G321 Essex Boys

Director: Terry Winsor
Year Made: 2000
Country Of Origin: UK

I watched the introduction to Essex boys (2000) directed by Terry Winsor, to carry on my reseacrh to Thrilers and understanding them more.

Essex Boys, the opening shot immediately establishes this film as a thriller, Winsor utilises claustrophobia with the shot of the protagonist in a garage, whilst also using chiaroscuro lighting - claustrophobia and chairoscuro lighting are key elements of the thriller genre. We straight away are taken to a shot of a car in a garage, which shows a confined unglamoruous space and is very chaustrophobic. We hear the sound of diegetic footsteps behind the garag wall. This creates tension and we fear what is going to happen next. Thus an atmosphere of entrapment (Jimmy is getting himself into a hopeless situation driving for the gangser Jason and nightmare is communicated in the opening moments of the film . We shortly after hear a voice over (Non-diegetic) of a young essex boy, and see him breaking into a car. There is no diegetic dialogue, only the voice over and the sound of the engine starting. There is a shot of the car front window, and suddenly the window wipers clean the window, to reveal a man standing there. The boy drives of through motoways, and goes through a tunnel from the boys point of view. The tunnel is a very confined space and shows us this is a thriller and signifies tension. When Jimmy is driving through the Dartford tunnel the point of view shot suggests the barrel of a gun thus reinforcing the genre whilst anticipating violence. As the boy is driving we see the lighting on the car window, turn to prison bars ( the light reflecting in the mirror-shadows, showing silhouettes of bars), which suggets this boy is on the road to jail. Later on we see an aynonomous white van, which is usualy used as a convention of thriller. The opening of this film i think is really good and shows many simple shots without much diegetic sound, but with diakogue over the top. This into i give 8/10.