Planning location ideas for BLITZ

When we started planning our thriller we sent out some emails to different locations finding out if it would be possible to film there for a day:


Dear Sir/Madam

We are currently in the process of planning our AS Media studies coursework Thriller Sequence at Hurtwood House and while searching for locations we stumbled across Cane Hill Asylum. We researched it and found this website and were wondering if you could give us the details of the current owner as we were wondering if there was any chance we could possibly be able to use it as a film location for a day in January. There will be profesional teacher supervision aswell.

Many thanks in advance for any information you can give us.

Regards,

Charlie Manton, Sophie Greig, Catherine Ward Thomas

Hurtwood House

Radnor Lane

Holmbury St Mary

Dorking

RH5 6NU

However we heard no reply from Cane Hill, so moved onto other mental asylums. After phoning many of them up, we rang the Surrey County Council who told us that there would be too many insure procedures to complete if we wished to film in a derelict building.

At this point our idea once again took a turn as we decided on a plot change. Instead of setting it in Victorian times we moved forward 50 years to the era of World War 2 and took our young girl to a tube station. After contacting Aldwych Station we discovered that it would cost £250 p.h which we could not afford.

Our idea took another turn when we thought about other locations to film in and came up with the idea of using an exibhition at the Imperial War Museum:

Dear Sir or Madam,
We are currently studying for our Media AS level and need to produce a 2 minute opening sequence of a horror/thriller movie. We came across your 'Blitz Experience' exhibition and fits our theme perfectly. We were wondering if it would be possible to film there for a day in early January. We understand that it costs £150 p.h, however as we are students we cannot afford a morning's worth of filming there. Would it be possible to reduce the price to allow us filming there for around 4 hours.

We have been planning an opening sequence revolving around one 8 year old girl who has lost her mother in a bombing, we would like shots of her wandering around the bombed streets of London after the bombs have dropped. Is there any way of getting these shots without paying the full price? After our exam we would be happy to offer you the footage we shot and the finished sequence if it is any use to you.

Many thanks,

Sophie Greig

Media Studies Dept.
Hurtwood House School
Radnor Lane
Holmbury St Mary
Dorking
Surrey
RH5 6NU

The museum replied with this email:

 

Dear Sophie,

Thank you for your email, as filming would take place outside Museum Opening Hours (before 10am or after 6pm) we do need to cover costs to keep the Museum open, including staffing costs. Our standard filming rate is £450 per hour which we reduce to £150 per hour for students and we would not be able to reduce this costs any further.

Please do advise if you would like to go ahead with the filming and I will be happy to investigate available dates.

Best wishes,
Debbie

Debbie Dowden
Events Officer

Imperial War Museum
Lambeth Road
London
SE1 6HZ

Tel: 020 7416 5393

Once again,  the price was too high to be able to film at this location. So we settled for using our studio at school and placing our thriller sequence in an old bomb shelter, in both the past and the present day.

After these many attempts of finding a location to film in, we came up with our final idea of BLITZ.

Shot List for BLITZ

Tracking shot of bunker

Close up on posters

Close up on foods

Tracking to desk

Close up on newspaper and leaflets

Close up on chair and gas mask box

Cut to bed/feet Panning shot up girl’s feet

Pan up her body

Pan up to her head and over her shoulders

P.O.V shot of her writing

Extreme close up of diary

Wide shot of girl looking around

Close up of her shuffling back to bed

Cut to black

Medium shot of breaking through of bunker

P.O.V shot of torch sinning round

Close up of propaganda poster

Close up of books

Wide shot to see ghost

Medium close up of bed

Close up on diary

Over shoulder shot of man reading diary

Cut to book falling off shelf

Cut to over shoulder shot of man reading diary and ghost appearing in front of him

Cut to extreme close up of little girl

Cut to black

Black frame

BLITZ.

BLITZ Shooting Script

INT: Tracking shot: Dimly lit: The frame focuses on an underground cellar like bomb shelter in 1940. We track across various props from the era, for example, we see some shelves filled with tinned food, cereal boxes etc. We track across to propaganda posters on the wall; we pan across to a set of shelves where we track across boxes of food and tins. We pan down to a small table where we see a radio which we hear playing a speech of Churchill, some leaflets, ID cards, letters, ration books and newspapers. We track across the newspaper to see headlines of events that have happened in the war. We then track across to the bed where we see a little girl writing in her diary looking bored, but occupying herself.

Cut to a POV shot of her writing in her diary, this shows the audience the date. We then cut to a shot of the side of her diary showing her hand writing, lots of rough and sketchy pen movement is shown over laying each other to create a jagged and un-settling atmosphere.  We hear the sound of distant footsteps getting closer, and then the young girl is seen looking scared and shuffling to the end of her bed, hugging her knees screaming

Hattie:

‘No, No, please no’.

A bomb sound effect is heard. We then cut to black.

           

A few seconds pass until we hear the sound of someone breaking in to the shelter. A sliver of light is shown inside as the doorway breaks open.

INT: Tracking shot; Lit by torchlight. We see the bomb shelter from the previous sequence covered in cobwebs and some items have fallen off the wall. A man walks around the shelter his torch focussing on certain items. He starts off by looking at the shelves and the books on the shelves, then through the food and down onto the leaflets on the table. He leans over to a shelf to pick out a book and lets his torch hang by his side for a brief moment. In this moment we see the flash of a ghostly figure before he shines his torch around. He passes to her bed where he sees the diary she was writing in. He flicks through some pages before hearing a brief noise and shining the torch around the room. A book is seen to have fallen off the shelf and as he looks back to the diary the little girl appears right in front of his face.

Cut to black. White type writer letters of B L I T Z. Appear against the typing sound effect and some eerie music.

Storyboarding for BLITZ

Here are some pictures of our stroyboards for our chosen idea and choices of shot.

BLITZ.

Here is a slide show of the basis idea's of our opening sequence.

Blitz[1]xsxx[1]

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