Essex Boys Case Study

Essex Boys Case Study - How do aspects establish the genre?

Essex Boys

Director: Terry Winsor 

Genre: Crime Thriller 

Writers: Jeff Pope, Terry Winsor 

Stars: Charlie Creed-Miles, Sean Bean, Gareth Milne

Rating: 5.9/10 from 2457 users of IMBD. 

Storyline

The film is based loosely around events in December 1995 that culminated in the murders of three drug dealers in Rettendon, Essex, UK. On 6th December Patrick Tate, Craig Rolfe and Tony Tucker, three drug dealers well known to the police, were lured to Workhouse Lane, Rettendon. There they were blasted to death with a shot gun while sitting in their Range Rover. They had been lured to their deaths on the pretext of a lucrative drugs deal. The three bodies were found the following morning, 7 December 1995. This film starts off as a young taxi driver is offered a job to help a small-time hardman get a little revenge. The opening to a film automatically gives it a sense of crime and punishment which fits in perfectly with it crime thriller genre. 

Genre & Theme

The genre to Essex Boys is a thriller, but in this particular film many class it as being a Crime Thriller. The overall theme of the film is about revenge and following the daily everyday lives of 'hardnut' criminals in the place of Essex, UK. In this film i will look at how the lighting, costume location and story line have made this a successful thriller film. For example in this picture it displays claustraphobia and a sense of isolation from the rest of whats going on, which is an aspect of the film. 

Shot Analysis

This is the opening title sequence at the beginning of film. Immediately with this we get a sense of the genre of the film due to the white scratches shown on the screen, these could suggest knife slashes, giving a sense of fore boding as to what is to come. These lines are quite chilling and would strike fear into the audience. 

The white writing presented on the black background, presents a tribute to the classic noir thriller and chiroscuro lighting. This helps to add a sinister feeling to the thriller. 

Another interpritation that could be related to the white scratches at the beginning of film could be someones nails scratching down the screen, almost like the classic nails being dragged aggressively down a whiteboard. This may have been done to imply a certain amount of desperation and struggle to find a way out which then leads on later on into the film. 

Throughout the film Essex Boys, there is effective lighting which creates different feelings throughout. This particular scene where Jamie is standing in front of the car, seen from the perspective of Billy sat in the car. The position in which Jamie is standing makes the light shine directly on him to demonstrate his importance and power over Billy. 

We catch our first glimce of hardman ' Jason when the dirt is wiped from the car windscreen, this is key in letting us understand what type of character Jason is because he appears from a layer of thick dirt, some of it still being left on the screen, this shows the audience he isn't a very pleasant character, the dirt connotates a dark personality along with the feeling that Jason is dangerous and filthy, perhaps because of his stretch in prison and his brash actions.

In this particular shot shown below, it is a POV shot from Billy, this shot is used to create an impression of power and control, of which are attributes of Jason. On the other end of this shot is the audience who are made to feel insignificent and vulnerable when presented with the character of Jason. This is essential in any thriller film as it gives you the element of fear and makes you realise that events like these can and did happen in real life. 

Establishing a character early on in a thriller film is essential, this is done in this shot by there being glass used in between the two characters, this suggests that he is too dangerous to be dealt with without some form of defence in between one another and it also suggests his detachment from emotions from other people and his surroundings. All of these factors immediately suggest to an audience that he could be a bad guy. 

 

Non - ambient lighting is being used in this particular shot from Essex Boys, this dimly lights up the garage but still allows the audience to see what is going on, yet still a sense of gloominess is still upon the room. Non ambient lighting is very often seen in thriller films, and in particular in Noir thrillers. In using non ambient lighting the director (Terry Windsor) is using generic conventions to establish the genre within the first few minutes of the film. 

In this garage scene of Essex Boys, Windsor has chosen to the use the generic convention setting of a garage. He has done this because it is a claustraphobic space creating the sense of entrapment and tension. Clasutraphobic spaces can be used in thrillers to make the audience feel a characters vulnerability and sense of  no escape. The audience are able to imagine themselves in this situation and makes it more exciting to watch. 

Shown here is a long tunnel through which Billy drives with Jason as a passenger, the long tunnel suggests that the driver can't turn back and has to drive completely through the tunnel as there's no where else to go. The tunnel could connote the moral darkness of the events that are to come in that it seems never ending and that you are stuck with something you can't escape. 

 A generic convention that is very often used in thrillers is the vanishing point, a vanishing point is being displayed in this image towards the end of the tunnel. A very famous noir thriller where a vanishing point was used would be in 'The Third Man' when in the sewer scene. You get a sense from this that the audience are willing Billy not to drive down this tunnel because it is almost like a one way ticket to a life of crime influenced by Jason. 

Windsor has chosen to use a rather narrow tunnel to yet again create a clasutraphobic location and to imply that Billy is now trapped with a bad guy and there is no getting out of it, almost as if the audience are following them into a rabbit hole. It is like Billy is driving down a one way road and there is no turning back, driving down this road will lead Billy into being influenced by Jason and turning into a bad person, the tunnel has two exits therefore escape would be very difficult. 

In this scene from Essex Boys Jason is seen wearing a bright, vibrant yellow colored shirt which really epitimises and symbolises his confidence and comfort when doing his job. This yellow shirt throughout the film makes him stand out from the others in the film as most we see are either dressed in white or black which suggests he is a character that stands out from the crowd and isn't afraid to be seen or talked about. He wants to appear as having the 'bling' lifestyle in order to show his authority over his peers. 

Another key thing I noticed about this particular screenshot was the body language of Jason. This shows his confidence and his comfort in carrying out his job, although it involves work that would make most people reckless and shaken. Another point this body language proves is his dominance over fellow character Billy, he has hired Billy to drive him around where he pleases even though he could probably do it himself, and he is also isn't paying Billy so this suggests that Billy is doing it purely out of fear of Jason which tells us a lot about his character. 

For the second time in the film Jason is yet again shown behind a pane of glass, to yet again show us his detatchment from the rest of the world. We also see more about his isolated personality as he is shown to be sat alone in the back of the car.

In this scene it is almost as if Jason seems to own the ground he is standing on and is very dominant over his area. The Essex marshes which is where this scene is set are very open but also extremely isolated as there is no human activity for miles to be seen and the location is very much detatched from the rest of the world. This location could represent Jason's detatched personality. This a chilling location because there is no where to hide, it is completely open showing that there really is no escape from the predator. The location is shouting to the audience "danger". 

Thriller Locations

Thriller Film Locations

St James's Hill

This particular location was chosen as to where to film our cliff hanging scene. St James's hill is a wide open space that shows a canvas view of the city. It is a place where perhaps people go to get away and enjoy the view and our actress is doing exactly that in the form of trying to escape her follower. 

Anglia Square

Anglia square has a certain derelict feel to it. It's buildings including the one shown above are mostly abandoned so are perfect for our filming as they portray as sense of isolation and companionless. This also will mean that few members of the public will interfere with our filming.

Anglia Square

This underpass located in Anglia Square creates a sense of claustrophobia for us when filming creating a sense that there is no escape from the actresses stalker. 

Anglia Square Car Park

Within Anglia Square car park we are able to use their lift facility in order to aid the filming of our dead body holding the 'run' sign clutched in his hand. Yet again the car park is a rather claustrophobic space with dull lighting. 

Anglia Square Car Park (inside)

  

Inside the car park there are a vast amount of corners and places to hide for the stalker. This creates a sense of confusion for our actress. As shown in the picture the lighting is very dull which suits our genre of film. 

St Stephens Underpass

We use two underpasses in our filming, the first being St Stephens (shown above) and the second being Anglia Square. Just like Anglia Square underpass, this displays a sense of claustrophobia and as if there is no way in which to escape. 

Planning

Thriller Planning

Myself, Luke and Holly have decided base our thriller film around someone getting followed and to a certain extent stalked creating suspense and then eventually leading to a cliff hanging conclusion. Our thriller film consists of three main characters, Character A being the person who is being followed/stalked, character B being the follower and character C being a civilian who suspects something suspicious and tries to aid the girl being stalked. (We are yet to generate names for our characters).

 Throughout our thriller film we use a number of varied locations around Norwich, these include St. Stephens underpass, Anglia Square, and St James's hill. Our thriller film starts off with an over the shoulder shot of character B following character A through the underpass, we have chosen to do this because it is a confined suspense and creates a sense of claustraphobia and giving character A no place to escape from her follower. The over the shoulder shot is perfect because it implies that she is being followed which she is. The shot then moves to Anglia Square, where the majority of our shooting will be done. In Anglia Square there are a number of useful, derelic buildings and we use these in our shooting. By this point the girl has suspected something unsusual about her situation and has purposely taken a different route home in order to loose her stalker, she realises her plan isnt working so takes another option and enters an abandoned car park in Anglia Square hoping she is not followed in there, a nearby civilian see's that this girl is being followed and decides to step in so follows them both to check what is going on.

The girl enters the lift in order to escape and takes it to the very top of the car park, this way she can get a clear view of her surroundings and possibly locate her stalker. As she is looking out she hears the opening of the lift doors, fearing the worst she believes it could be her stalker but she is wrong as she goes over she finds a dead body of the civilian trying to help her. But there is something unusual about the body, attatched to it, is a note saying 'run' and then the girl realises that this man is very dangerous, at this point we still dont know who this man is. She flees Anglia Square and reaches St James's hill (city view) up here she has a wide view of the city skyline and as shes looking out of the city we bring in an over the shoulder shot of a hand reasting on the girls shoulder and she turns around in fright, we end the filming and leave it as a cliff hanger.

Lighting: Ambient, non - ambient, cirosquera

Locations: St Stephens, Grapes Hill, Anglia Square, St Jame's Hill

Actors: Character A (girl) Character B (man) Character C (man)

Shot types: Tilt shot, Medium close up, Close up, Over the shoulder, extreme close up, long shot, worms eye view.

Independent Film Reviews

Independent Film Reviews

Pulp Fiction

Release date: 21st October 1994

Starring: Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Laura Loveface, John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson

Pulp: the word itself conveys a sense of roughness, grittiness, blood and gore, and some serious edge. Pulp Fiction is very liberal with its violence - going so far as having good guys, bad guys, and innocent bystanders getting shot up without any legal consequences. The film is also very liberal with its bad language - there are F-bombs and sexual dialogue galore. Parts of the film are pretty shocking. Make no mistake, there is definitely a lot of pulp in Pulp Fiction. 


Beneath its blood-soaked surface, the film can be surprisingly light and upbeat, thanks to its playfully witty dialogue and constant stream of ironic situations. It is a comedy at its core - not a comedy that ever makes me laugh out loud, but there are plenty of memorable and amusing lines throughout. Above all, it's just funny the way things turn out in this film. Seemingly unrelated characters run into each other, crazy stuff happens, and the outcome can be quite surprising at times.

That being said, I've always felt this film has a pretty weird and random series of stories. It's a series of nested short stories - one story starts, then another, then another, then it goes back to the previous one, until finally connecting back to the scene in the film's opening. The narrative is purposefully mixed-up, jumping around a few different characters with their own situations, which ultimately connects to each other. Each story is pretty interesting though: the bulk of the film focuses on a pair of hitmen, who terrorize and murder some dudes to retrieve a mysterious briefcase. This story is ultimately interrupted by the next, in which one of the hitmen takes the crime boss' wife out, and interesting occurrences take place (including some of the best dancing ever). My favorite of the lot is the episode involving the golden watch, in which a boxer tries to flee from town to evade the boss' wrath, but has to go back to retrieve his father's pocketwatch. Crazy things ensue. The film's last stretch returns to the briefcase situation, in which even crazier things ensue, and the characters contemplate the greater meaning of everything that's happened. 

This film uses pretty solid photography and interesting editing. I feel it captures the ambiance of the locales extremely well. Acting is strong: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, and Uma Thurman are all striking in their respective roles. Writing shows excellent wit, with its plethora of great lines and conversation, and great nuance, with its plotting and narrative. This production has very real-looking sets, props, and costumes.

Reservoir Dogs

Release date: 21st January 1992 (USA) 

Director: Quentin Tarantino 

Starring: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi 

 'After a simple jewelery heist goes terribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.'

Reservoir dogs (directed by Quentin Tarantino) is about Six criminals, who are strangers to each other, are hired by a crime boss Joe Cabot to carry out a diamond robbery. Right at the outset, they are given false names with an intention that they won't get too close and concentrate on the job instead. They are completely sure that the robbery is going to be a success. But when the police show up right at the time and the site of the robbery, panic spreads amongst the group members and one of them is killed in the subsequent shootout along with a few policemen and civilians. When the remaining people assemble at the premeditated rendezvous point (a warehouse), they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop. 

The movie has earned itself a reputation as a violent picture and provided a convenient platform for some hysterical media reaction. As is often the case, viewing reveals a different truth. And the classic and sadly underused technique of implied action suggests a more powerful horror than you can actually see.

The film essentially revolves around a robbery that has gone wrong. Abandoning the conventional format of natural chronological storytelling, Tarantino creates a series of flashbacks that cleverly build to a conclusion. This allows separate scenes to be showcased as individual masterpieces that the cast exploit to the full.

The opening scene features an endlessly circling camera, as the tough guys light cigarettes and drink coffee in one of those places where the tables are Formica and the waitresses write your order on a green-and-white Guest Check. They argue, joke and b.s. each other through thick clouds of smoke; it's like "The Sportswriters on Parole." There's a funny discussion of tipping. Then they walk out of the restaurant, and are introduced in the opening credits, as they walk menacingly toward the camera. They have great faces: The glowering Michael Madsen; the apprehensive Tim Roth; Chris Penn, ready for anything; Tierney, with a Mack truck of a mug; Harvey Keitel, whose presence in a crime movie is like an imprimatur.

The movie feels like it's going to be terrific, but Tarantino's script doesn't have much curiosity about these guys. He has an idea, and trusts the idea to drive the plot.

The idea is that the tough guys, except for Tierney and the deranged Madsen, are mostly bluffers. They are not good at handling themselves in desperate situations.


We see the bungled crime in flashbacks. Tarantino has a confident, kinetic way of shooting action - guys running down the street, gun battles, blood and screams. Then the action centers in the warehouse, where Madsen sadistically toys with a character he thinks is a cop.

The Godfather

Release date: 15th March 1972

Director: Francis Ford Coppola 

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard Castellano, Robert Duvall

'The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.' 

The story begins as "Don" Vito Corleone, the head of a New York Mafia "family", oversees his daughter's wedding with his wife Wendy. His beloved son Michael has just come home from the war, but does not intend to become part of his father's business. Through Michael's life the nature of the family business becomes clear. The business of the family is just like the head of the family, kind and benevolent to those who give respect, but given to ruthless violence whenever anything stands against the good of the family.

The story views the Mafia from the inside. That is its secret, its charm, its spell; in a way, it has shaped the public perception of the Mafia ever since. The real world is replaced by an authoritarian patriarchy where power and justice flow from the Godfather, and the only villains are traitors. There is one commandment, spoken by Michael (Al Pacino): “Don’t ever take sides against the family.”

It is significant that the first shot is inside a dark, shuttered room. It is the wedding day of Vito Corleone’s daughter, and on such a day a Sicilian must grant any reasonable request. A man has come to ask for punishment for his daughter’s rapist. Don Vito asks why he did not come to him immediately and the plot thickens. With the end of the war, the times are changing, and as much as Don Vito seems in control at the wedding, his power is beginning to erode. By the standards of some, his views on the importance of family, loyalty, and respect are antiquated. Even his heir apparent, Sonny, disagrees with his refusal to get into the drug business. Gambling and alcohol are forces of the past and present; narcotics are the future. But Don Vito will not compromise, even when a powerful drug supplier named Sollozzo (Al Lettieri) arrives with promises of high profits for those who back him. 

Don Vito is a most complicated gangster. In his own words, he is not a killer, and he never mixes business with personal matters. He puts family first ("A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man") and despises displays of weakness. He understands the burden of power, and his wordless sympathy for Michael when he is forced to assume the "throne", is one of The Godfather's most revealing moments (about both father and son).The Godfather had three Best Supporting Actor nominees, all well-deserved in my opinion. The first was Pacino (who probably should have been nominated alongside Brando in the Best Actor category). The other two were James Caan and Robert Duvall. In a way, it's surprising that Duvall wasn't passed over. His presence in The Godfather isn't flashy or attention-arresting. Like his character of Tom Hagen, he is steady, reliable, and stays in the background. Not so for Caan's Sonny, whose demonstrative and volatile personality can't be overlooked. In a conclusion I feel the Godfather is an outstanding film with plot twists throughout and brilliant directing and acting making it a top film. 

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

Evaluation of Preliminary Task

What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid the filming?

Before filming our main task, we underwent a certain amount of planning. This planning helped us to get a clearer understanding of what we were going to be doing and made our layout easier to follow. We planned by creating a story board of each of the separate scenes, each different scene contained what camera angle and shot was applicable for that scene and a description of what happened so that we could get our filming accurately correct to what we had planned for. The conflict topic we chose for our end conversation was a missing piece of homework which needed to be resolved, planning this scene before hand helped us to get a rough idea of how long this conversation should be and the context of the conversation. There were a couple of key features we took into consideration when filming our conversation, the first was match on action. When filming and editing we wanted to show a smooth flow therefore we took this into consideration as we wanted to create the impression of a sense of continuity, this action creates a 'visual bridge' which draws the viewer's attention away from slight cutting or continuity issues. Another issue we had with continuity was costume, we had to ensure that we had the same clothes on each time we filmed as otherwise it would have showed a change in time almost. Another aspect that was assessed when planning was shot reverse shot. We chose to use this camera effect when doing the conversation as it puts the viewer in the actors seat and makes the audience more engaged into the filming. 

What is the 180 degree rule, and how is this rule important to the filming task?

The 180 degree rule is a filming guideline that participants in a scene should have the same left-right relationship to each other, with filming only ever taking place within the 180 degree angle in which is maintained in a conversation. Shot reserve shot technique often links in with this rule to retain continuity by not distorting the audience's sense of location of the characters in the shots. It is important that the 180 degree wasn't broken when doing this particular bit of filming because a sense of continuity needed to be shown and if it was broken it would have shown disorientation for the audience. It shouldn't be broken as it has a disruptive effect of confusing the viewer, making them stop and think, this means that they may break away from the film temporarily as they try to readjust. These factors are especially important to take into fact when filming the conversation scene of our filming. 

What shot types and camera angles did you use in your filming task, and to what effect? 

Throughout our filming we used a number of different camera angles and shot types. In our first scene we used a long shot from a high camera angle to establish the characters location and actions to let the audience get a clear sense straight away of where the filming is set and the overall plot to the film. We then moved onto a close up of a hand opening the door in order to emphasise the importance of the shot and to add visual interest to the scene. Following that we used a tilt shot because we wanted to create confusion and disorientation for the audience as the film was soon approaching the big conflict. We then used a over the shoulder shot of me walking down the corridor to give the sense that i was being followed and also to place the audience in the posistion of the character, this was then straight away followed by a high angle birds eye view shot, we did this to add to audience appeal giving them a different view of the action, the high angle also showed a certain amount of insignificance and vulnerability. The final cut of me walking down the corridor was filmed as a worms eye view therefore at a low angle which gave the character power and status. This shot focused mainly on my feet as i was walking so created tension leading up to the conversation. The final shot was another close up of my hand on the door handle which yet again created tension. 

What editing skills have you developed? How confident are you with using the editing programme? 

Since making our film i have developed various different editing skills such as how to crop certain bits of the film in order to make it shorter and ensure that only the wanted parts stay, which adds continuity to the film. I have also learnt how to perform a fade from one scene to another, with several different available options including a 'wash' 'fade' 'tint' and others. Another thing i have aquired is instead of letting the scene cut straight into the next you can make it more fluent by inserting a black out which gives the scene time to move on from another. I would say the areas in which i lack confidence are editing the sound in certain scenes to either make it higher pitched or lower pitched, this is because i am yet to try this technique.