Chosen Location

Chosen Location

The location that we have decided to shoot our thriller is in Anglia Square. Not only is this location very accessible it also offers a lot to work with. Due to the storyboard of our thriller, a gate and passing vehicles was essential. Not only this but due to a chase scene leading to a dead end, the specifics the location needed to fill were: large runways, small claustrophobic spaces, lots of room to shoot running, a dead end, maybe a tunnel and lots of stairs. Due to Anglia Square holding a multi-story car park, the stairs were easy enough to find as was the dead end. Below is a collection of pictures, experimenting not only with whereabouts in the location we might use but also different shot types. 

In the storyboard we have a shot of this fragile teenager (Edward) standing in front of a crossed gate with cars passing by. This is the shot that is probably the most specific vision that we had. This long road, with a gate running down, and cars passing by to hide away Edward so that we could vary our shots with his posture. Successfully Anglia Square offers an excellent location for this. 

These three pictures show the gate location with a long shot, close up and extreme close up. This is echoing the shots that will be used for Edward. This is positioned right next to a car park and so quite conveniently, a constant flow of cars will be at our service to fill our shots need. The population surrounding this location is very few so the risk of unwanted guests entering the video is at a very minimum as well. All in all this is a perfect fit to the image that we had in mind for the first shot. To compliment the setting even more, the road that follows this gate is quite a long one and is welcomed by corners at both ends. This could be used in great effect with the starting of the chase scene as Edward first notices the brutes coming round the corner from his right side as he turns to run to his left. The accessibility to lots of different small roads, and tight corners aids the chase scene immensely as we can manipulate the shots to confuse the audience and make the film a lot more interesting to watch.

On the left we see the view that will be used for Steve, Barry and Dave enter into the thriller, and on the right side we see the exit to which Edward will flee when he catches a glimpse of the men.

The next crucial element that needed to come into context and what really decided for us what place to choose is the shots for the chase sequence. In Anglia Square we gathered a collection of shots from alleyways, to stair cases, to small winding streets that, with the beauty of editing will slot together quite nicely and create a complex and diverse chase scene with what seems like lots of twisting turning corners. The collection of images for these ideas are shown below. What's great about these is that you get the contrast in difference as in some we have quite wide open spaces which shows the vulnerability that Edward seems to be in, three against one and all. But as we look at the reverse we see tight claustrophobic spaces which show the trapped feeling of the situation and the concept of no escape for our poor Edward. 

The different angles used in these pictures can be used in the chase scene to create disorientation, make the setting look a lot more exposed or contrastingly claustrophobic.

Being a multi story car park a factor that will most obviously be there is stairs, and with stairs comes a possible dead end to which we have used to much advantage. With the account of the many many stairs that the car park holds, comes the top floor of the car park and effectively our dead end. We will quite literally leave him on a cliff hanger. Nevertheless, the stairs offer a great build up as we can manipulate the shots to seem like the three 'gangsters' are catching Edward, and then we lead Edward on to a tall car park, deeming his fate as not so bright for the rest of the movie. Using a birds eye view shot from the top we can use this to show Edwards point of view, and then switching to a worms eye view we can intensify the situation by making the building a lot bigger and menacing than it so seems in your average long shot/mid shot. However the usage of the top roof is not as open to pedestrians as we would have hoped, but for obvious reasons of course. However, with a quick chat to the security guards we can gain access and the show can go on!

The different shots for the stairs (mostly tilted, with a straight long shot and  the end shot where the focus is on the stairs and the sub focus on the rails) are there to make the chase scene more exciting and confusing to keep up with. With the use of the technique of disorientation, it will be easier to edit the stair scene so that it all looks fluid.

Consider the dirty alleys of Lock Stock or the staircases of noir.

Finally we have the building shots. These are serving the purpose for the dead end and to make a jump from the top seem very unlikely unless Edward wants to be serving the rest of the film in a coffin. The top right picture shows the view point from Edward as he reaches his dead end and looks over the top of the building. This is where the camera becomes his view point and the mood is intensified by the realisation he has to face these three men.

Links to other thrillers