Actors

Casting was something I personally found very difficult, as the characters within our play were middle aged casting instantly became an issue; as finding suitable actors that fit the role would be extremely time consuming and perhaps costly. However given the limited time we had to make our thriller we could not make the fact we couldn't find exact matches for the role an issue. When casting the villain we had to overcome the problem of having a male character with no male actors so we decided that Alexia tying her hair back and wearing dark manly clothes would suffice, the thriller convention also worked in our favour here as we wanted Alexia to look mysterious and threatening so we decided not to show her face this created an air of mystery and aided the theme of darkness. As evident, Alexia has very girly features so it only seemed fitting to hide her face.

To make and 'equilibrium' in which is very common at the start of any thriller, we decided to cast a mother and daughter, this seemed to prove less problematic for us as Rosie (who had taken acting lessons prior to this,thus giving her more experience acting) volunteered to play the mother. Rosie although rather small proved to be suitable for the role, and the fact that she was sourced from inside the group meant she knew the idea of the production fully and knew exactly how to play the role, the fact she was so familiar with the production and how we planned to produce it meant we could work more efficiently to complete the task to a professional level.

As the title of our production is 'Baby' it is evident our thriller is based around a baby, this was the least problematic part of casting as Alexia's niece had just recently been born, working with Grace was surprisingly quick and easy, she rarely cried (and when she did it seemed only to be at the times we wanted her to!) Allowing us to get on with filming very efficiently   

Location

Deciphering our location proved to be rather easy task as we already had a location in mind that was easily accessible and it's surrounding settings fitted well with our original plan of how we wanted the location to look. In our plans we specifically wanted some form of river as it can have a duel affect: to set an equilibrium of a peaceful setting but also creates an air of mystery. Again it seemed Alexia's street and house were the perfect setting for this as not only did she have a river close by, but there were plenty of surrounding paths that we could utilise when Rosie was walking with the baby.

When considering potential locations we had to take into account the fact we were filming with a baby and some of the shots would be Rosie walking on the road etc. So this immediately eliminated my house as a location as I live on a busy main road and this would act as a potential danger to our actors. Another positive of this location is that it was a rather desolate area with little people passing by, this allowed us to take a variety of long shots and experiment with angles

Alexia's house was very spacious and perfect for filming as we were able to do the long shots necessary both inside and out the house. Another factor that led us to choosing Alexia's house is that it contained all the props we needed, e.g. a crib for Grace. The colours surrounding Grace's crib also worked with her character, the pale white colour of the crib and warm creams on the wall, the colour white connotes innocence which acted as a juxtaposition with Alexia's dark character and black clothing.

Storyboard

We use story boards for a number of reason, firstly  they help in establishing framing, they provide blocking and focus information, they help in planning actor movements and action and also they plan camera movement. 

We found we used the story board as a personal checklist, by using a storyboard for our movie we not only have created a form of sequence, but we had made a checklist of every shot you need. Using storyboards also helped us revise our material Because by knowing your material and what you need to make your story work, we were able to quickly and wisely make the necessary changes when unforeseen circumstances force changes.

Storyboard from Rosie Chatterjea on Vimeo.

Script

EXT. WALK – EVENING

SARAH walks up a deserted and slightly eerie country path towards her home with her baby, GRACE.  She notices a MYSTERIOUS MAN approaching.

SARAH

Oh sorry.

Her voice sounds timid.

The man walks very slowly and remains silent as she passed him.  She seems scared by the encounter and when she arrives at her doorway she looks around as if to check that no one is there.

INT. KITCHEN – EVENING

Sarah enters the kitchen and closes the door behind her.  She turns around to face the window and gasps in horror as she realises the oven has been left on.

INT. BEDROOM – NIGHT

Sarah takes her baby to the bedroom and puts her to sleep.  She kisses her goodnight as she leaves.

Sarah leaves the baby to sleep and continues into her living room. She sits on the sofa and watches television

MAN

(through baby monitor)

Ssshhh.

Sarah hears the noise from the baby monitor and jumps up in shock to rush to Grace, only to find that she is no longer there.

Shot list

Shot List places an essential, professional-quality filmmaking tool in the hands of anyone putting together a scripted movie or video shoot, at a reasonable price. It allows us to plan shooting schedules, never miss a vital scene, view and store shot details and keep everyone informed

1.    Establishing long shot walking with the pram

2.    Medium close up of hooded figure

3.    Point of View shot of him looking at woman and pram

4.    Long shot of her behind

5.    Long shot of them bumping into each other

6.    Close up of toy falling to the floor

7.    Extreme close up of toys eyes

8.    Ellipses to a long shot of her unlocking the door

9.    Close up on keys

10. Cut away to bush medium shot

11. Point of view from bush on her

12. Match on action shot going through the door

13. Close up on face looking scared/shocked

14. Medium shot of oven

15. Extreme close up as she turns the oven off

16. When she walks away camera pans to the window – see man

17. Ellipses

18. Camera tracks her walking up the stairs – low angle

19. Medium close up of her rocking baby

20. Pans to her putting baby in bed

21. Close up of baby sleeping

22. Extreme close up of the baby monitor as she turns it on – dissolve – music

23. Ellipses to her watching TV 

24. Pans from TV to Rosie

25. ‘shh’ on the baby monitor – zoom in

26. Camera tracks her as she runs in room

27. Close up on mosses basket – baby is gone  - teddy is there insteadis there

Synopsis

Crime thriller - On the way home from a walk with her baby, a young woman has a strange encounter with a mysterious person, as she walks past him, she has an odd feeling about him. She thinks little of it, but senses that something isn’t right. She carries on walking home, trying to push aside her uncertain and unsettling feelings, jumping slightly at innocent things. She puts the baby to bed, again pushing aside her uncertainties, and goes to watch TV. After hearing a hushing noise coming from the baby monitor she jumps out of bed to check on the baby, to find that it has gone.