For the opening 2 minutes of our horror film we decided to use a maximum of 5 locations in which shoot to reflect the idea of a walk home from work we desired to reflect and creat suspense for the rest of the plot. For all of these locations we were required to research the most effective areas to film in that would not only create suspense but reflect the uncomfortable feeling in our audience we felt necissary for our horror to be truly successful. We made sure as long as trying to think outside boundaries of every day horror films to make our own unique it was also important to look at typical codes and conventions of previous successful horrors and we decided it would be appropriate to use stereotypes of horror locations to concur with our tense theme.
Location 1 - Woodland
The choice of the Broomfield Hospital woodland was decided on not only because it was convenient to get to as it was central point to where we held our actors and actress' before shooting, but we felt it would be effective in creating suspense for the audience. The setting of a woodland is a typical code and covention of a horror as it is low key area which connotes the unkown and arouses fear and suspense in the audience. All lighting has to be natrual and as it is largely covered in tree's the lighting in an area such as this is darker. The darkness is a stypical code and convention of horror films as it enables a persons worst fears to go on unseen and the unknown to us is often the most feared. We also found it an appropriate place to film due to the plot of our entire film. The opening of our horror was to based around the idea that our lead protagonist is being 'stalked' on her journey home. A woodland area would be appropriate for something like this to occur as a perpetrator would be easily hid behind the wildlife. It is a confined area with many places for the agonist to hide leaving our victim helpess and vulnerable.
For this location we researched previous horro films that had used this convention effectively, for example in the horror 'Hide and Seek' (2005) a large amount of the main drama is set in the woodland outside the protagonists home, which creates suspense as it is generally a concealed dark area where anything or anyone could be lurking. I have found a particular scene of 'Hide and Seek' which i feel effectively connotes danger through the dennotation of the woodland area and creates suspense in the audience.
Location 2 - Broomfield Road Garages
Another choice of location are the Broomfield garages as similarly to the woodland area we shot in it is a low key area. It is quite a dim and shadowed area as it is full of what appears to be abandoned garages. Isolation and abandonment is again a typical code and convention of a horror as it creates a sense of helplessness and vulnerability which is key for tension to occur. As again it is a confined area it is a place that perpetrators could hide and lurk unnoticed. We felt that choosing this location was quite unique to our film as there are not many well known horrors that have used this idea, however the basis and thought process behind the choosing of this location used alot of stereotypes associated with fear. As we reached this area to film too the lighting was further more low key and the dark background reflected the dangerous mysterious mood we wished to portray in our horror. The image of the dead trees in the area - similarly too the woodland area we felt connoted the darkness of the night, death is similarly a theme that is fluent throughout our horror. For these reasons in particular we felt the garages were a good area to film our horror to reflect the general mood of the genre.
Although garages are not commonly used in popular horror films, the idea of an isolated mysterious area often is. The use of darkness and cold weather in a location is also a common code and convention of a horror film used to create suspense and fear. A film that uses isolated areas to create suspense is 'Hostel' (2005) which has a similar plot basis as our horror. The idea that victims are held hostage and tortured, another film similar to these are the 'Saw'(2004) films. They similarly use isolated areas to connote despair and helplessness for the victim who is endangered.
Location 3 - Court Road
The last location chosen for our protagonists journey home was that of a road with no one else on it. By this point in the journey it is getting dark which there for continues to build tension as the opening sequence reaches it's climax. As we previously agreed for the other locations it was key for this part of the protagonists journey to be as isolated as the others to continue reflecting a feeling of helplessness and vulnerability to create continued suspense in the audience. We related this location idea of films such as '28 Days Later' (2002) which are entirely based around usually human filled residential areas being abandoned and isolated which relates to the sense of abandonment we wish to reflect in our protagonists character.
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