Possible Thriller Locations - Anglia Square Pt. 1

Multi story car parks are often used for locations in thrillers due to their claustrophobic environment, they are generic conventions of the genre and clearly signify the dark nature of thrillers. When talking about locations, my group came up with the idea of Anglia Square car park as it is often empty and is also quite bleak, especially as it is surrounded by old abandoned buildings, this would work well with our ideas, especially if we decide to use a white van. Unfortunately upon arrival we discovered that the car park had been boarded off from level 3 upwards, meaning we did not have access to as many floors or the roof, but there were still interesting and reasonably empty spaces that would be perfect for filming the opening to our thriller. Another great thing about car parks is their lighting, being a good mixture of a small amount of ambient and a large amount of non-ambient light creates a very noir feel, the lights on the ceiling creating chiaroscuro effect. Along with the actual floors of the car park there are the stair cases and lifts, both of these are claustrophobic and can be utilised effectively in several scenes of our opening to the thriller film, some of which I have done practice shots with.

This is just one of the locations that we have thought about using but it is quite likely it will feature in the film because of the many generic conventions that it holds and the various different shot opportunities it possesses.

As we can see here the space is claustrophobic with not a lot of standing space, also the non-ambient fluorescent light creates the classic noir lighting.

The darkness will help to signify the genre, it also helps to establish the dark nature of the opening and provides an overall chilling feeling.

This shot is to show close up the sort of lighting in the car park, it gives of a yellow glow which helps to give enough light to film but also keeps spaces dim.

Looking out from the car park we can see the dystopian cityscape, this gives the impression that this location is undesirable and possibly dangerous.

This photo is showing the stairwell, which could be used in the opening as it is very claustrophobic and could create some very interesting shots, especially a low angle of one of the characters standing at the top.

This is what one of the lift doors look like, we have planned to include a shot involving the lift (I have uploaded a video in the second post showing a possibility)

A part of the car park has had rails put up along the parking bays, stopping any cars from parking here. This helps to make the location seem even more isolated and dangerous as it appears no one is around, also having the empty space creates more freedom for shooting scenes.

A look at one of the abandoned buildings close by, adding to the undesirableness of this location. This is reminiscent of some of the bleak city locations in 'Essex Boys' and the estate in 'Harry Brown'.

An interesting shot of the view down the flight of stairs, a possible shot of someone's hands as they are walking up may prove efficient in creating suspense.