PLANNING & CONSTRUCTION: LOCATION RECCE & FILMING

This scene consists of Aaron being led into custody by Detective Gibbs. Previously to filming my group and I made a trip to the location of the custody scene at Claremont Fan Court School, Esher to check whether filming the custody scene would be appropriate, fit our vision of filming and also make us aware of how the scene would look like visually both in the construction stages as well as what it may look like against other scenes when being edited. 

The location is an old, 20th Century lift at the bottom of a set of 4 flights of stairs - this would be acting as a hall-way leading to the custody room. The grill that protects the wooden shaft-like door of the lift looks similar to police cells in a prison. My group and I thought this was a unique and appropriate aspect of the location creating a believable mise-en-scene for our film trailer; further creating synergy with the next scene (Aaron being interviewed by Detective Gibbs in custody - HERE is a link to the location recce before we started filming this scene, HERE is a link to a blog post on the filming of this scene)

We agreed that prior to filming the location had to be near empty as it we didn't want any disturbances such as pupils of the school being in shot without permission (especially through the windows shown in the photographs) as well as students walking up and down the stairs disturbing the sound and action being captured with pupils entering and exiting the main double doors located on the right of this location. We wanted the hall way leading to the custody room to be a small size with bright lighting (preferably filmed in the day), empty with no people and a cold, unfriendly and vacant feel further conveying a haunting, empty and vulnerable feel, similar to the atmosphere created at the church (HERE is a link to my post on the location recce I completed previous to filming at the church and HERE is a link to my post on filming the grave yard scene at the church) and scenes filmed at the car park (HERE is a link to my post on the location recce I completed previous to filming at the car park and HERE is a link to my post on filming the car park scenes in Woking, Surrey) making Aaron seem alone, vacant and lonely.