Location Ideas

The Third Man Analysis

The Third Man (1949)

Director: Carol Reed

The Third Man is a classic noir thriller. During the titles of this film the sound track plays:

Harry Lime Theme Tune

It begins with a voice over like the beguinning of Essex Boys. Close up of hands on the Black Market, this represents the time of working outside the law, selling watches.

An image of broken glass shows the fractured and defeated Vienna, then the body floating indicates the genre of the film and and that nobody cares. The sunken ship shows the distressed city.

The outfit is a classic thriller convention, the trilby hat links to Once Upon A Time In America. The whole outfit is black which symbolises darkness, which could symbolise what is to happen.

The man then walks under the ladder, which is known as an unlucky thing to do, a sign of what is to come.

The lighting is chiaroscuro, non-ambient.

It then cuts to a tilt, low angle shot which creates a sense of disorientation. As the German man begins to speak there are no subtitles on the screen which puts us as an audience in the same shoes as the main character, Holly. The high angle shows the vulnerability.

The shot then cuts to a girl, the introduction of Anna. Her is enigmatic, the audience find it hard to read which refers to the famous portrait of the, Mona Lisa.

We can see that the mysterious Harry Limes and Holly have a close friendship like Ordell and Louis in Jackie Brown. As an audience we start to paint a picture of Harry Limes' world, it is very upside down because of him being a criminal- Hell = Heaven and Heaven = Hell.

Later on we see that Anna is in fact an actress, she can put on masks and play roles which makes her even harder to read.

A tilt shot of Holly looking down a street shows the chiaroscuro and non-ambient lighting, as he stands on a wet and dark street, a classic thriller convention, like in Jackie Brown where we see Ordell drive off into the vanishing point.

Later on we see a man shouting in the street, there is panic which adds anxiety to the audience. A little boy shouts and points at Holly, then Anna pulls him away and they decide to walk off, but the child carries on following Anna and Holly, the child is almost like some sort of demon. The child of the night represents the hostility of Vienna to the allies (France, Germany, USA and England). As Holly begins to run, the city becomes a labyrinth, the buildings turn into on-lookers which refers back to earlier in the film.

Cat got your tongue scene:

A light goes on, chiaroscuro lighting, the light on Harry's face, his facial expression is very 'quizacle'. 

NEW Shot List For Thriller

1- Close up shot- A girl selling The Big Issue 

2- Low angle- Mans legs
  - Tracking shot up to mans chest

3- Over the shoulder shot of man

4- Close up shot of Girl and Dog

5- Over the shoulder shot of man walking towards the girl

6- Tilt shot, close up of girl recieving money off of man

7- Over the shoulder shot of man walking into distance

8- Establishing, Tilt shot of girl on bridge

9- Birds eye shot of girls watch

10- Over the shoulder shot of man watching girl

11- Extreme close up girls face

12- Close up, tracking shot of man's feet walking away

Story Boards- Thriller

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Cast List

Rio Huckle - Playing the homeless girl- Does drama, which enables her to act the character well.

Gary Pearce- Playing the middle aged man, this will make the character more intimidating and more beleivable because he is older and therefore can act the character well.

Shot List For Thriller

Over Shoulder- Business man walks towards girl selling The Big Issue.


Over Shoulder, Medium Close up- Business man hands money to girl.


Medium Close up- Of man's hands handing over money.


Long shot- Business man walks away.


Medium Close up- Homeless girl's face.


Long shot- Girl walks into distance.


Extreme Close up- Girls face, her eye's closed.


Extreme Close up- Girls face, her eye's opening.


Medium Close up- Man's shoes


(SHOT REVERSE SHOT)- Girl, Man's shoes, Girl


Extreme Close up- Girls face, girl blinks, tears run down her cheek.

Once Upon a Time in America Analysis

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Director: Sergio Leone

Straight away we establish it is a thriller by the shadows and the archetypal character, femme fatal. She wears pearls which symbolise tears and tears are a sign of superstition. As well as her pearls she wears the iconic red lipstick, red symbolises violence, blood and all things intense. 

She then turns on the light, the woman and the light are the same shade of colour, which signifies that she is the light in this thriller. The shot is almost sepian looking which refers back to the era that this thriller is set in (1930s). Because this shot is lighting her face it creates less mystery and we can see her innocence and purity.

The shot then zooms into the bed where we see 2 bullet holes, then as the woman whips the cover away from the bed we see the outline of a body. This is an iconic police signifier. The police draw around the shape of a body when someone has died, so we know a crime has been commited. Surgio Leone has used this for the irony to show what is to come.

Then as the woman is in utter shock, the shot pans round to show three men standing at the door. They're wearing trilby hars, tweed coats, suits- because they are wearing the same outfit, it shows a collective identity, meaning they work together. The costumes relate to Resevoir Dogs because they also wear the same suits but with different coloured ties- they also stand in a tight nipped group symbolising their fellowship. The shot changes to a low angle shot of the three men framed under the arch. They kill Eve and turn the light off. Eve's name is symbolic to religion, in the bible Eve is tempted by Adam; which shows that she might have done something wrong to have been killed.

This shot is shown straight after the death of Eve, this shows another murder taking place, the contrast of the neatness of Eve's death compared to this once is very dramatic. This scene shows the match on action between the bleeding character and policeman.

 

 

 

Leone has used the iconic worms eye shot of the lift going up the lift shaft. After the scene of Eve's murder and the guy being brutally beaten this adds another element of suspense. The lift is a generic location for a thriller because of its claustrophobic space and easy access to danger. The lighting is very dark, and the use of non-ambient lighting builds the enigma and makes the audience question, what is going to happen? In this shot the lift looks very intimidating, and makes the audience feel small. 

Again Leone has used this worms eye shot to make the audience question what is happening. The shot shows the character upside down, this is a point of view shot from a man on the floor- probably dead. The shot establishes the power of this man holding a gun which again is another reference to killing, violence and crime; which is a re-occuring theme in Once Upon a Time in America. The persistant use of crime in this film demonstrates 1930's America, and how corrupted it was.

In this scene we see the camera pan over dead bodies on the floor, the lighting is chiaroscuro- which is used a lot in thrillers to show bad things in reality such as nightmares or re-occuring bad experiences. In the background we can hear non-diagetic sound of a telephone ringing. As the telephone rings it really heightens the tension in the scene. The use of the phone makes the audience frustrated by the repitative noise of the phone ringing as well as making them question themselves on what is happening.