Location

When choosing a location for our first idea, Happy Days, we thought that the outside area near the Science building would be most appropriate. This was because Peace Garden had a pathway which would have made good shots for walking and a tree for us to put our ‘missing’ poster up. Also that area was close to B6 (a room with a door) which would have been used as our nursery. However, when we decided to film, those locations were out of bounds and we had to relocate to ‘Owens’ field next to the college. This set-back caused more problems when filming as we were unprepared for the issues the new location would give – such as no pathway, too many people walking in and out of shot and the litter on the ground. This was one of the reasons why we chose to change our whole thriller idea as when we reviewed our shots we saw things such as the red paint we used as the blood in the shots and some of the actors in the background who weren’t meant to be there.

Our new idea, Pen Friend, seemed simpler to create especially in the limited time that we had. The location we chose was my house. A problem we had was trying to make one room seem like two as we were showing two different people in different locations. We did this by splitting my living room with all of one scene on the sofa and the other at the table. This worked as from the scene on the sofa you could only see the garden and the scene on the table allowing you to see the front door – therefore making it seem as if it were two completely different locations. However, in one of the ‘sofa’ shots during the end of the opening you catch a glimpse of the chairs in the background; however, it goes so quick it’s hardly noticeable. But if I was to do it again I think I would use two completely different locations to make it seem more realistic and allowing no silly mistakes.

The area near my house had many roads and post boxes in which we could have used to do the scenes of when the blackmailer is posting the poison-pen letter. We chose the post box on ‘St Peters Close’ because it was the clearest from cars and had a pathway before it, so that we could have a match cut of the blackmailer walking to the post box.

If we were to do this again, I would choose a location closer to college as I found carrying the equipment a hassle on the trains, especially in the mornings, as they were heavy and bulky. Also a location closer to college would make it easier to quickly redo clips or change things.