Location Research And Ideas

Good Places To Film Our Thriller 

As a group we have came up with a list of destinations and short picked the ones in which we personally feel captured the thriller theme of our storyline.
We looked in and researched into different thriller movie locations, from this research we found that dark settings and large areas were most commonly used for example fields, large old houses and spooky atmospheres. We thought that using a basement for the main section to our storyline would be most effective because it could create an abandoned atmosphere with a torch feel to the limited lighting and it being underground therefore to emphasis the secrecy of the victims to know where about's they are placed.

This location setting in a basement would be a good use of space and the visible stairs could be incorporated into the escape, but also create suspense as creaking footsteps could be added in the editing stage to represent the kidnapper walking down the stairs, symbolise that he has entered the room. The basement looks preferably new , the wooden framing on the staircase looks brand knew and the wiring hanging from the ceiling could be to indicate that the basement was purposely built for the kidnapping to take place. This therefore would inform the viewer that the kidnaping was planned and the teenagers where the victims who where targeted.  However a negative about filming in this area would be the lighting, its preferably bright and we were going for a dark stingy looking atmosphere to show that this kidnapping crime of tougher has been taken place before. 

This basement has a horror theme to its look, the wall in which are mouldy and extremely old with the white plaint cracking and peeling off the walls.This would also be a good idea to the kind of basement look we could film in, the use of dim lighting creates a creepy atmosphere and with the room having a corridor exit it emphasised the unknown and if someone was to escape the would automatically be walking into an area that they haven't seen before. However the overall shabby and grubby look that the room has would create a good touching scene, also with the one pole near the centre of the room it could be where they are tided u to begin with. This basement comes across to be old which could give the impression that this isn't the first kidnapping ransom / torcher that the kidnapper has commented and that perhaps the grubby make on the wall could symbolise blood stains.

A dark corridor would be a good scene to have when the teenagers are on the edge of escaping the kidnapper. The dark corridor and steep steps signifies they are underground therefore maybe in a basement or garage which is something we want to imply to the audience. However this would be a hard scene to find, unless we had access to a cellar or an extremely low basement then this would be hard to find access to, therefore we would have to improvise by either using the green screen or  use maybe loft stairs f stairs at home but use quick cuts to give the illusion that they are connected to a cellar or wherever we are filming. 

Another idea that as a group we thought would be quite effective would be to have two different locations, for example the wood area for the second scene, this would be where the two friends are trying to hunt down the kidnapper and find there two friends. We chose this destination because we found that when looking into thriller movies forests and fields came up a lot as films such as , shutter island, the maze runner, the boy next door and sinister all conveyed a thriller genre with the use of a forest to portray an intense and spooky/ unknown destination. The reason in which frosts and open feilds create an effective location for a thriller would be because it creates a dramatic impact to the audience, it's also a place that forces you to experience the full darkness of the night which is in my opinion why directors uses forest destinations to represent a thriller/horror as its stereotypically found scary to be in an abandoned woods at night. A lot of people have many fears that also come with the forest aspect, people have forbearers of insects and the dark which therefore inpacts into the kind of effect that it gives out to the audience and perhaps why a forest would be found to be the best setting for a thriller/horror movie. 

Negatives of filming in the woods and choosing a date to film;
Some negative things about when filming in the woods would be that because its a public place you could get people walking their dogs or going for a walk/ run therefore the time and day we film would be vital to the impact in the amount of people in the woods at that certain time. Another disadvantage about filming in the woods is the lighting, this would come into the time we were deciding to film. Due to us filming in the winter we have to make sure that when we start filming we will have enough daylight to finish the filming. Also taking into consideration the weather on the day because if its raining  snowing or high winds then it wouldn't be the best idea to start filming around this time. However after analysing different thriller movies the weather in these wasn't perfectly sunny and there was dark sky and small showers, it just depends on wether we want to use rain within our opening scene. 


Overall after considering all the possible solutions we have decided that we could find a basement or cellar that was available to use so therefore we improvised and choose to film in a garage that someone in our group has access to. This will allow use to preferably get the same kind of effect however we will just have to add props to give the illusion that its in a basement or cellar.  Also the scene would be the forest at Hempstead because its local is near to where we are filming in the garage so it practical to film in this area.