Chase Scene Location Scouting

For the scene where the kidnappers chase the step - father, we wanted an urban outside scene, large enough for a fast chase. For this I knew of a bridge going across the storage rails for Tonbridge Station.

On the way to the bridge I had in mind we went past this bridge, with lots of graffiti on it that looked very effective for proving the location to be urban, however this bridge is very short, which would limit the chase.  

We ended up using this bridge, the one I had originally in plan, which had a great location, as it was a long bridge, with grating on the side, showing the carrier trains, coal storage, and old carriages.

Childs Room Location Scouting

We decided to use a spare room in my house, which we are able to design and rearrange to match the theme and style we want for our film. The fact the rooms walls are blue works very well with our blue theme relating to innocence. We brought in props such as a dolls house, board games and books, and spread them around the rooms to make it look just like a young girls room. These are shots of the room:

Risk Assessment

For each location we had to assess the possible dangers to the group, all the main risks for each location has been placed in these tables:

Kidnappers Costume

Having researched from other films codes and conventions of good vs evil costumes, we found black to be a very prominent theme for the bad/evil characters. For example the Death Eaters in Harry Potter.













We used this same black theme for our kidnapper, with a
black jacket, trousers, hood and balaclava. It contrasted
very well with the light blue innocent theme of the child,
making a good representation of good vs evil in our trailer.

Kidnapping and Family Scene Filming Plan

Filming Plan

                   In order to make filming the house scene go as smoothly as possible in hopefully just one attempt, we created a filming schedule for the day. This is very important as we have got all the actors (Annie, Mick and Esther) together for the first time, and finding a date when they are all free again will be challenging.

11.00-11.20: Arrive at the location and get set up
                         Ensure camera's are charged
                         Check locations are set up how we want them
                         Discuss our plans for the day

11.20-12.00: Shots with Esther on her own - Filmed with Go-Pro
                         Sounds of Esther being taken 
                         The beginning shots with Esther's hands 
                         Shots of her around the house 
                                      Playing on trampoline
                                      Reading 
                                      Doing crafts that are in her room

12.00-12.20: Annie Arrives 
                          Greet Annie and explain the plans for the day 
                          Take photos of the family, and individual actors for the blog 

12.20-13.00: The shots of the whole family 
                          Esther playing as the parents look happy 
                          The parents arguing without Esther 
                          Record sound of parents arguing

13.00-13.30: Contingency Time 
                          Re-film anything we don't like
                          Catch up on time
                          Esther can leave
                          Group break

13.30-14.00: Shots of Mum
                          Filming from behind her, typing and working
                          Take photo's of location for Blog

14.00-15.00: Shots of Parents 
                          Scene with Hot Drink, Step-Dad taking it into Mum, shaking and nervous

15.00-15.30: Final shot of parents
                           Walking into the bedroom of the child
                           Tracking shot

15.30-16.00: Contingency Time 

Audience Expectations Of Genre

Thriller Moodboard

Directors of these thriller movies include:
2Guns = Baltasar Kormákur
Unstoppable = Tony Scott
Fast and Furious 5 = Justin Lin
Broadchurch = Chris Chibnall
Better call Saul = Vince Gilligan
Mission Impossible 2 = John Woo
The girl with the dragon tattoo = David Fincher
Gone baby gone = Ben Affleck
Takers = John Luessenhop
Premium rush = David Koepp
Seven = David Fincher
Freedomland = Joe Roth
Taken = Pierre Morel

Location - Room Shots

These are shots of the layout of the room we are planning to film in, as Esther's bedroom.

Filming Dates

Our deadline for the editing is the beginning of march, however we are planning on finishing before then to be well on schedule, so we have planned to finish filming by the end of January, leaving us a month to edit.

16th January - We want to complete all of the shots of the Step-Dad on his own and with the kidnappers. This includes the ones where he is running through the ally way, being chased by the kidnappers, and the one where he is driving. 

18th January - We are going as a group to the location being used as the family's house. We want the child's bedroom to be a key aspect of the trailer so are spending some time setting it up with props that we want to use. We will also film all of the shots panning around the room 

19th January - We are filming at school with Esther (the child). This is for the final shot, the ransom video, as we like using the black background as it looks clinical and organised, like the crime they are committing. We will also take the photo for the final shot 

25th January - This is our final day where we are filming everything with both parents and the child at the house. This includes the beginning shot, the shots with the parents arguing at the house, the mum working, when the step-dad brings the drink to the mum, and the shot where the parents are opening the door to the room. 

Talent Sourcing

Our school's Year 12 Drama group presented themselves as possible actors for our years media groups, these are some of the actors.

We have already cast the kidnapped girl, Esther, as shown in our 'Tester Shots' post. We also needed an actor to play the mother, as we were having problems with dates with our planned actress. However sadly none of the year 12s were suitable for this role.

Voiceover Alterations

When filming we recorded what Esther said in a sound clip, as you can hear below. 

 

'Mum, It's me,

Don't worry, It's fine,

I'm okay.

I've been taken by these men,

Please help, help me.'

Originally this script worked very well as we were planning on zooming backwards from the girls face, so the watcher sees more and more of her kidnapped state, so tension builds, as the tension builds in the script.

However as we changed our idea to just a change of focus we have altered the script to this:

Mum, It's me,

Please help, I've been taken. 

I'm scared,

They want your money,

Please help, help me.

POV Tester Shots

For the kidnapping scene, we have decided to use a POV shot from the child, having her playing with dolls in her hand on the floor of her bedroom, then have the kidnapper burst in through the door and take her. In order to make this more of a sudden shock, we decided the kidnapper could come round behind her, so she doesn't see him until she turns back from the door to her dolls, where he will be standing.

Social Media

Our Social Media:

For various production photos, we have Instagaram: @officiallensproductions

Pictures of the filming and editing process will be posted here.

We also have a Tumblr account. - 

This is used for both reaching out to the audience, and for gaining audience feedback. There is also a lot of professional influence over Tumblr, so we use other studios and production companies on Tumblr for inspiration.

Tumblr

We also have a facebook page where we post questionnaires and allow comments and feedback on production, as well as more photos promoting our film, and several behind the scenes pictures.

Test POV Shots

These are our practise POV shots, where we were able to practise filming our opening POV shot using a GoPro Hero 3 Camera:

Final Logo

I created our final logo using iMovie in which I created three photos with different contrast, brightness and colour hues. I used the fading transition between each shot, and added a lens flare over the centre of the lens. During the lens flare I added a thunder-roll / boom sound effect.