Location

    One of the first steps in creating a film is finding a location that suits the story. I need to build an atmosphere for horror that creates tension. My film utilizes three main settings throughout the opening. These will shift from the safety of a store to the vulnerability of an empty garage. The first location is a local convenience store. This will be present in the beginning of the opening and represent a normal world. The main character, Bob will be living a normal teenage life of going out late at night and buying the things he wants. The lights will be bright and the non diegetic sounds of the checkout counter will be added. This will be a contrast to the darker locations that will follow.

    The second location will be a desolate street at night. This will be where most of the scene will be filmed. Bob will walk down the street after he goes to the store and is the place where the mysterious phone will be discovered. The street needs to look like a normal neighborhood but also isolated so it feels like he is trapped. When scouting locations I wanted to find a long road that can be filmed at multiple places so it looks like he was actually walking at multiple places. The first location I found was good because it had a lot of street lights but it was crowded with too many houses which would lead to many distractions because of more noise and people interrupting when filming. I searched more and found a street that was very quiet. It looked like a neighborhood because it had houses but they were more stretched out down the street so I had more places to film at. The most important aspect of the street was to make Bob feel alone at night and nobody could help him if he got in trouble.

    The final location in my opening is the garage. This will serve as the place where the action takes place. The killer will interrogate and murder Bob's mom in this garage. I needed it to be mysterious but also natural. I kept in normal items found in a garage like a fridge or wood so it felt like it was in a normal persons house and not some super evil layer. I will have tools around to create the connotation of violence. This location will represent the violation and safety by turning a home space into a space where a murder happens. This location makes the killer more menacing because it shows danger can be anywhere including someone's home. I scouted various other locations of where this interrogation would take place. This included a wooded trail and a backyard. The woods would create a great sense of isolation but I think it was too similar to other slasher films and I wanted to convey the unsettling idea of violence happening in normal places that no one would expect. The backyard was another idea because it was at a home but I felt it was too open and could blow the cover of the Killer. The garage provided the most isolation and feeling of claustrophobia for my goal to be met.