Thursday 18 February 2010

Meeting to discuss the trailer

Today I went for a meeting with the director, Anthony to discuss ideas. He has a basic storyline about a young man who took a magic tablet and turned into a superhero. I told him that my trailer had to based on zombies and the main focus had to be my make up, so we adapted it so the boy who took the tablet turns into a zombie instead. Well, that was the initial idea. We watched various different horror trailers on You Tube such as '28 Days Later', '30 Days of Night', 'Land of the Dead', 'The Strangers', 'Hostage' and 'Saw' which got us into mood and started triggering ideas. One idea lead to another and finally we came up with a complete narrative for the story that we were both happy with, and that would exhibit my make up skills well. We started brainstorming every aspect and idea for the trailer. One main consideration is location: which we decided after watching clips from '28 Days' that we should shoot one particular zombie scene in London opposite the Houses of Parliament, and next to the London Eye as there's a fantastic straight walkway running next to the Thames that would be perfect for a zombie chase, which is one of the scenes in the trailer.

Why London, and why near the Houses of Parliament?

As I am from Kingston, south west London, it's easy to access as its only 2omins away and an easy meeting point, and make up base, for everyone else taking part. The Houses of Parliament and The London Eye are two of the most well known monuments in London, so the viewer can automatically relate to the location, as most people have either been to London, or recognise it from photos or films, this will automatically help make my trailer visually entertaining. There are scenes shot in '28 Days Later' at sunrise over Waterloo Bridge that look fantastic as you can just make out the Houses of Parliament in the background. When I watch it I feel proud to live in London but slightly uncomfortable that 'zombie's' could be roaming around the capital.

We also decided to shoot the walkway at the Embankment as it's a long strip that would be perfect for filming the zombie chase as there is the bridge in the background and steps to run down from. Also there are plenty of lights in the background which will look good on camera.

We will have to film at 5am as that is when the sun rises, and we need to film when absolutely no-one is around, as in the trailer everything is frozen in time, except for the zombies. I will have to make sure the make up is done well in advance, we'll need to leave at 4am to get to central London and set up. We'll need time to park and find the perfect location. We'll have to be quite speedy and not mess around, as it will quickly get busy and we won't be able to film.

Another location is our local off-licence where I used to work, as there is a part in the trailer where he steals money from the till. This would be ideal as I know the owner extremely well and he would definitely let us film there. He also has an extremely old cellar under the shop that's dark and dingy. It's where he keeps his stock, so it's full of boxes and bottles. Its very musty and eerie and looks like an old drug dealing den, so would be a perfect location to shoot the narration scenes where the boy is given the pill. I will double check with Frank the owner and ask if he'd mind us filming there, then we can start making dates.

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