Location Photography #1 - School

One of the main locations we will be filming at is our school; we hope to set all of the 'orphanage' scenes in and around this building.

When story boarding, we thought that what was once an entrance to the school would make a good establishing shot due to the design of the bricks and the big door. In conforming to the codes and conventions of horror films, a building with grandeur is often used to impose fear onto the characters and also allow the audience to understand that the building will be of significance in the film. 

However, unfortunately, as the Sixth Form building is round the other side of the building, we were unaware of the building works that are currently taking place around this area and had to rethink where else we might be able to find an entrance near by as we are unsure if the building work will be finished in time.

Part of the recently designed building connected to the previous pictures is this entrance. We discussed using this as a alternative to the previous location due to the fact that we want to modernize our trailer. Also, as it is connected to the school, it will be easier for us to schedule the times we use the actors.

For one of the scenes, we looked at having a character walking into/towards the orphanage. 

The railings in the top image are those seen in the two previous images, where as the second image shows the building which the door leads into from the far right.

In order to determine which of these would be better suited to our trailer, we focused on mis-en-scene and how this would impact our trailers. As many of the fixtures in the two locations are permanent, we discusssed if the presence of trees/bikes in the second image would have a negative impact on the trailer we are trying to produce.

Upon searching for appropriate locations to shoot our trailer, we came across these stairs which we way  incorporate into our trailer as we could use a high angle shot as shown in the image to create a sense of isolation and inferiority. These stairs also lead to the scene we will be setting in the hall to mimic the process of the character of Maria adopting Scarlett.

In our schools medical room, we found a bed which could be used to depict the scene in which Scarlett is sitting on her bed waiting the arrival of Maria. As the room is simplistic in design, we will be able to remove the elements which make it look 'medical' and replace them with more personal items which the audience would expect a girl of Scarlett's age to own. 

Again, when storyboarding, we didn't consider the use of an elevator. However, upon exploring this location we thought about how we could possibly include it due to the fact that one is used in the horror film Case 39 which we are loosely basing our trailer on by drawing ideas from it. 

For this shot, I experimented with the camera lens focus and how this can effect the shot. If I was going to use a similar shot for my trailer, I would probably considering using the first effect as it has a greater sense of imprisonment and focuses on the entrapment of the scene rather than the character itself which would be useful if we used this for a scene at the beginning with the character of Maria.