Thriller Locations

First Location: CNS girls toilets

For the very first scene in our opening, we'll will be using the students toilets at CNS as makeshift public toilets. Orignally we were going to use the public topilets in long stratton but came to the conclusion that the combination of the geographical location and the fact that filming in public toilets is difficult because of legal and spatial reasons means that we decided to film the scene in the toilets at school. We decided to use the girls toilets as the majority of our group were female and so it made sense for us to use the girls toilet. There are three female toilets at CNS and having visited all three we decided to use the largest one. In addition to having the largest space possible to work with it also had plain white walls which would be perfect for adding a bleak, grimy look to the scene. However whilst the space and look of the toilet's walls were positives there were also negatives to consider and problems to overcome. The taps for example were not ordinary twist taps and instead needed to be pushed down to work. Whilst this initially seemed a problem as we were intending to have a close up of the main character turning the tap on, in time we decided that with careful hand positioning this detail could be overcome. As well as this many modern day toilets use these kind of taps and so if it couldn't be overcome it would add to the reality of our product. Another problem with the toilets was the fact that it would be busy at times. However it was a lot more accessible and easy to vacate than genuine public toilets and did possess any of the legal problems filming in public toilets had and so we were happy to use this location.

Second Location: Chapelfield Gardens Bandstand

Originally we were hoping to film
somewhere like here: The Old Bakery Cafe

Chosen location: Band Stand 

The scene of meeting between the two characters changed drastically overtime. Initially the plan was to use a cafe or small bar for the meeting and have the two characters sit across a table from one another. We began by contacting cafe's and bars we knew of asking whether it would be possible to film there. While we contacted around 8 places only 3 replied and they all refused us. It quickly became apparent that it would be incredibly difficult to film in a cafe or bar and so we had to alter our location. After discussion we decided that the transaction scene could happen outside on a picnic bench or park bench. We decided that scoring in Norwich would be our best option and so we did so. Having scouted many locations we finally settled on the band stand in Norwich's Castle Meadow. While it was completely different from our original idea, the space was ideal and it was not likely to busy. The positives of this new location was that there was ample space for filming, it was in a central location and so could be got to quickly and  that it was not likely to be busy or full of people. However the disadvantages were that it was outside and so noise could be an issue; there was a possibility people could be in there when we wanted to film and it would not fit the theme of our thriller as well as average cafe. However as we knew that cafes and bars were not an option we decided that the band stand was our next best option and decided t use it for the transaction scene. The space of the band stand was excellent and allowed for a variety of interesting shots and this , we decided, would lend itself to our film.

Third Location: Underpass

Chosen location: underpass

Finally the final chosen location of the death scene also changed a lot from our initial ideas. Our original plan was to have the death scene happen either in a cobbled alley way in the old part of the city or near a church where there was intense ground lighting that we could use. Having scouted these locations out we decided that neither of these would fit our thriller and would instead give the death scene more of a film noir style. This is because the alleyways we found were very stylistic and did not fit with the other gritty locations and the church was again too stylistic and did not fit with the our other chosen locations. As well as this, because of their central locations, these places were nearly always busy and getting an isolated death scene would be difficult. Instead we chose to use an underpass near the outskirts of the city. The underpass had many great positives: it was lit with very bright, intense lights which we could utilise when filing, allowing us to experiment with shadows, it was rarely busy as a result of its locations on the outskirts of the city and it was heavily grafted adding to the realistic, gritty locations we had already chosen. While it was difficult logistically for us to get to, this was the only negative and we conclude that it was the perfect location for our death scene.

Q5. How did your film attract/address your audience?

EDITED 07/04/16: Q2- How does your thriller film opening represent particular social groups?

In our thriller opening we have challenged the stereotypical gender roles often portrayed in film. In particular we are challenging the traditional role of women in society through our use of them as the main characters in our thriller opening. While in almost all thrillers-  including film noir and British gangsters- women are portrayed as the secondary gender behind the protagonist male, in our thriller we decided we wanted to challenge this stereotype and flip this around, making the two main characters female.

By challenging gender stereotypes in the way our film is very modern and anti-traditional. This modern representation of women fits with the gritty, realistic tone of the film as a whole and this anti-sterotpyical portrayal of gender is initially created by the opening scene and titles. The first shot of our thriller is an uncomfortable, birds

eye view shot of the main female character entering a gritty, dirty toilet. This first shot instantly gives the audience and idea of the bleak, realistic and more importantly modern tone of the film throughout. This is strengthened by the fact that the first character the audience sees is a female one, immediately challenging the tradition of placing the focus on men rather than women. This challenging, modern tone is reinforced through the font of

Modern, brutal font for credits

the titles. The bold sans serif font "Bebas Neue"we chose for the credits is very modern and brutal and again reinforces the realistic and gritty nature of the film. By immediately linking the main, female character with this realism and grittiness the role of women throughout thrillers is already being confronted and challenged. In film noir women were either glamorised and sexualised or seen as femme fatal characters simply there to entice and endanger men. The portrayal of women in our thriller contrasts this completely by placing the main female character immediately in a dark, bleak world.

By making links to the way older thrillers such as film noir style films depicted women, our challenging and altering of the stereotypical portrayal of women in such films is made clearer and more effective. For instance in the toilet scene there is a claustrophobic, close up of the main female character applying a dark red lipstick. This is a reference to the way scarlet lipstick and clothing is

Film noir femme fatale

traditionally used in film to portray a woman as  either lustful and sexual or dangerous such as a femme fatal character in film noir. However by using a very claustrophobic, close up shot of our character applying the lipstick in combination with the bleak, gritty setting, it signifies the fact that the makeup, and furthermore the glamour associated with it, doesn't quite fit her. It's as if she's trying to plaster over the cracks in her broken personality with the lipstick in an attempt to make her seem more classy and glamorous. By including this reference to the film noir portrayal of women, our realistic, modern one is strengthened as the lipstick highlights the contrasting nature of the two representations.



By having the main protagonist as a woman, the audience is left in no doubt that our film is using a modern and challenging portrayal of gender roles that fits the realism and grittiness created by the plot and locations. This portrayal of gender is is further made parent by the detective character.

Detective from film noir

The costume and role of the detective character are direct references to film noir: a rogue, corrupt, secretive detective dressed in a long overcoat and dark glasses that portray his enigma and isolation.

Detective from our thriller opening

The character is an incredibly masculine one with almost every detective of this nature in film noir being played by a man. Left is a photo from a film noir showing the traditional male character of the detective in the classic costume. By taking this role and keeping everything the same except the gender of the character, the stereotypical roles of gender in thriller is confronted and challenged. By doing this women in our thriller are seen entirely as the dominant gender as both the main character and the secondary one are female. It shows the women are capable of being not just either sexual or dangerous but everything in between. From a damaged but resilient protagonist looking for answers in a modern, bleak world to a corrupt, rogue detective who has seen it all leaving her hard-boiled and dry.



Our thriller entirely marginalises men. Both the main protagonist and the detective are female leaving only the final hooded figure. The final character who only appears briefly in one shot is not specified a gender however. While in reality the actor was male, as the audience only ever see their hooded behind there is no way of them knowing for certain.

By not including any characters who are clearly men, the modern representation of genders in our thriller is made more effective. In many thrillers women are either secondary character or are completely marginalised and left out of the film. By flipping this concept and making women the absolute dominant gender in our thriller, we are creating an original and challenging representation of that particular social group. In many other British Gangster films such as 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Essex Boys" the dark, gritty world focuses around masculine criminality. We wanted to obtain the bleak, hopeless tone that is synonymous with British Gangsters while challenging the stereotypical representation of gender and by making women the predominant gender and by marginalising men I think we have achieved this.

Q6. what have you learnt about new technologies from the processes of constructing this project

Throughout the process of creating my thriller opening, from pre-production to production to post production, I have learnt about a range of new technologies as well as how they can help and benefit aspiring film makers.


As a whole, new technologies are incredibly empowering, giving the general public the ability to create content of a professional standard. It's now not just professional, Hollywood studios that create films and tv programmes, instead as a result of accessible new technologies and websites its any bod who wants to. New technologies are providing people with digital citizenships and are helping to democratise the industry; giving power to the consumers. It's helping film makers communicate and collaborate and is helping to give creative power to those who once would not have had such power.

EDITED 07/04/16: Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

What kind of cinema is most likely to exhibit our film?

The genre of our film is predominately British Gangster; the setting, plot and colour palette all take inspiration from dark, British films. However it also has stylistic aspects linking it to Film Noir so in this sense it possesses an arthouse-like aesthetic. This hybrid between bleak, British grittiness and sleek, stylish Film Noir means that our film would not be out of place in either mainstream cinemas such as Vue or Odeon nor would it not suit arthouse exhibitors such as Cinema City. In both cinemas there would be audiences my film would appeal to. In the mainstream cinemas, there would be a bigger audience who perhaps wouldn't recognise or appreciate the references to film noir but would enjoy the plot of the film as well as it's bleak, dark tone throughout. While in arthouse exhibitors such as Cinema City, there would be audiences familiar with the stylistic and costume references to film noir and so this aspect would appeal to them. However on the whole, I think our thriller would be better suited in mainstream cinemas. While our thriller does make reference to film noir in an arthouse fashion, in general our film would not be classed as an arthouse film. Almost all aspects of our film take influence from British Gangster, a genre which in the past has proven popular with a large demographic of people. As a result of this, our film could entice large audiences and so would be better suited in more mainstream cinemas. Films such as "Lock, stock and two smoking barrels" and "Sweeney" were exhibited in mainstream cinemas and did successfully, drawing large audiences. The violent, gritty nature of our film perhaps wouldn't fit the artistic style of films regularly shown at cinema city. Additionally our films target audience of men aged between 18-25 are much more likely to visit mainstream cinemas instead of arthouse ones and so cinemas such as Odeon or Vue would be far better suited for our thriller.

How could online streaming services offer new distribution options?

In recent years there has been a huge rise in the amount of films available to watch at home. Services such as Love Film, Netflix and Mubi mean that the cinema is now not the only way to experience new films. These services not only make it incredibly easy for anyone to access a huge variety of films in seconds but also act as a recommendation service giving people suggestions on what they should watch based on their previous viewings. Our film would work very well with these modern distribution methods. Because of the independent nature of our film, online streaming sites such as Netflix would give our film the opportunity to reach a far wider audience. People who want to find and watch new, independent films can do so extremely easily on Netflix as in contrast to cinema, no film is promoted more than any other. In addition to this, Netflix provides suggestions based on previous films a user has watched. This means that audiences who are seen to be watching thrillers or British Gansgter films have a higher chance of being recommended our film. Our target audience of 18-25 year old males are the demographic most likely to use these new services and so these new ways of online distribution would be a perfect option for our film.

Final Cut

EDITED 07/04/16: Q4. Who is your target audience?

Deciding on who the target audience of my thriller would be was essential in creating a successful and interesting opening. By deciding early on who my target audience would be, I could understand their likes and dislikes and implement techniques and aspects in to my thriller opening that would make it appeal to them. To help identify who my target audience would be I looked at online ratings and statistics of films that influenced and inspired my thriller opening to gain a better understanding of the kind of person who would watch mine. To do this I used IMDb, a huge online database of films and tv programs. IMDb has information regarding the film itself, user ratings and reviews and information about the demographic of people who watched and enjoyed the film. By analysing and reviewing the audience of films similar to mine, I was able to obtain an idea of the kind of person who was most likely to watch and enjoy my film. I looked at the age and gender of the people who watched and enjoyed the film to give me a rough idea of my average target audience. Having done this I then used the user submitted reviews to give me a more detailed idea of the kind of person who would be interested in my film. Looking at the wording of their reviews, the things they reference, and the overall knowledge of film they posses I was able to create a quite detailed depiction of these films average viewer and from this I was able to understand the kind of audience most likely to watch my thriller opening.

Using the knowledge and information obtained from this research I created a profile of my films target audience. This is a description of the kind of person who would enjoy my thriller.

This is John. John is a 25 year old english male who is enthusiastic about films among other modes of media text. John watches the majority of the films he sees at home either via streaming sites such as Netflix or on DVD. John watches films recommended to him by friends or family or by the online recommendations Netflix gives him. John does this as he knows that his friends and family enjoy and understand similar sorts of films to him. John is not a fan of main stream, block buster films. Instead he prefers obscure, low budget, well made films made by intelligent directors starring excellent, but usually underground actors. John is very sociable and intelligent and likes to read around topics that interest him. He remembers the names of the actors and directors who star in his favourite, non-mainstream film and references them often in conversation or when talking about film. Away from film, John enjoys books, TV programs, Youtube channels and music. Similar to his film taste, John prefers underground, alternative bands as apposed to the mainstream chart music. He goes to lots of gigs and enjoys the social/cultural side the music brings. While John is an entirely normal, sociable person he enjoys media texts that have a darkness/grittiness to them. Film genres such as British Gansgter interest him as he likes to see how they establish the dirtiness and grittiness of Britain. As well as this genre, recently John has become interested in Scandinavian thrillers such as "The Bridge" and "The Killing" as he enjoys the bleak, dark tone of them. John lives in the outskirts of a large, ex-industrial city and likes it when films represent this bleakness and use it for their benefit. John likes looking for deeper meanings in life and enjoys it when films raise questions about his own morality as well as the morality of the characters involved.