Wallander - Firewall (MacCormack, 2008 UK)

Firstly, the audience see a black screen with the sound of waves and wind in the background. This makes the audience feel cold and uncomfortable. The camera tracks across the sea and the low key lighting fades from the blackout to reveal the dark, deathlike sea. This establishing shot of the cliftop in the countryside looks deserted and cut off from other people. The camera starts to track towards a car and two people walking away from it, although we do not see this right away until the camera gets closer. As we see them the music then gets higher in pitch, letting the audience know these people and this car is significant.

The audience hear a 'whoosh' sound as the camera changes to a mid shot of the two girls from behind. This means we still can’t see their face or any details/information about them. This idea of keeping vital information from the audience is a typical convention of a thriller. From behind we can tell that the girls look scruffy and are not wearing particularly nice clothes. To reinforce this, we then hear sound effects (non-diegetic) which sound like the sharpening of a knife. This goes well with the colours used, which are dull and lacking in vibrancy. All of this makes the audience assume they have been involved in something bad and we ask ourselves what this could be.

The camera then changes position to the inside of the car. We can see that there is a person (who we assume is a man) sitting in the front seat. However, we cannot see his face, so we ask who he is. Through the front of the car, we can see the figures of the two girls walking away. They are blurred as we are meant to be focusing more on the man in the car, however, this reminder of the two of them makes the audience assume they were involved. Still in this shot we see blood on the windscreen. We ask ourselves the question; was it just a car crash or do the girls have something more to do with this?

We then get given a bit more information about the man in a series of close up shots. We first see a taxi badge, which explains why he, and the girls, were in the car. We then see a close-up of his face and his hand, and there are a few small twitches that occur, making us wonder if he is still alive. We see a lot of close-up shits of blood, which make the audience think that maybe this was more than just a car crash and that maybe a violent murder, or attempt at murder, has occurred here. We then switch back to the girls, who are breathing heavily and we see that they are covered in blood. This reminds us about them and increases our suspicion that they were involved. Once again, the camera cuts back to the inside of the car and we see a key ring with the taxi driver and what we assume to be his son. There is blood on it. This makes the audience feel sorry for him and for his son, and also that he is probably the victim in this as, before now, we didn’t know if the two girls had tried to kill him through self defence? Now the audience assume it was a violent attack from them. Lastly, we cut back to the two girls and we see a close up of a bloody knife in the girl’s hand, confirming our suspicions of murder. We then hear the quick sound of a knife being sharpened again and she drops it. At this point we are asking ourselves why these two girls would want to kill an innocent man? Was he really innocent? And will they be caught?