Essex Boys Opening Scene

The film is based loosely around events in December 1995 that culminated in the murders of three drug dealers in Rettendon, Essex, UK. On 6th December Patrick Tate, Craig Rolfe and Tony Tucker, three drug dealers well known to the police, were lured to Workhouse Lane, Rettendon. There they were blasted to death with a shot gun while sitting in their Range Rover. They had been lured to their deaths on the pretext of a lucrative drugs deal. The three bodies were found the following morning, 7 December 1995.

Above is the first scene to Terry Winsor’s' "Essex Boys" starring Charlie Creed-Miles, Sean Bean and Gareth Milne. The scene opens with the credits in white writing on a black background. This is accompanied by a harsh scraping sound like nails on a chalkboard. This leaves the viewer uncomfortable as it is a cringe worthy sound to have to endure. When each name is shown there is an unsettling fanfare of music. Although it is unsettling it is not harsh and the sound is left ringing until the next name is shown creating suspense. However when the title 'Essex Boys' appears, a harsh note rings out along with one of the loudest scratches so far.

The credits end at roughly 1:24. From 1:24 to approximately 1:38 it could be argued that chiaroscuro lighting is used (scene pictured below) because there is a single light in the background casting shadows towards the camera making the figure look very ominous. Chiaroscuro lighting also gives the audience a point to focus on. It helps to add a sense of mystery and nightmare. It connotes to other noir thrillers and helps to add a sense of menace or corruption. Films which use similar lighting are David Fincher's "Fight Club" and Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski’s "The Matrix". 

All we are allowed to see at this point is the silhouette of a man and the side of a car in a run down, weary looking garage. This alone upholds one thriller convention: location, chiaroscuro lighting and making the viewer very uncomfortable and unaware. The garage is a confined space and gives a feeling of entrapment and claustrophobia. At 2:11 there is a voiceover, this could link to David Michod's "Animal Kingdom". Another feature which could link to Animal Kingdom is that Billy and Jay from Animal Kingdom are both roughly 18 and very young to be going into this dark, criminal underworld. Another link to Animal Kingdom is that both of the stories are told from the young men’s point of view.

This could foreshadow the rest of the film and give the viewer a hint of what is to come. Also it could set the audience up for the type of film this is going to be. A light is turned on to reveal that this threatening looking character is actually probably no older than 18 years of age. This might have been used to confuse the audience and to imply that you can’t trust everything you are going to see in this film. It keeps the audience guessing. 

At 2:11 there is a voiceover heard. There is a cultural signifier at this point because the voiceover (meant to be Billie’s voice) is in an Essex accent. He sounds quite innocent. The reason the producer used this is to establish with the audience who Billy is and what role he might play in the bigger picture and where he happens to stand in the pecking order. We are told that he has been asked to drive Jason Locke around for a few days. This tells us that the young man is desperate for money but wants to please this client of his. He is easily persuaded and manipulated which are traits of being young and in-experience. Jason Locke has been out of jail for less than 24 hours at this point. Why we are told this is to inform the audience of who this man is. The audience also start to piece together this man’s story and his background. The first establishing shot we have of Jason Locke is a point of view shot from Billie’s perspective through a filthy windscreen of a car at 2:21. This implies that he is involved in some rather dirty work and doesn’t have a clean conscience. That he comes from the filthy, boundary-less, world of crime.

Costume here is very important. Billy is wearing mainly plain clothes. The reson for this is that you can usually tell a lot by someones clothes and yet it keeps the audience guessing at what Billy is like because he doesnt talk at all the opening scene due to the voiceover doing it for him. When we first see Jason however (at 2:21) through the windscreen he is wearing a boisterous yellow and black shirt and a leather jacket. This tells us that Jason is quite vain and possibly quite a bold character because of the shirt he is wearing. As for the leather jacket, stereotypically the people who wear leather jackets are "hard-nut", butch bikers.

At 2:32 an unsettling soundtrack begins. The audience may have been lulled into a false sense of security with Billy at the start and this is to throw the audience back into the real and violent world which this film dictates. The director has also used a very good example of pathetic fallacy which is the use of the weather to foreshadow coming events. In the scene the sky is cloudy and grim and the road is wet and shiny. The entrance to the tunnel becomes a vanishing point and there is even subliminal messaging because you can clearly see a road sign saying "stop" and this could be telling Billy to stop because he doesn’t know what he is getting himself into. A link to Peter Weir's "Witness" when the little boy is going to the toilet in the station and the vanishing point is the toilet door. The tunnel is also another confined space again to reiterate the feeling of entrapment. Once they are actually inside the tunnel it could be argued that it represents the barrel of a gun. 

At 3:00 you can see Billy from the front of the car looking in on him driving. In this tunnel there are strobe lights on the ceiling. You can see these strobe lights reflected on the car windshield. These could represent prison bars and again foreshadow coming events. Billy is also not looking comfortable at all with the situation he is in. Whilst Jason Locke is relaxing in the back seat of the car looking almost tranquil. This could be used to display the contrast between the two characters.

Coming out of the tunnel (which was actually filmed in Dartmoor Tunnel, Essex, UK) there is a shot from the moving car say "Welcome to Essex". This could almost be interpreted as "Welcome to Jasons' Kingdom" for he is one of the more infamous criminals within Essex.

From 3:44 to 4:38 we see the more violent side of Jason Locke. This is the reason that he is so calm in the car is to show the contrast between the two sides of him. Some would say verging on bi-polar. The weapon of choice for Jason to beat up this enigmatic "friend" of his is the leg of a chair. This is the more humane method of "teaching him a lesson" because when this poor man is taken around to be put in the back of the van, Jason throws a bottle full of acid in his face. But whilst Jason is beating up "an old friend of his", Billy is sitting in the van. The look on Billie’s face portrays a mix of confusion, pity and fear. A good example of this expression is at 4:11. Due to the fact that Billy is sitting in the van there returns the divide between Billy and Jason. Ironically this divide again happens to be a car windscreen. 

At 4:38 there is a fantastic wide shot of the blank white van. There are no marks on it at all. Also because it is white this could suggest purity and innocence however this could not be further from the truth. The white, unmarked van also acts as an enigma because of the lack of any obvious markings.

On the way to where Billy and Jason are planning to take this guy, Jason notices he has got some of the acid on his shirt. This just goes to show how little he cares for the poor soul with acid all over his face but also shows Jason's vanity.

Finally they arrive at the Essex Marshes. Billy is sent round to the back of the van to let the man out. He is cautious in doing so and looks very nervous because he is so new to this whole concept. The Essex Marshes are bleak, featureless and have no boundaries. This could reflect that from Billie’s point of view, Jason seems to have no moral boundaries. This is a similar landscape to when Craig Cody (played by Sullivan Stapleton) is shot dead in Animal Kingdom. The featureless landscape gives a sense of isolation and a sense of out in the open with nowhere to hide.  In Animal Kingdom Craig Cody is shot in a large field which stretches on for miles.