This document discusses how the media product uses and develops conventions of real thriller media through its use of locations. It opens in the underground passage of a roundabout in Norwich, establishing gritty and unpleasant locales associated with crime. It also features a suburban location where the protagonist is attacked, playing on viewer associations between quiet suburbs and criminal acts. The locations aim to create a sense of claustrophobia, fear, isolation and danger for the protagonist in line with conventions from films like The Third Man and Wild at Heart.

1. Q1
In what ways does your media
product use/develop/challenge forms
and conventions of real media?

2. Location
In our thriller opening we made use of the generic
conventions associated with locations. Our
production opens in the underpass of St. Stephens
roundabout in Norwich. This location, I believe,
enhances the film’s gritty nature, being a rather
unpleasant area.
Later, Sam moves to an isolated suburban location
where he is attacked; developing the convention
that quiet, suburban landscapes are associated with
crime.

3. St. Stephens underpass in our thriller opening
The Dartford tunnel in Terry Windsor’s ‘Essex Boys’
(2000)
We took inspiration from Terry Winsor’s ‘Essex Boys’
(2000) in which the main characters are shown to
drive through the Dartford Tunnel. The long
stretching tunnel, with vanishing point, in this
sequence gives the audience a sense of
claustrophobia and entrapment, instilling a sense of
fear.
Likewise, I believe that by incorporating a
tight, enclosed space into our opening, the
viewer will immediately recognise the
likeness between the two locations,
making them relate the character of Sam
who is seen to walk into the underpass, to
the two characters in ‘Essex Boys’ who are
seen to drive into the tunnel. The use of
claustrophobic locations connote menace
and this is something that fans of the
genre will recognise in our opening.

4. Sam, as seen in the underpass during
our thriller opening.
Harry Lime is confronted in the sewer in
Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’
The unglamorous underpass setting in our
thriller opening presents Sam as being
vulnerable and at risk due to the
claustrophobic setting and the
connotations that such areas have, such as
an association with crime.
A thriller production which also creates this atmosphere
through location is Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’. The
enclosed space of the sewers create feelings of intensity
when Lime is seen to be entrapped. We decided that our
underpass setting would create a similar mood, with the
enclosed underpass representing danger for Sam. Viewers
with a knowledge of Reed’s thriller will note the likeness
between Sam and Lime and relate this similarity to the way
that Lime is chased and tracked down, foreshadowing the
inevitable fate of our lead protagonist. Based on the thriller
texts that I have seen, I can say that my group has made use
of the generic conventions of the thriller genre regarding
location, in that claustrophobic spaces are used to create an
unpleasant mood and instill a sense of fear on the audience.

5. In order to maintain the suspense
throughout the opening, we decided
that the suburban area, where Sam is
attacked, should appear risky. To create
this, we decided to make his journey to
his resting spot as treacherous as
possible , emphasising the area’s
danger.
One way that we tried to instil a sense of fear
on the viewer is with the use of steps, like how
staircases are used in ‘The Third man’ to create
tension. A location with stairs is generic for a
thriller film, as they suggest a lack of escape and
pose an obstacle. A similar location is seen in
the opening of ‘Wild at heart’ with the
sweeping flights of stairs adding ambiguity and
disorientation, holding the audience’s attention.
This soon becomes the scene of a murder with
the stairs reinforcing the brutality of the act,
another way that we created meaning in our
thriller film by complying with the generic
locations of a thriller text.
‘Wild at heart’ (1990)
‘The Third
Man’ (1949)
Sam climbs steps while finding a place to
settle.

6. Sam settles in a suburban,
residential location
A quiet, residential area is used as
the location for the murder of
Beaumont Livingston
We decided to use an unglamorous, suburban
location as the site of Sam’s attack in order to give
the audience a sense of isolation
Using this location is another way in
which we followed the generic
conventions associated with location in a
thriller text. Our inspiration for using this
location in our thriller opening came
from Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, in which
Ordell Robbie forces Beaumont
Livingston into the trunk of his car before
murdering him in a secluded area.
Viewers of our thriller who recognise the
isolated area that Sam settles as being
associated with crime will be aware of
the danger that it poses to him.

7. Another example of a
film where an
unglamorous location is
the scene of a murder is
in Peter Weir’s 1985
‘Witness’. Here, an Amish
child witnesses the
murder of a police officer
inside an unpleasant
railway station toilet,
making the association
between undesirable
locations and horrifying
events.
Viewers who recognise
this intertextual
reference in our thriller
opening will
immediately make the
association with the fact
that Sam is put in a
position of great
danger, showing how
we used the generic
thriller conventions to
best effect in regard to
location.