Location research

For our opening sequence we will film in two locations; South Ealing cemetery and one of our group member's house. We have chosen these locations because they are accessible, practical and they will look good for our opening sequence.
We will film the first two shots in the cemetery and the rest will be in different rooms of the house (hallway, stairs, bedroom and study).

South Ealing cemetery entrance

South Ealing cemetery.
We needed a cemetery to film in for the first two shots because there is no way we could make a fake one ourselves. We decided on South Ealing cemetery because it is local so we can get there easily. The entrance has this nice arch which we will have as a background in shot 2 because it looks nice but it could also be quite creepy in a thriller film.
We will be filming on a weekend and it will have to be dark because our sequence is set in the evening. However it will need to be light enough for the characters to be seen. The cemetery is open 9 - 4:30 so if we start filming at  around 4 o'clock it should start getting dark. Although this only leaves us half an hour before the cemetery closes we only need two shots so it shouldn't take long once we are set up.

Grave stones at South Ealing cemetery

We are setting this scene in a cemetery because of the connotations that come from it, especially when it's dark cemeteries are creepy, ominous and eerie. This is ideal for a thriller film as it will build suspense and tension because due to the nature of the genre the audience will have expectations for something scary to happen. This scene will also create an enigma for the film because if we were to carry on producing the whole film we would reveal at the end that the grave where he places flowers at the beginning is in fact his wife's.

One of the problems we were worried about was if we would be able to film in the cemetery, as they usually close when it gets dark but we need to film in the evening. However as I have already mentioned this was not a problem as it closes at 4:30pm so we will start filming when it gets dark at 4pm. After checking on the website it did not say anything about whether we are allowed to film there or not so we will go along and start filming unless we get told to stop. In order to respect the dead we will be careful not to get any shots with people's names on the graves as we do not have the permission of the families of the people buried. If there are people at the cemetery visiting graves or having a funeral we will have to be careful not to interrupt them. As we are filming outside weather conditions could be a problem. Rain wouldn't really matter, it could in fact make the scene even better, but we wouldn't want the equipment to get water damage. Also if there happened to be a storm we would have to stop filming and take cover. Cold weather could be off putting to our actors and crew so we will have to wear warm clothes.The only health and safety issues would be if there are any open graves we will have to watch out because that would be quite a drop.

Our back-up location in case we couldn't film here was the graves by Saint Mary's church on South Ealing road but as there is no problem with accessing our first choice filming here shan't be necessary.

This is the outside of Lydia's house.

Our other location is at one of our group member's (Lydia Duncan's) house. The scenes will be filmed in different areas around the house but it is all under the same roof. These include the hallway with the stairs for shots 3 and 4, the dining room/conservatory for shot 4, the bedroom for shots 5-15 and  shot 17, and the study for shot 16. We have unlimited access to film at Lydia's house so it is ideal because we can take our time and we have permission to rearrange stuff so we can make the setting perfect for our opening sequence. Her house is suitable for our characters because it is quite fancy so it will look like a couple's house. There aren't many photographs around so there won't be any evidence of the real house owners and there is plenty of space to set up the camera on the tripod and get the right angles we want.
Possible problems we could face with filming at Lydia's house are interruptions from family members. We will have to make sure we film the morning scene when it is light and the night scene when it is dark but other than that there is no issues with filming at the house.