How does the director of Essex Boys use location and colour to establish menace?

How does the director of Essex Boys use location and colour to establish menace?

The focus on location is crucial in the opening of Essex Boys, there's a scarce amount of establishing dialogue, therefore establishment of menace through location is crucial. By using a gritty location in the heart of Essex, it already connotes a foreshadowing sense of criminality. The colour palette further develops this and thus brings with it a range of different emotions.

This shot symbolises entrapment in a dark desolate way of living. The converging lines of the overpass traps the car in a triangle. To compliment this, the colour palette is very grey and dreary. This suggests that the story brings with it a story about loneliness and isolation in a world of corruption. The converging lines also signify the idea that the path that the characters are leading, takes them nowhere and in the end there is nothing.

This shot connotes the same idea. This character is stumbling into the desolate land they lays in front of him. The path leads into nothing, and what lays around is also a connotation of this desolation. It is also a connotation of the unapparent presence of morality. With the characters' lives not leading anywhere and that suggestion that when they die there's nothing for them, they can live a life that is without morale, as they have nothing to lose.

The focus on the opening utilises this technique in most shots; this shot could however suggest a less derogatory ending for the story. The colour, although still dark, is lit by the tunnel lights. The audience don't know where the tunnel leads and the lights suggest that the ending couldn't be so dark. On the other hand, the light could also symbolise death, as going towards the light is a symbolisation of going to heaven; ironic to the story. The ambiguity of this meaning holds the audience in a suspense as to what the future of the characters beholds. With this shot against the others, it also holds the thought that the characters could take the right path if they do the right thing, and the future doesn't hold just misery. With menace doesn't always come a dark ending