an imposing image, one of which would spark claustrophobia in the beholder.

The inner side of the door features a spray painted smiley face. Used in the context of a thriller opening, it is rendered rather horrific. Adding an ironic twist to its original intention - to promote happiness and positivity - we included it in our filming to appear menacing and shockingly sinister. As though subtly linking one of our predominant reasons for using Weybourne Beach to our secondary location, the grinning graffiti is warped in the context of the thriller genre, playing on childhood and natural associations with smiley faces. The 'smiley' is considered in some places and in certain subcultures to even advocate the spreading of peace, which means we really are featuring the painting ironically, for Sam is supposedly attacked in this very place.