Pre-Production Planning - Possible Location

Here I have uploaded some pictures of my house in Cuckfield village as a possible location for filming. We have chosen to shoot in an ordinary, everyday house, in order to create normality. The stereotypical image of a village is that it is very quiet, with many old residents and that out of the ordinary happens. I think that this then creates suspense for the audience because at first they will believe that nothing bad is going to happen, but then they will see the murderer and be suprised that this could happen in an ordinary village.


This is a shot that we will use in our filming as we want an establishing shot of the house that Fred, our murderer, is going to enter. Lighting may be a problem for this shot as there are no lights, except from the porch light. This is going to be a problem if this location is chosen and to overcome this problem we will most probably have to film at around 5 oclock when it starts to get slightly dark but not dark enough that you can't see the house clearly.

This is the road that Fred will walk down, if this location is chosen. We may have problems with this road for a number of reasons. The road does get very busy at times and too much noise could disrupt our filming. Another difficulty of filming outside is the weather as it could be raining on the day that we decide to shoot, therefore we would have to choose another day to shoot or just film whilst raining, which wouldn't affect our filming a great deal. Another problem is that we want to film in the dark and still be able to see Fred walking down the path and there is only one streetlight along this path, therefore we will have to use artificial lighting, however we will need to make it look similar to the light of a streetlight which may become difficult.

This is the side gate that Fred will walk through in order to gain access to the side door of the house. Again, lighting will be a problem here because, as you can see, there is only one small light, which may not show Fred as clearly as we would like him to be seen, therefore we will need to use artificial lighting however this may mean that it is not constant throughout the first few seconds of our short film, which we will have to try and overcome, probably by using redheads.

This is the landing and if this location is chosen we will film Katie walking from her bedroom into the kitchen and we will also film Fred walking from the stairs and into the bathroom. The lighting on the landing is good, however it may be too light and therefore may cast shadows, which we do not want. As you can see from this picture, there are some shadows cast upon the wall, which could be a problem for filming.

Katie, the victim, is going to be getting ready in the bathroom. I think that the lighting in my bathroom is very good and would give us some good shots. A possible problem of this could be the size of the bathroom as when the door is opened there is not much room avaliable near te sink, however it depends upon how wide the door is opened.

These are the stairs that Fred will walk up in order to get to Katie. If chosen, we will film him walking up the stairs, through the gaps int he bannister because we think it will be a more interesting shot. I think the lighting on the stairs is good enough for filming, however the lighting from the kitchen and up the stairs may not be consistent, therefore this may be a problem.

We are going to film the murder downstairs and of this location is chosen then we will use this room. A disadvantage of this room would be the lighting as it is not very strong and would result in our filming being dark, however we could easily overcome this problem by using redheads. It may be better if we change the room of the murder to the bedroom, where the lighting is better.

If this location is chosen, this is the side door that Fred will enter through. I think the lighting is good in this room and therefore we should not have a problem when it comes to filming.

Jess D'Alvarez