Analysing a Thriller Film

This is the official film '4.3.2.1' poster used to promote the movie!

This film I have chosen to analyse is the film '4.3.2.1' 


4.3.2.1 is a British crime thriller film directed by Noel Clarke and Mark Davis, released 2 June 2010. It stars, Emma Roberts, Ophelia Lovibond, Shanika-Warren Markland, Tamsin Egerton, Adam Deacon,Ashley Thomas and Noel Clarke.


The film presents four young women with attitude. They are friends who's lives are upended when they come into contact with dangerous individuals who have

stolen a bagful of "conflict diamonds". 

This is the official film trailer for '4.3.2.1'

This is the part of the film I am going to be analysing.

The beginning of the film shows you what is happening at the end of the film which is quite interesting. It then takes us back to the start of everything to show us how it all began and why these events then happened, by doing this the film has gained our attention by making us ask questions like what made this character feel this way? or what happened to make this character do this? The reason we know the film is starting at the end is through the 'Title's' that is shown indicating the date and time. 4.3.2.1 starts on Sunday at 11.30pm and the screen then flashes back to Friday at 3.30pm.

It begins with Shannon, the camera is zoomed in and there is a close-up of her face she is crying which tells the audience something terrible has happened, the camera is quite shaky and is not steady which could tell us something about her character for example that she is not stable.. Then suddenly there is a huge zoom out and you get a view of a river and a bridge. This tells us that she is standing on the bridge and could suggest she that she is irrelevant or invisible because she is so small amongst everything else we are seeing. we then see from another angle a car pulling up, and we then see Shannon standing off the edge of the bridge almost ready to jump. then three girls come out of the car, three girls who we later discover are her friends. Once of the girls holds a 'gun' up to Shannon and tells her to come down with the 'Stones'. There is then a wide shot of Shannon crying and staring into her hand, her hand is shaky and the audience are then able to see from Shannon's point of view and can see that the 'Stones' are Christals and they must play a significant role in this film if the girls are so concerned with them. There is then a sound, a sound that gets louder as the scene goes on which sounds almost mysterious like something is going to happen. That's when Shannon Drops from the Bridge and the title sequence begins introducing the film '4.3.2.1'.

This film shows the point of view of all four girls showing each of their stories leading up how they ended up entangling together on the bridge. After the Title sequence The films shows all the girls meeting in a cafe and having a girly chat, then a man goes to reach for one of the girl's handbag... he gets hold of it but the girl 'Kerrys' has fast reflexes and grabs it too. They are in each others faces and everything stops and he doesn't move as she talks to him, she then twists the bag in their hands and slams his face against the table quite fast paced, then swings and hits him with the handbag until he is flat on the floor. Everything in the bag falls out on the floor, as this happens all the girls begin to gather what has dropped, the camera zooms into the belongings on the floor and there is a close-up of an envelope addressed to 'Shannon' on it as it is thrown into a bag, this suggests that it plays a significant and important roll to 'Shannon's' storyline within the film which could possibly lead to the dramatic scene that was shown at the start of the film.

As the four girls go outside talking, a gang of boys come and barge into them, they then drop some of the diamonds into the bags of the 4 girls but before they can get them the police chase them so the girls are unaware of what has happened and do not know that they have the diamonds. This is the part that i found extremely interesting, as they all say goodbye the screen splits into 4 sections and follows all four of them at the same time on their journeys home, into their houses and sees all of their reactions when entering where they live. as this is happening the music is growing faster... which creates an weird effect. That is when the screen goes black leaving you wondering what is going on? But then it turns back to one screen just in the point of view of Shannon and re-follows her into her house so we better understand what is going on in her life. This is when you are aware of the day and time and how far away this time is from the bridge incident at the start of the film. 

Another interesting bit in this part of the film is the scene where Shannon is in a bar and she is drinking, as she drinks the screen begins to go blurry and dizzy which indicates to us that she is getting drunk and warns us about her emotional state. When a man approaches her and tries to touch her inappropriately her friend 'Kerrys' appears out of the blue and attacks him, the girls begin to run and the camera follows them running rather 'wobbly' to create an impact of the audience, getting their adrenaline pumping and getting them worried about what is going to happen next. The music is very up-tempo to create a sound that matches what is happening, very fast paced like the girls.

As you can see just by watching the first part of the film, mise en screne eg 'guns' and 'stones', sound, 'fast paced' and camera techniques all played a massive role in the film when making it successful! without these aspects the audience would not have been hooked in watching what is about to happen next.. Therefore in our thriller i hope to use similar effects in order to make it just as great :D