Hurt Locker - Tom Peacock

Evaluation of thriller openings. 

Tom Peacock

Hurt Locker

Sound is also very important in thrillers and here we can see some great examples.The director here has used great examples of non diegetic sounds to create mood and atmosphere.

For example in the clip above we hear the sudden introduction of some drum beats gently getting faster and faster. The sudden increase in the beats would suggest that they've been added to create a mood of suspense. It makes the viewer feel as though this scene is the quiet before the storm and that a big event in the story line is about to happen, which it does. 

An example of how the beat increases can be found below: 

As the action in the scene reaches the tipping point, the beats and music is at the top right of the diagram below - Creating suspense and atmosphere as mentioned above.

The above scene is the opening to Hurt locker, a thriller film which is set in Baghdad. In the opening scene we see the director use very Disorientating camera shots. We see shots such as the low angle shot and we also are the viewing what we later see as the robot, in first person. Using first person here furthermore expands on the point that the scene is very chaotic it doesn't really give much away to the viewer in the first few scenes, which creates a sense of mystery.

The director has also used Iconography here. After this scene we see the bomb disposal robot driving itself to where its going. This is a good example of Iconography because it symbolizes danger because most people will associate a bomb disposal robot with bombs, which are dangerous and threatening. This furthermore will entice the viewer to pay more attention to what's happening as there is an element of danger there.

The theme of distortion carries onto the following scenes, the camera angle here is a medium shot however the camera is not on a tripod while filming, it's freehand which makes it very shaky. This was most likely done on purpose to create the theme of confusion, which is used cleverly because the scenes show people running around, soldiers, which makes the viewer think about what's going on.

Mise en Scene also is used here to good effect. The costumes, which the characters are wearing give us yet more feel of confusion. There's two distinctive sorts of people here, the soldiers and then people who live there, both wearing very stereotypical clothes. Yet again the viewer will question why there are soldiers and civilians running around frantically and also because of the costumes they are wearing, why there are soldiers in Baghdad.