Planning: Location

The first potential location is Grange Park

The 3 images below just where it is located within Kettering, through Google Earth, Street View and also Maps

The first good thing about this location is that its very close to our school meaning we can get to the location with ease as its within walking distance. This would mean that all the actors in our opening can easily make their way to the filming location during school as the cast we have chosen are from our school.

There are also images of the location I have taken myself of potential places the filming could take place.

This could be a possible pathway where the group of friends walk along, however its also a negative because if we film from the other side you can see all the swings and park activities which would make the location seem less isolated as it would mean that there are people around and that doesn't follow the conventions of teen horror films because isolation is a key factor. 

This is what I mentioned before as if we film this angle the houses and also the park equipment will be seen making it seem unprofessional as well as not give out the secluded location atmosphere.

If you go further into the park it becomes more and more secluded with large amounts of trees all around the location. This is a positive of this location because the 3 boys who scare Crystal in the opening can hide behind the trees with ease.

This is another potential path within Pocket Park as its it is surrounded by trees at each side so when the follower is behind them he can easily hide behind trees. I will show evidence of this

I like the way the trees cast shadows, obviously this isn't guaranteed as we can't predict the weather for our filming date however it does create an eerie atmosphere

I then began looking at different angles and trees to use for when the jump scare is about to happen. This worked well as even though I did use and iPhone camera, I still managed to show the way the focus pull would work

This is a much larger tree and I think its the most suitable due to how thick it is in width which means its able to hide a body behind it easily. Its also a good position as it shows the direct image to the bridge over the stream where the group of friends could potentially head towards.

There is a broken tree in the park which could be useful in the sense of making the place more mysterious and dangerous and also the fact that the follower can crouch down and look at the group from the distance necessary

The 3 photographs above show the view from crouching behind the broken tree, this is an interesting angle if the group of friends are heading for the bridge. I have tested this out with different focuses, zooming and also proportions of the amount of tree visible in the frame

The 2 images above are also very interesting as the positioning behind the tree while focusing on the bridge could be shot where the followers actually sprint up towards the group and scare them, and the fact its on the bridge which would make it more frightening as its dangerous and one could easily fall especially when Crystal pushes her boyfriend Scott for performing such a cruel prank on the friendship group.

It was difficult to see ahead because of the two trees being so close together

I then looked at more possible ways to show the perspective of the follower however this position wasn't so successful as there was too much tree and not enough place for seeing the group walking from the back

The 4 images above are all of the bridge from different angles, the bridge is a really interesting place to do some of the filming or have the group walk towards.

This is another path we could shoot at, just over the bridge however when they are walking the person following them has nowhere to hide as there aren't any actual thick trees meaning the group can see them coming behind them, and the side on the right is just like a hedge therefore won't conceal them well either.

Here is also a video I have put together of the location and the possible things I would expect to see in the opening:



Positives: 

•  Easily accessible without any transport so all cast and filming crew can get to the filming location on foot.

• Lots of trees creating a secluded atmosphere and giving the follower lots of opportunities to hide

• There's a stream which suggests to the viewer there is a lake/river nearby which is where the group is heading in the story line

• The location seems deserted 

Negatives:

• It's behind a park so might be noisy however we are filming during school time therefore there wont be any kids around

• People sometimes walk their dogs along the stream pathway so the times might be disturbed as we would have to wait for them to be out of the frame until we can proceed with the filming. 

• The park slides and swings can be seen through some angles as well as houses therefore we will have to be extra cautious when filming to not get any of that in as it will have an impact on how secluded the location seems. 

By Megija Ignate

Planning: Location

When it came to our location planning, we wanted as many options as possible. We went around and took photos and videos of each location to try and decide which one would fit our movie the best and would be the most practical one to use. Initially, we decided that the location would have to be near our school so that it would be easy to get the cast over there, it would have to be quite secluded to fit with the convention of horror movies and be filled with trees that would create a scary and mysterious mood.

Irchester Country Park

The first location we considered was Irchester Country Park, located near Wellingborough and about a half hour drive away from Kettering. 

Google Maps screenshot to show the distance between us and the location.

I've also attached some photos to show what the place looks like and the possible filming spots within the park. 

Pros

• Quite a secluded location, perfect fit for the conventions of horror movies. 
• Plenty of trees that we could hide behind when getting our shots. 
• Looks creepy and mysterious, fits the plot of the opening.
• Good balanced lighting during the time we would film.
• It's exactly like we pictured the location to look like when we created our pitch.
• It looks like it would be located near a lake as it is surrounded by a lot of greenery and trees and we could always find a stream somewhere that could add to the effect. 

Cons

• It's far away from school so there would be the disadvantage of not being able to get there easily and it taking a long time to get there and back.
• It's a public park that could be busy on some days since it's a country park and a popular place for families and bikers.
• We'd have to be careful when setting up so that we're not damaging any of the plantation. 
• The lighting might be hard to control depending on weather conditions and the time we would shoot. 

Since it's far away from us and is likely to be busy and we'd get disrupted, we decided that this would not be the ideal location for us to film at and had decided to find a location that is closer to us and is less busy.

Pleasure Park (Paula)

Pleasure Park is located only a few minutes from our school and is a public park. We thought of this as an option for one of the location since it's local and has a lot of trees in it, fitting in the requirements. 

Pros

• Lots of trees, would fit in with our plot and would make it easy for us to film as we had planned.
• There is a clear path that would be great for our characters to walk through and we could get high quality footage of them.
• It's close to us so it'd be easy for us to sort transport over to the location as we could just walk. 

Cons

• It's a public place so it would ruin the convention of it being a secluded location as you'd be able to hear cars in the background and have people walking through the park as well. As well as the noise and interruptions, no matter what angle we'd shoot from, you could still tell that this is not a secluded location and it would break the illusion of the characters being away from other people.
• It doesn't have enough trees to make the location look mysterious and creepy so there wouldn't be a place for the characters to hide in order to scare their friends. 
• Because it's in the middle of a busy street, there is no indication of there being a lake of any kind around it and so it wouldn't fit with the narrative of there being a lake or even a stream around it. 

Overall, we decided this is not the best location for the reasons listed and had decided we needed something a bit more secluded and something that would fit the conventions of horror movies as well as corresponding to our pitch for the movie and the opening.

By Paula Kowalska

Analysis

We chose to film at Grange park, this was due to the fact that it was the most secluded location out of the three. It also fitted our vision of what the opening scene would look like better than the other two locations. It was also quite dense with trees which adds a creepy effect to the atmosphere, this creates more tension compared to the other two locations. Irchester country park was also too vibrant with colours, we needed the location to feel gloomy and sad to add to the effect so we couldn't use this location. Although Grange park and Pleasure park take roughly the same amount of time to travel too, we chose to go with Grange park for other benefits. This also helped us cut Irchester Country park out of the runnings due to it being a half an hour drive away, this made it very difficult for our cast to get there due to none of them being able to drive. We also didn't know the area of Irchester which didn't help with travelling there. Grange also contained a stream right next to where we decided to film compared to Irchester and Pleasure which didn't have a stream. Due to our film revolving around a bakehouse, this was very beneficial to us and helped us use this in our establishing shots. We could also use the sound of the stream in our opening titles by using our phones to record this.

By Jodie Wallace