Test Shots: Bexleyheath

The first filming of the chase scene was in the woods and we felt that we wanted to change a lot of the aspects mentioned in Annie's post, meaning it would be easier to refilm the whole chase scene.

Similarly to one of my previous posts, I decided to visit some of the locations that we could possibly use for the refilm of our chase scene.

The photos taken were all situated in Bexleyheath and as I went around 6pm, I tried to choose areas which were brightly lit as even though it is set at night we still want our characters to be seen clearly.

These were taken from near school, I liked the idea of having our victim cross the zebra crossing, followed by a shot of our villain crossing it a few moments later. Also these lights are a lot brighter than ordinary street lights which means we will be able to see our characters more clearly.

This is the entrance to Bexleyheath Broadway car park and I thought the idea of our victim running down the slope would look quite good. On a Sunday evening there would not be many cars coming down so it would be an ideal place to film.

I don't think these images are not as good as some of the others because I feel the lighting is too bright and it doesn't look as effective, but they could be useful for setting the scene and maybe as a contrast to some of the low key lighting scenes.

I liked the idea of using this alleyway to film as it would be an ideal place for our villain to finally catch up with our victim as it is not used as much as the main Broadway with the shops. The lighting is dark and grungy yet it seems bright enough that we should be able to see our characters clearly.

I think that the two sets of stairs near the ASDA car park would look quite effective if we had our victim running down them with maybe the villain behind her, the only problem is that it might not look as good if she's in a car park as that will be harder to explain in the amount of time we have set aside for the chase scene.

I also liked these shots of a nearby graveyard but similar to the ASDA car park pictures it would be more difficult to explain why the victim was there and it wouldn't add anything important to the storyline so it would just be unnecessary and would waste time that could be used more effectively.

Practise Shots with Camera:

Originally our plan was to have our indoor scene in Raman's garage, but recently decided to change it to my grandma's garage which I had evaluated before in a previous post as it was better for the idea we had in mine. Over the Christmas holidays, I decided to go and do some practise shots using the actual camera we would be using for filming, as before I had just used the low-quality camera on my phone. I decided to use one of the pre-set effects on the camera as it looked more effective compared to the normal setting.

I also took some pictures using the camera around the area near my house as I had an idea of having our villain walking towards his house when it is quite dark but as I personally don't think they were successful, we probably won't use the idea in our actual piece.

Woods location scouting

As we have decided that the "chase scene" within our film opening is going to be within a woods, my group and I felt that it would be good to get an idea of what all the woods in our neighborhoods looked like so that we have a variety of locations to choose from, creating the best final piece that we can produce, when we start filming.

Below shows a video that I took at my local woods, explaining the good and bad aspects of this location:

In the video, I stated that the following were good aspects of this specific location:

• long stretch of "pathway"
• within a wooded area
• not a busy area
• when dark, would have a good atmosphere for our film opening chase scene

Less desirable aspects of this location are:

• near a motor way so very noisy
• quite muddy

I really like this little location as it is what I imagine when my group and I talk about the chase scene, as it is the wooded area I take my dogs walking, and so I am quite familiar with it. It is quite a nice long pathway, also, so it would give a lot of area for our victim to run away from our killer without her coming out of the wooded area. Another feature that is quite nice is the patterned look of the pathway, giving the impression that it goes on forever, which would add to the emotion of confusion that we want to portray in the scene.

This is one of the possible locations I have researched, that we could use for our chase scene.

Deconstruction of Killer's Den:

Deconstruction of the killers den:

ATM (2011):

~ In ATM, three colleagues are trapped in an ATM by an unknown man, two of them die and the third one is framed for the crimes (as 'THE MAN' did not make himself shown on the security cameras), in the final scene of the film, the hooded man is returning to his lair (a storage locker). It all looks normal until he moves a few boxes and we can see there is a hidden room behind one of the walls, containing all of his information.

The Man opening the locker.

~ I like this shot as I think the silhouette of the hooded man is really effective against the white of the locker. We still don't know who the hooded man is and I think it is clever that he does not have an identity or personality at all. I think we should definitely consider the idea of the killer remaining anonymous, or only revealing certain aspects about him as it can be good to leave the audience in the dark for the majority of the film. I also think that if the majority of our film opening is filmed in the killers den, it would be extremely important how we should the location on screen and the mise en scene. The killers den is often an extremely vital insight into the life of the villain and who he is exactly.

The 'normal' room.

Secret door.

~ I also like the idea of the villain having a way of stopping people from entering their den, like seen in ATM, he has a normal room, so if someone were to open the locker accidentally, then they wouldn't be suspicious of what they would find, as it all seems like a normal storage locker. I think when considering the location of our villain's den, it would be important to consider how easy it would be for someone else to enter it, for example the police, if making a raid. Also the idea of a secret room shows his intelligence and his urgency of not wanting to be found.

Sitting at his desk.

''

Desk

~ Then we get a shot of the wall above his desk, and it is filled with bits of paper which we find out are things like maps, pictures and blueprints. This shows that all of his murders are extremely planned out, and the pictures of the security cameras with details is clever, meaning that he is never caught on tape and so is never seen as playing a part in these crimes, making the victims themselves look extremely suspicious and often getting blamed for the murders.

~ The fact that the lighting comes up through the tracing paper makes his hands look darker and more like a silhouette, adding to the creepy effect. We can also see the detail that he goes into when annotating his sketches and blue prints. A small detail but important, the pen he uses is red, symbolising the blood of his victims, it's the small details like these which can be really effective if the viewer is paying enough attention to pick up on them and that is why mise en scene is extremely important in a killers den.

~ Here are some more examples of the things located around his desk. There are the blueprints of a building and he would need to use these to plan out exactly where everything will happen, including himself. The picture of the security camera looks like he has taken it himself and I can personally imagine him going to these areas before hand, to check whether they would be suitable for his plans. He's also written on it that the focal length is 120, this would be useful so he knows where to stand without being seen clearly but also must be quite difficult to find out, assuming he had to research the specific type of camera and this shows the depth he goes into to find out out the correct information.

~ There are also a few maps on the wall, this would be needed so he knows where the best locations are to commit this type of murder, obviously he likes the idea of ATM's and my guess is that he goes to all the local ATM's and checks whether his idea would work successfully or not. In the last screenshot, he is drawing a line with a ruler, I particulary liked this as I thought it represents his mind almost, that everything single thing has to be precise and accurate and that everything must go according to plan.

~ I believe that the general area that our film is set in, isn't as imporant as some other aspects as we are limited with locations to choose from, not being able to travel too far. I think it would be more important and also effective to focus on the killers den, as the villain is the main part of our film opening, and with our current idea we are planning on focusing on them more with flashbacks of their previous murders, and if they are mostly inside then the outside location isn't as important as the inside of their den.