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".
