All Initial Ideas for Thriller Location

When told that we were going to make a thriller opening I immediately pictured the scene in Millers crossing in which Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) takes Bernie Bernbaum (John Turturro) out into the woods and is told to shoot him one to take him down and 'once in the head' to make it final. This is because i really loved the way in a forest vanishing points can be utilised and also by using a filter (brown) like has been done in this film it makes the whole world seem bleak and dirty which is a common signifier of the thriller genre.

On top of this i really liked the mystery and intrigue that could be gleaned from a variety of shots not actually showing someones face but just the person begging (example below) with this idea you would need a very convincing actor.


Moving away from 'Miller's Crossing' by the Coen brothers i also really like the tension built in the ending sequence in the forest to 'Assault on Precinct 13' directed by Jean-Francois Richet in 2005 (and also starring Gabriel Byrne), in this ending sequence Sgt Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) is hunting Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne) who is hunting Jake in the forest, not knowing which way to turn, the audience do not know who's feet are who's and the mystery and suspense is built upon which character will win the fight and find the other one sooner! this effect would be great for our thriller but would have to be done using some difficult editing and camera shots which may be to much for the technology available to us.

This is why i think filming would be great in a forest. During our first large group meeting at Tanwyn's house both Tanwyn and I thought that filming in a wood/forest would be a great idea, however we were a bit dubious as to how steady and flat the camera could be kept whilst filming. On top of this filming out in the open would create a lot of background noise, run the risk of other people being around and we would also be relying on the weather. Despite this i still took a camera to the University of East Anglia (UEA) grounds in which they have a lot of woodland just to see what effects could be gleaned from working with a forest view. (apologies for the humming!)

From this film you can see that walking in a forest without tracks is extremely uneven and shaky, this type of hand held camera look works well for films like 'Cloverfield' directed by Matt Reeves, however all the thrillers that i have seen use stylish, smooth camera work unless trying to make a point in a particular section of film. On the other hand the rows of trees has the nice effect of shadows on the ground and can also be used for vanishing points into the distance.

On my way round the UEA grounds i did find a nice clearing and a bench over looking a lake that could be used for scenes like in Layer Cake when looking from behind Daniel Craig at his back when talking to the Dragon and with the cityscape in front of him. the bench and clearing i found are shown in the footage below:

Update: Due to all the problems with filming in a forest we have decided to film in a car park that is also more accessible in the city. Tom went and took some footage of the car park here it is: