Chosen Locations

Chosen Locations

LOCATION 1 :
The first location is a street lit by the ambient light of street lights. We chose to film when it was dark and no one was around. This is a good opening shot as it shows the girls everyday surroundings. The street she lives on has nice houses which gives off the impression that she lives in a safe area and had a good upbringing. The fact she is smoking in the opening shot contradicts her 'nice' surroundings and gives the character an edge which makes the audience think there is more to this character than one would originally think. The dark street corner fits well with the thriller genre of our film as there is minimal visibility and lots of ambiguous shadowing.
This location is also perfect on a practical level for filming. It is easily accessible, with good possibility for a different range of close up and long distance shots. It will also be easy to maintain the 180 degree in this open space. The only problem that we may face is the lose of sunlight as filming goes on, but in the editing process this will be able to be adjusted.


LOCATION 2:

OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE
After the character finishes her cigarette she walks home which is our second location. This location is a bright building with lots of colour (i.e red brickwork and pine wood door). This makes this location seem welcoming and secure which is what would be expect of somebodies home. The house gives us further insight into the background of this character as it is obvious she is from a well off family. We want to emphasise this location seeming safe so when the assailants break into her 'safe place' as it makes the abduction more unexpected and frightening.
On a practical level this location has the opportunity for lots of interesting shots. For example as you enter the front door there is a mirror on the porch wall which I believe would be a swift and intriguing transition from the outdoors to the indoors if the character was to be filmed through the mirror when entering the home. When the assailants break into the house later on in the opening, I think it would be good to use the same angle for the shot to create foreshadowing.



INSIDE OF THE HOUSE (Kidnappers preparation space)
We covered a room plastic sheeting and used it for the location for the assailants preparation. This location is perfect as it was a blank canvas with only sofas in the room. The lack of feature to this room adds a clinical feel to the space as there are plain white walls with no decorations. This makes the location of the assailants unknown and mysterious. The room has a large bay window which casts an interesting shadow onto the wall from the light of the street. We plan to use this unusual shadowing and dappled light to create an interesting shot for the assailants to exit the room. This chiaroscuro lighting and shadow work will add to common connotations of the genre as they are conventions of film noir. The room also has a large door which makes a loud slam when closed which will be an ideal sound effect to be used to show the characters have left the room. They location/scene is loosely influenced by Alice Creed as the opening are similar in the fact that we see people preparing to kidnap someone. The only real difference being our location is not where the victim is taken.



LOCATION 3:

The victim is taken to a shed in an unknown location where she is tied up. This location is an ideal location for a thriller film. The shed has no window and therefore no source of natural light which could symbolise no hope as light is often a connotation of hope. This location is a tight space with only just enough room for the victim to be held. This in turn gives a claustrophobic feel to the scene which further accentuates an uncomfortable tone. 
The shed being such an enclosed space is going to limit us when it comes to shot variety. Long shots are not going to be an option in the location so I think close ups and extreme close ups are going to be most suitable. An extreme close up is going to be good to capture the frightened facial expression of the victim. This location give connotations of hopelessness as it seems as though the character has no way to escape the situation she has found herself in.

Treatment

TREATMENT:

At the start, all we see is darkness, a deafening silence over powers the scene, until its eventually broken with a women’s breath.  She lights the scene with her cigarette, and inhales deeply and pauses for a moment. All we hear now is the sound of a car passing on the wet road and a black bird singing, it’s becoming dark, and it’s getting late.  The young girl stands alone, her silver hair tied into two cute tails, while the rest of her hair remains down and straight. She’s dressed in a scarf and buttoned coat, wearing placid heads and ripped jeans, she remains still, looking around her as if she’s waiting for something. Next, all we hear is her cigarette bud hitting the ground and her shoe bottom scraping the ground, for her then to walk off and we hear her heels heading into the distance. She heads to her house now, closing in, she opens the front door, but due to being small, with some struggle. Once into her home, she heads to her room, where she sits, all remains still. From here, we have cut shots between what the female character known as EVA and the two kidnappers. At points where one kidnapper ties up her hair, Eva will be taking her two pony tails down. This will create a sense of danger with in natural, due to the fact two such evil people will be casually getting ready as would a young woman, this will create a great establishment of our characters. After a few of these cut shots between the two locations and three characters, it will have a sudden cut after the kidnappers finally get hold of Eva. It’ll then cut straight into a shot of Eva in what seems like a shed, injured and afraid. We’ll conclude with a close up on her blood shot eyes, to create the fear into the shot and to have the audience connect with the character, to then cut into the end to the name title straight after a single tear falls down her bruised blushed cheek.

Taking to influence of films, our film is very like ‘Alice Creed’ which is also a film which a young girl is kidnapped by two men (but in our case, it’s also a women). Like Alice Creed, which is a thriller, of which we are also doing, we have a young girl named Eva, who is kidnapped due to the purpose of payment. Again, our film will be like Alice Creed due to the set pace between cuts and shots, they’ll be quick and fast paced throughout, always letting the audience understand what is happening. Again, the colour pallet of Alice Creed is very musky and cold looking, which ours will also be based upon, due to it being filmed in the dark and in a damp environment. Finally, we’re going to aim for the same idea of their intro by not having any dialect and having the characters and mise en scene establish the scene and feed forward any connotations.

Location Ideas

Thriller Mood Board

 

A Garden Shed – The inside being dirty, dark and damp. Creates an uncomfortable and uneasy atmosphere. Will reflect the tone we want to achieve in our opening. Shed would preferably have no windows with a source of low ambient lighting (i.e lamp). Cluttered shed with a variety of objects that offer possibilities for weapons/or torture.

A full-length mirror – most of shots of the girl in the opening of our thriller will be through the full-length mirror that we want to be in her bedroom or her bathroom.  She will be sat at her mirror taking off her make-up and getting ready for bed in front of this mirror and we will see the assailants appear behind the girl in the mirror. With a full length mirror a shot will be able to include the facial expression of the victim as well as the kidnappers behind her. A larger mirror will also allow us to incorporate objects that tell the audience about the character, i.e flowers or books.

Dust Sheets & plastic gloves – The location the assailants get ready will be covered in see through plastic sheets. This is to make the audience elude to the idea that the kidnappers have made a conscious decision to avoid possible DNA traces of them or their victim, i.e the sheets can be easily gathered and disposed of.  This creates a sinister tone and makes it look like they know what they are doing, which could mean they have committed a similar crime in past. The assailants will wear blue disposable gloves which will

further show that they do not want to traced/detected.

Dark wet street – the girl that is abducted will walk down a road that is artificially lit by street lights after having a cigarette and is heading home. Lighting will create big shadows which should disorientate the audience. We will aim to film when the street is empty to create an eerie feel to the scene. Filming when raining/wet will add an uncomfortable tone and will make the audience feel empathetic towards her.

Characters in our Thriller

Character One:

The focus of the opening of our thriller film is on a character name Eva. She is a young adult living in a house with her parents. This character is anxious and reserved which is shown through her smoking and being alone in the opening. We chose to have this character smoking in first shot as smoking is a common convention of film noir that conveys anxiety. The first location we see Eva go to is her family home. We she her enter the safety of her family home in the first few shots and by the end of the opening she is in a shed which is in an unknown location. The locations alone reflect the change in this character’s emotional state as she gets taken from the safety of her home, which is a clean and pure location, and ends up in a dark gritty shed.

The costume for this character was quite simple with our goal being to establish the comfort of her being in her own home. When the character enters her home she is wearing jeans, a long sleeved top, a scarf and a jacket but when she gets in she changed into baggy tracksuit bottoms and a loose jumper. This brings light to the idea of her feeling comfortable in her home. At home she also removes her makeup and takes down her hair displaying that she is now vulnerable as she is more exposed which emphasises the idea of having a lack of power. This is exactly what we wanted to achieve in the opening of our thriller.

Our Thriller is loosely based on the film ‘Alice Creed’. This character however is not like the girl that gets abducted in Alice Creed. Our character is comes across as more immature and vulnerable, whereas Alice is a dark, strong and mature girl that is taken which shows the vulnerability of every type of person as you would not expect such a strong character to be put such a compromising and dark situation. Our character is wearing light coloured clothing with blue eyes and blonde hair which is tied up in two ponytails. This shows her innocence and will make the audience empathise and feel sympathy for her.

Characters Two & Three:

These two characters abducted Eva. These characters have clearly gone through the act of kidnapping previously as they are very precious in the way they prepare. We made sure this was very clear in the first few shots we see of them and we focused on the details of what they were doing to reflect the level of concentration they had to their task. The objects the character’s handle consist of hammers, cable ties, knives, and other sharp objects. These props elude to danger as they are recognised offensive weapons. This creates a threatening atmosphere. The female assailant is the more dominant of the pair and this is noticeable when she is clearly ordering her accomplice to do things and when he does something out of line she is quick to correct him. In turn this makes the male character seem clumsy, inexperienced, and ignorant. The fact the male assailant is clumsy further emphasises that the female character is obsessive about detail and order. It also makes it apparent to the audience that she is efficient with a clear goal, but at the same time a sinister character.

Both of the assailants wear identical clothing. This is black jeans, black boots and a black zipped hoodie. The dark colours reflect the darkness and dangerous act they are going to carry out. The black clothing was chosen to make the assailants inconspicuous and not easily identifiable. The dark clothing also makes the characters seem unwelcoming which is perfect as we want the audience to feel uneasy about these characters and feel discouraged to feel sympathy for them. The use of dark shadowing also associates with corruption and criminality.