Account of Shoot Day

We had planned to meet our actors at the studio at 9.30 so before hand we went to fetch all the props we would need to prepare the set (e.g chemistry set, police costumes, police props, cardboard boxes, curry powder and flour). We moved all the props up to the containers we used for a set and started unloading them of their contents. Unfortunately, this took longer than expected and we couldn't actually start setting up the table with the lab gear until around 9.30 so we couldn't start shooting on schedule.

We put some time into making the drug table looking good because we decided that a realistic and on-the-go picture of drug production would be visually pleasing for an audience with an interest in the gritty grimy side of criminal business. We had originally planned to have the entire criminal gang leaving the car and entering the containers but found that the lab set wouldn't make sense without someone working there. We therefore had Ollie stitting in the container at the table already when Ted and Theo come in.

In terms of costume, we had originally planned to have Ted wearing a black shirt with a red tie to make him seem dangerous by evoking the idea of blood and violence, a common feature in action thrillers. However, we found that the shade of red wasn't quite right and didn't make him look as dangerous as we thought it would. We decided that less was more and got him to just wear the black shirt with the top button undone, which ultimately was far more affective.

We started shooting at around 10.40. Our first shot was of Ted and Theo driving up to the container in the Land Rover, getting out of the car and carrying the boxes to the container all in one wide shot. We decided to take another shot of just the Land Rover staying still but with the engine running so that we could use the sound if needs be. While we had originally wanted close ups of the car doors opening and generally faster cuts, we decided to keep this shot running smooth to show how this is habitual for them. We also wanted to create a contrast with the police scene which would have more energy from faster cuts.

We got a shot of Theo and Ted opening the container in order to make our thriller a little more interesting. Then, we turned the camera toward Ollie working at the table and had a medium wide shot of him looking up at the doors opening. In the same shot we had Theo coming in and placing his box on the floor, Ted walking towards Ollie and smack him around the back of the head, Ted leaving and Ollie  looking up at Theo saying, 'Again?' and Theo then following Ted out of the container before Ollie resuming his work at the table. We then experimented with different types of shots because we didn't think the medium wide shot alone would be enough to let the audience engage with the characters. We took a closer medium shot, followed by a close up on the table with the hat falling on it, a closer shot of Ted hitting Ollie. We then went outside to take a low shot of Ted and Theo's feet as they got out of the container. We thought this shot would be good to use after the scene where the police fail to catch them to show their power.

We then called the two actors playing 'lazy' police and showed them to their BMW. We set the car up with a coffee flask and a tin of biscuits. We took the first shot of them from a difference for an establishing shot. We asked the actors to add lib and just chat. We then took a middle shot of the actor who was meant to be signalling the other police to go, asking them to add lib again but for the closer police to shout 'go go go' on into a walkie talkie when signalled. We then took another shot of the same action sequence from the other side of the car. The only problem we sometimes encountered was that the car was on gravel so whenever someone walked on it we'd have to wait for them to go by because we didn't want to catch the sound. Finally, we took a few close ups of the flask being picked up and the biscuits being picked up because we thought these could be useful in the thriller to create tension.

After a lunch break, we went on to prepare the other container and film the last few shots of police breaking into the 'wrong' container. The first shot we had was a wide shot facing the container with the three raiding police sneaking in from different side of the camera towards the container. In the same shot we had one policemen open the door and then hitting the door in anger at not finding the criminals before walking away. We wanted a medium shot of the same action sequence but we encountered difficulties in continuity because we needed to make sure the police all ended up in the same places when they stopped. It was also a struggle to get them to stop in the right places so that they could all be clearly seen in the shot without blocking any of the action. We solved the problem by marking the floor with leaves so they knew where to go. We then did another shot of the same action sequence from inside the container, much like the previous seen with the criminals.

Finally, we took a few shot in other locations of each of those policemen sneaking. We experimented with different places around the school. We first shot a policeman sneaking around a hedge from a low angle to give the police force a sense of authority. This superiority will hopefully make the audience think the policeman will definitely catch them so that when they don't, it will create a greater impact.
We then took a shot of the head of police (wearing the black uniform) running up the stairs from a high angle. We hoped we would be able to use this shot to add to the fast-moving action of the thriller. We decided to take as many shots as possible so that we would plenty of opportunity to create fast cuts in the final thriller so that we could have a fast-moving and exciting thriller. We took a medium wide of the head of police creeping out from behind an oil tankard and a close up of his face while he creeped past a gate so we could use the shot to create tension. We finished with a shot from behind of the head of police hearing the signal to go on his earpiece before taking a few steps forward, before calling it a wrap.

Changes to Casting and Costume

We've kept the cast for the criminal gang the same, but we made a few alterations for the police.

Rather than having only three random types of police in the entire thriller, we decided we wanted to research further into what kind of police we wanted how many realistically would be on the case.
I used the following websites to get a little more insight into the ranking of the police force.

http://policeuk.com/police_ranks.php

http://mentalhealthcop.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/police-rank-and-roles-explained/

 I also looked at the scene in Hot Fuzz (2007) when the police raid the supermarket. They had a base that kept in touch with them which was the police station. We wanted to show this within the action. As we thought that trying to set a scene in a police station would be too complicated, we went for a more realistic approach by having different types of police would be more effective to have two policemen waiting in the car to give the signal to three other policemen in more 'thriller' costumes.

The two police we chose to stay in the car, which would be police sergeants, were...

Dave Fonseka

James Tunstill

Here is a depiction of the type of police I mean, inspired by Scotty Webster from The Simpsons.

We thought these two would be capable of comically representing the archetypal bumbling police officers that sit in cars, stereotypically not doing much work and passing their time eating donuts. We would use them to represent the police force negatively, suggesting inefficiency.

We then chose the three following actors to play active, more admirable police:

Philip Ward

Phil, being a media teacher, has plenty of expertise in the world of screen acting as he has appeared in many AS Thrillers at our school. Therefore, we trust that he will be easy to direct. He also has a good dynamic with Simon and Tom, so hopefully their relationships may be able to translate on screen as a connection to one another in terms of having to accomplish a mission together. If this can read on the screen, this will add a dynamic to the action by making the police look even more realistic and really engage the audience.

Simon Wood

We chose Simon Wood to play our head of police. Simon is well known among our school media department as he appears in many thrillers. We have chosen him to play the main action hero because he has had a lot of experience in the field of acting on screen so we feel he will be able to connect well with the character and be able to show an effective reaction at the sight of the empty container. The fact that he is well known among our school community will also hopefully attract a niche audience within our school of people who will want to see Simon in his role as a police constable.

Tom

Tom is also well known at our school which we feel will also help to attract a young audience. He can pull quite a concentrated face which we think would be important for our thriller as we want the acting to be as effective as possible. 

This type of police officer, police constable, contrasts with the other type which are
We also thought the idea of the more dangerous police receiving orders from such seemingly 'regularly guys' implies corruption in the police force, and that lower ranks are taking orders from police officers that sit around chatting in cars.

We made sure to heighten the difference in types of police through costume. We talked to a professional expert in theatrical costume called Loz Tait who informed us about how important getting the right costume for the right time period and the right position in the police force. The two police in the car would wear dark sweaters to give them the fun 'ello ello' police personas.

The attitude in this picture is closer the the 'heroic' police,
but the costume is what we envisage for the 'lazy' police.

For the more active police, we found two florescent jackets and a black jacket with 'police' on the back. Though police wouldn't realistically be wearing florescent jackets for a raid, we decided that they could have been called in for the mission at the last minute. We thought the black would give Simon's police officer very high status and make him look like a police hero, reinforcing a positive, heroic representation of the police force. With any luck, the trio would look something like this...

Dialogue for Thriller

Scene 1

Ted and Theo and Ollie drive up to container. They stop, leave car and Theo and Ollie carry boxes in following Ted. Ted opens container door. They all go in. Ollie starts getting to work and Ted hits him around the back of the head.

Ollie: Again?

They leave.

Scene 2 

Two policemen waiting in car looking forwards.

Add lib.

Police 1: Wait... Is that them? That's them! Picks up walkie talkie. Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

Costumes and Props Added

For the police, we decided to have 2 florescent jackets and 1 black jacket among the 'action' police and two dark jumpers for the 'car' police to create a hierarchy within this social group. The black jacket would distinguish the most dangerous and highly trained police officer and the yellow jackets would indicate slightly less intimidating officers. However, yellow and black are colours which usually symbolise danger so this coordination of colours will hopefully help to create tension.

The two younger members of the criminal gang will be wearing coats. It'll be cold on the day of filming so it's important but they will also help to create a sense of mystery. One of them will be wearing a hat, distinguishing him as the younger and trendier member which we will find annoys the boss.

Car wise, rather than use a white van we will be using a Land Rover for the criminals as we think it would give them a little more character and would make the scene more interesting. The police car will be a BMW since it is easier for us to obtain.

Rather than simply have boxes of illegal items in the container, we have drug production on a table in order to have more happening in the scene. This would heighten the criminal element in our thriller to further relate it to the crime thriller genre. Here are some pictures of some of the items we might have in our thriller: