Recce and Location shots

My intended idea for my coursework was to shoot the outdoor scenes during the nighttime. I specifically wanted it to be shot then because I felt like that it would have been the most effective, due to the key 'low-key lighting' convention. To add on that, my outdoor first scene was hugely inspired by the short horror film 'The Smiling Man', which was also shot in the night time, so I wanted to achieve the same effect. Originally, I had the assumption that the street lights would provide me enough light when shooting, but simply from taking location shots in the night on my iPhone camera, I realized that the quality of the shot would not be up to standard and that street lights would simply not be enough. Because of this, I decided to take my location shots during the day and also when just before sun down. I am aware that my iPhone camera quality would be significantly worse in comparison to a professional camera, thus, when I am doing my test footage I will test out some shots in the night time just to see if the quality is good enough.

Within this location shots, I decided to take only one location shot within my house due to mantain a level of privacy as family members would not feel comfortable having full on pictures of my house up online, however, I will still film inside.

Location Shot #1 & 2

 Here I will shoot the scenes of the woman (protagonist/victim) walking down the street listening to music, this scene will be an over the shoulder shot of the antagonist looking at her walking down the street. The scenery of a long road and bushes create a dark feel as it almost gives off the impression that the woman is in an alleyway or a secluded area. To add on to that, the fact it is a long pathway possibly and the antagonist at the road almost waiting for her hints at the plot line (that she can't escape). I feel this will be very effective as it automatically puts the audience at unease. 

In the image to the left I simply have shown the length of the road/pathway in a better way. It also was taken before the sun down which gives off a better representation of what the final shot may be if I am not able to shoot in the night time.

















Location Shot #3

Within my short film, I am also going to do point of view shots from the victim/woman. This will be when she first notices them just standing in the middle of the road. After that it will be simple reaction shots of both their faces before the antagonist runs off in a crazy manner laughing to themselves. I feel that this will be effective as it will be a very tense scene of silence and just reaction shots before the antagonist's very odd exit, leaving the audience wanting more and answers (opening the door to enigma codes such as "Who are they?" "Why are they acting like that?")













Location Shot #4

When the antagonist runs into the road, I am planning for them to just stand in the middle of it for a while staring at the woman and waving. The woman will then turn around for a bit before turning back to see the antagonist has just disappeared and to see the shot on the left - a completely empty road. I feel this will be extremely effective as it now brings the supernatural element into the short film as it leaves the audience wondering how did this strange creature completely disappear from the scene in less than 5 seconds, they cannot possibly be human.













Location Shot Attempt. #

On the right you can see the location shot I attempted to take in the nighttime. Evidently - even though it would be ideal to shoot in the nighttime - the lack of lighting provided would possibly knock down the quality of the shot.

















Location Shot 4 & 5#

One of my dramatic scenes that I will shoot inside the house before the climax is the laptop webcam scene (an idea that I recently had). The idea is for the woman to check her laptop to see her laptop is on with the camera open. Strangely enough, her blinds are also open which makes her assume her husband is home. Whilst her webcam is on, she get's distracted on her phone, but we (the audience) will see the antagonist through the window as the blinds will be open on the webcam, however, she will be unaware as she is distracted.

When she does eventually get a strange feeling, she turns around and we will see a shot like this on the left, where nothing is actually there. This adding to the supernatural feel. I feel like this will increase fear factor for the audience as it provides a "Now you see me, now you don't" type atmosphere.