Locations, Set designs, Costumes and Props. Why are they important?

Locations, set designs, costumes and props are very important to a thriller movie in transferring messages to the audience and building tension. The location of a scene can be what makes the difference in how scary it is, props included in this. With locations also comes set designs, this equally helps to make the location more tense or more how the director himself pictured it. The easiest way of explaining how important all of these are is by analysing a scene from the movie 'Jaws', the first attack, as Spielberg during filming was very Specific and at points cryptic.

Jaws: The Second Attack (Loacation, set design, costumes and props)

We first see a young boy walking up the beach, a tracking wide shot slowly zooming in follows the boy. We see the design of the beach crowded to make us wonder which one of the many people all in summer clothes will be the victim. The boy who walks up the beach is wearing red swimming shorts, the red could symbalise blood. Next, Spielberg focuses on Brody; showing us his concern for the public’s safety, but in the background we see empty guard towers as if Brody is on his own protecting the people, this I believe was deliberate set design adding more tension to the scene. Straight away there is a cut away from Brody as we see a young boy chucking a stick for his dog into the water, The stick is a deliberate prop which is chucked into the water so we the audience can see how the dog one of our two victims in this scene enterd the water. This gets the audience working; thinking. Cutting back again we see the boy entering the water. From then on in the scene cutting back between boy and dog, we now know they are going to share the same fate, and we see the location in a empty sea where they both are isolating them both, Spielberg shows dog and boy in similar positions using a parallel plot with parrellel location in the scene.
We then have a mid shot of the sea; we see a black bump moving towards the shore, this is a dilberate prop used to try and fool the audience into thinking it is the shark. We hear no music as it is just an old man swimming. Finally the music kicks in; we know the shark is there. A low angle shot under the water from the point of view of the shark is used, using under the water as the location for this shot and having the set under water be packed with kicking legs it adds more tension. The attack is seen in the distance a wide shot is used, this shows the boy as helpless. We don’t know how big the shark is as the view is very limited, Spielberg forces the audience to use their imaginations. Finally we end the scene with a high angle shot of the wrecked Lillo being washed up on to the shore with the boy’s blood. The boy’s blood and the yellow Lillo contrasting in the water, this is deliberate set deign with the blood in the water and the yellow lillo being used as a deliberate contrasting prop.
The costume was very selective as Speilberg uses yellow alot, yellow being a summer colour, bright and coontrasting to the scene. The only person with their costume not yellow is the boy who we see killed by the shark. The costume really helps to add to this gripping scene.
The location of the scene at a busy beach in broad daylight really helps to add extra tension at the start of the scene, especially as we don't see the shark in the attack the locaion makes the shark more frightening, how could we not of seen the shark in broad day light?

This is a really good example of how all of these things can be used to help make the thriller run smoother and make it much more thrilling.