Location Scouting

Following some prior planning for our thriller opening, we ventured to the nearby cornfields to ensure we could make the sequence of camera angles work without showing the housing estate. We chose to shoot in the cornfelds as when it is not so bright as it was on this day, it can be a fairly dark and creepy place. What started out as a meer location scout turned out to be a short walk through of the first possible shots.


The first shot is a long shot of the alley that leads to the fields. Our victim would walk up and once they have passed the camera, the silhouette of our mysterious killer would appear at the other end.

We would then follow the victim walking across the field with a variety of shots to keep it interesting. They would noticeably be getting more and more suspicious and anxious of their surroundings.
How this shot works, and well, is yet to be worked out. But the basic idea was that the victim and the camera stop and the camera turns 180 to follow what she is seeing over her shoulder. Before this turn, her attacker has suddenly appeared under the tree, possibly in silhouette again to keep them anonymous. At this point, the music would become more panicked and dramatic to match the tension in the shots.

Following this, we would then have fast shots of the victim approaching the tree, unaware of what awaits her.

And then, the attacker preparing their weapon (shown amazingly here with invisible rope.)

As the victim grows nearer, the cuts would quicken...

An anonymous, dark shot of the killer which couldn't be acheived on this run through due to the unusually bright day.

Finally, after the murder had been comitted (a part we didn't run through), we would go to a long shot of the field to commence our next scene in which the body is discovered. It would begin from the same distance and angle but at a different time of day so that the audience are aware of the differing scenes.

UNFORTUNATELY: After taking these pictures, the cornfields were ploughed in all their entirety which left us with mud. So we were forced to relocate our scene somewhere else: Cannock Chase. At this point, we have also come to the decision that a voiceover or character narrative would start off the opening scene well.