Spirals, Staircases, and why my metaphor is better

Recently, me and some friends went to the Lucky Star, a Chinese restaurant, which is located in the car park near Iceland. As soon as I came up, I realised that there was a staircase running through it. Perfect! Just what Miss Heald said was perfect for thrillers. Then I realised that I was stuck in a car park. Is that not an even better metaphor?

Spirals are a classic thriller signifiers because the twisting shape of the spiral reflects the twisting nature of the story, which is why they are commonly used in thrillers; for example, the intro to “Vertigo”. This is an effect that Hitchcock, who is often regarded to have been the leading figure in the thriller genre, used a lot in his films, and influenced many others to do the same (“The Matrix”, “Leon”, “Sin City”). From there, the spiral moved into staircases, which follow the same shape and ideas, but as you can view the character climbing them, it adds to the metaphor of moving through the storyline, as well as being another place to use the spiral (as you can imagine, not many films have a spiral as a central part of the plot).

So, when I was outside the Lucky Star, I saw the staircase, and then realised what could be even better than a staircase or spiral - a car park. If this was a shape, it wouldn't be as easy to describe as a spiral, it would be as complex as the thriller genre itself: dead ends, twists and turns. This is why I think that the changing shape of car parks are perfect for a thriller. Now consider all the other bonuses. It often seems abandoned, it's desolate, it's urban, it's high up, it's confusing. It's perfect. It would be the ideal place to film a shady deal or a chase, or even a mix of both. It would be great for stunts, and as I've already asked somebody I know who is skilled at parkour to possibly act in the film, stunts could easily be done. Overall, I find think that this car park should be made into a key part of our film due to the many things that can be done on it and the connotations connected with it.

This annotated video shows some first ideas based on the mise-en-scene of the car park. 

Following are some more images of the mise-en-scene of the inside of the car park taken in places I thought looked interesting. We may use these locations as guides in the storyboarding stage.

Update: We have since decided to film our thriller mainly in this car park.