Our Shoot: Photos

The Actors

HANNAH- THE VICTIM

MIKE N- PSYCHOPATH

MIKE T- INSPECTOR

Makeup

Location

Our Shoot: Behind The Scenes

This post goes into more detail about behind the scenes on the days before and the day of our shoot.

• What did you do the night before/Morning of?
The morning of the shoot, we made sure that everyone involved in the shoot met in good time before we needed to leave to go to location to ensure that everyone had everything they needed and to make sure we had time when we got to the Church. At the Church, we did the makeup for Hannah (the actress who played our victim). We decided that we would not use a makeup artist and instead a member of our production group, Vic, learnt how to do special effects makeup so that we could ensure that we got the exact look that we wanted


• What did you prepare before the shoot?
The days before our shoot, we collected all of the props and costumes that we needed for our shoot and kept them in a classroom so that they were all together and to minimize the risk of them getting lost or losing them on the day of the shoot. This meant that we were able to transport the things easily and everything was in one place for when we needed it on location. As a group we all did various bits of research to help make our thriller the best it could be. Nanci researched; hostage negotiation and the location of a church. I looked into what a psychopath was so that we could stay true to this with our actor and I researched famous film psychopaths to give our actor Mike some inspiration. Vic researched the location of a church and looked into how to do special effects makeup.
Doing this research before our shoot meant that we were well prepared and we were able to get  on with shooting in good time. The extra research also gave me ideas about what the actors should do and made sure that the dialogue we had written made sense for our characters.

• What did you do on set/location to create what you needed/wanted?

We were on location at a Church so we already had all the things that we needed. Because we hadn't actually visited the Church before, we had to spend some time looking around so that we could decide as a group, where we wanted the different shots to be filmed. Once we decided this, went went through the scene with our actors, just so they knew what they were doing but also so we could see what it would look like and if the layout worked. The Church had two different sections. The aisle led up to a higher up area with the alter, which is where we decided to film. This was ideal for what we needed because we could have the policeman walking up the aisle towards the hostage victim and the psychopath. This showed the audience that the psychopath had the ultimate power, because he was raised above the policeman with the hostage victim.  

• What took time at the start of the shoot?
The thing that took the most time at the start of the shoot was changing the lighting to ensure that everything could be seen on camera. As we were filming in a Church, we only had natural light and so we had to set up a few lights to make sure that all the shots could be seen, but we had to make sure it wasn't too light, otherwise the overall moss of the sequence would change.
Another thing that took time at the start of the shoot was setting up props and transporting them all to location. Our shoot involved quite a few props and especially makeup items so we had to make sure that  we had them all with us because we weren't able to go back and get them. In addition, we had to do Hannah's makeup on set to make sure it worked in the setting and with the lighting we had.


• What was the most difficult element of the shoot? For you and your group?
The most difficult element of the shoot was getting all the shots that we needed. The best way of filming was to not film the shots in order and so this made it more difficult to work out whether we had got everything that we needed before we finished and left the location. We also had to work around the fact that it was very cold in the church an so we had to make sure that our main actress (Hannah) didn't get too cold during the process as she was only wearing a white dress.


• How well did you think you did as a group?
I think we did well as a group because we were organised and we knew what we wanted to achieve and all the things we wanted to film. However, there was a communication issue as we did not talk and communicate as effectively as we could have and so that may have made the process more difficult.

Our Shoot: Evaluation

Today we had our final shoot. Overall, I think that it was extremely successful. Below are some evaluation points of the day:

What went well:

• Having our shot list with us made sure that we got everything done faster because we had already decided what we wanted to shoot. 
• The shot list also meant we kept many of our original ideas which made everything go faster but also more fun because we knew what we wanted to achieve and so were able to give the actors very specific instructions.
• We worked effectively to change any ideas to make them work in our location.
• We were also able to add some more imaginative elements to the scene. Our actor, Mike, who played the psychopath had a Christmas song stuck in his head which sparked an idea and gave us inspiration to included it in our sequence. 
• I really enjoyed my role as director and I think each person in the group having a different role made everyone work together more effectively.

What didn't go well & how we overcame this:

• Our location was a Church and so it was very cold meaning that everyone was uncomfortable, particularly our main actress Hannah, whose costume was a white summer dress. To make sure that she wasn't too cold and therefore shivering in every shot, we gave her a jacket and blanket in between takes to keep her warm. 
• The retractable knife broke halfway through filming, but luckily, one of the group members, Vic had one spare that she had ordered, so we were able to use that instead.
• Sometimes, we did not communicate as well as we could have in the group, particularly because of it being such a large location but also because we all had slightly different ideas about the scene and the location changed those and sparked new ideas but having the roles (director, camera operator and sound operator) made communication easier.

Research: Hostage Negotiation Tactics

There are three especially dangerous periods during a hostage crisis. The first is the initial 15-45 minutes because confusion and panic are likely to be greatest.

The second is during the surrender of the hostage takers (HTs), when strong emotions and lack of coordination can cause a resolution to go bad.
Finally, using firemen or bringing in other people to rescue the hostages carries the highest casualty rate

Different departments may have varying team structures. The most important role of a hostage crisis response team is the negotiator. Usually there is one primary negotiator and one or more secondary or backup negotiators.


Tips on how to negotiate a hostage:

• First, when beginning negotiations, try to minimize background distractions
• Open your dialogue with an introduction and statement of purpose: “This is Sgt. Bruce McGill of the Metropolitan Police Department Crisis Unit. I’m here to listen to you and to try to make sure everybody stays safe.”  Keep the introduction as simple as possible, and always strive for honesty and credibility. Keep your voice firm but calm, and convey your confidence in the fact that this is a temporary crisis that will be resolved safely.  
• Ask what the HT likes to be called. When in doubt, address them respectfully. Try to use a name that is familiar to them. 
• Speak slowly and calmly. People’s speech patterns tend to mirror the tone of the dominant conversation, so provide a model of slow, calm, clear communication from the outset. Avoid letting your pitch rise or your speech rate quicken excessively in response to frustration, irritation, or provocation. 

Research: Famous Movie Psychopaths

CHRISTIAN BALE IN AMERICAN PSYCHO

ANTHONY PERKINS IN PSYCHO

BEN KINGSLEY IN SEXY BEAST

GLENN CLOSE IN FATAL ATTRACTION

NAO OMORI IN ICHI THE KILLER

Research: What Is A Psychopath?

Psychopathy is a difficult order to spot because the psychopath can appear normal, even charming. They lack conscience and empathy which makes them unpredictable, manipulative and often criminal. Psychopathic traits are more innate, however a chaotic or violent upbringing may push people to behave psychopathically. Some researchers make a distinction between “primary psychopaths,” who are thought to be genetically caused, and “secondary psychopaths,” seen as a product of their environments. 

The psychopathy checklist describes psychopaths as showing a lack of empathy or “coldheartedness”. For us, caring is largely driven by emotion, however, the brains of psychopaths have been found to have weak connections among the areas of the brain’s emotional systems. These being disconnected are the reason for the psychopath’s inability to feel emotions deeply.  Psychopaths are also not good at detecting fear in the faces of other people. In addition, psychopaths have extremely high thresholds for disgust. 

Psychopaths show a lack of social emotions, such as; shame, guilt and embarrassment. Cleckley said that the psychopaths he came into contact with showed “lack of remorse or shame.” When normal people are put into an experimental situation where they anticipate that something painful will happen, such as a mild electric shock, a brain network activates. Normal people will also show a clear skin conductance response; sweating. In psychopathic subjects, however, this brain network showed no activity and there was no sweating.

Final Shot List

Shot no.	Scene description	Props	Costumes	Actors	Location
1	A shot of a murderer’s back as he stands in front of an altar	n/a	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer)	Altar
2	A shot of the murderer walks off to the side which reveals a tray with different torture instruments	Tray with torture instruments	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer)	Church
3	A shot of the murderer’s face looking at the victim as he’s about to stab her (as he cuts a piece of cellotape, which isn’t in the frame)	n/a	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer)	Church
4	A shot of the gun being dropped on the ground	Gun	n/a	n/a	Church
5	A shot of the stained-glass window with a Jesus’ image	n/a	n/a	n/a	Stained glass window
6	A shot of a knife laying on the floor next to the victim’s feet	Knife	Blue dolly shoes for victim	Hannah (Victim)	Church
7	A shot of policeman getting a radio set out	Walkie Talkie	Detective uniform	Mike (policeman)	Church
8	A shot of victim plunging towards the murderer	Knife	Vicitm & murderer costumes	Mike (murderer) Hannah (victim)	Church
9	A close up of two legs (dolly shoes and tights) tied up to a chair	Rope, Chair	Blue dolly shoes for victim	Hannah (victim)	Church
10	An close up of the victim's (wounded/bruised) face in the darkness - she’s tied up to a chair - the victim is clearly discombobulated, she is peering into the darkness around her, squinting	Rope, Chair	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
11	A close up of the victim’s face as she starts getting worried and looks behind her shoulder	n/a	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
12	A close up of the victim’s hands behind her back also tied up to a chair	Rope, Chair	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
13	A close up of the victim’s face struggling, trying to escape the bondage	Rope, Chair	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
14	A close up of the victim’s face helplessly screaming and panicking, looking up at the murderer as the back of his head appears in the frame	n/a	n/a	Hannah (victim) Mike (murderer)	Church
15	A close up of the victim’s face as the murderer tapes her mouth	Tape	n/a	Hannah (victim) Mike (murderer)	Church
16	A close up of the murderer smiling and saying “we only started”	n/a	n/a	Mike (murderer)	Church
17	A close up of the murderer turning around as he steps behind the victim on the chair and puts a knife to her throat and makes a big smile, saying “try to make me”	Chair Rope Knife	Victim & murderer costumes	Hannah (victim) Mike (murderer)	Church
18	A close up of the victim’s hands, trying to untie the rope	Rope	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
19	A close up of the victim’s hands, carefully untying the rope	Rope	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
20	A close up of the murderer’s face giggling, saying “you really think you can stop me with this?”	n/a	n/a	Mike (murderer)	Church
21	A close up of the victim’s hands, almost free of the bandage	Rope	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
22	A close up of the policeman saying “...i will have to call the troop”	Walkie Talkie?	Detective costume	Mike (policeman)	Church
23	A close up of the murderer’s side bleeding (camera tilts up)	n/a	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer)	Church
24	A close up of the murderer with his head down, rising his head up and laughing hysterically	n/a	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer)	Church-altar
25	A close up of the policeman's and victim’s faces looking scared and confused	n/a	n/a	Hannah (victim) Mike (policeman)	Church
26	A close up of the murder tilting his head back and to the side, staring at the other two and blowing out the candles on the rack behind him	Candles	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer)	Church-altar
27	A mid shot of the murderer shaking the burning match to put out the fire as he turns around	Match Candles	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer)	Church-altar
28	A mid shot of the victim panicking	n/a	Victim costume	Hannah (victim)	Church
29	A mid shot of the policeman with a gun shouting “get on the floor”	Gun	Policeman costume	Mike (policeman)	Church
30	A mid shot of the policeman putting one of his hands in the air and bending down to reach the ground with the hand holding the gun	Gun	Policeman costume	Mike (policeman)	Church
31	mid-shot of the policeman with his hands up, saying “calm down. the place is surrounded, there are men with guns at each exit”	n/a	Policeman costume	Mike (policeman)	Church
32	mid-shot of the policeman saying "listen, i’m only here to negotiate”	n/a	Policeman costume	Mike (policeman)	Church
33	Back to the policeman saying “just let the girl free and we won’t hurt you”	n/a	Policeman costume	Mike (policeman)	Church
34	A mid shot of her bending down	n/a	Victim costume	Hannah (victim)	Church
35	A mid-shot of the policeman taking the girl in his arms and pointing his gun at the murderer	Gun	All costumes	All characters	Church
36	A long shot from behind the altar - the murderer slowly walks down the stairs with a knife, approaching the victim (the back of the murderer can be seen, maybe a little from the side)	Knife	All costumes	All characters	Church-altar
37	A long shot of a door kicked open and a policeman entering	n/a	Policeman costume	Mike (policeman)	Church
38	A long shot of the murderer standing over the victim (from the back)	n/a	Murderer and victim costume	Mike (murderer) Hannah (victim)	Church
39	A mid-long shot of the girl running towards the policeman	n/a	Murderer and victim costume	Mike (murderer) Hannah (victim)	Church
40	An extreme close up of the victim’s eyes closed, she then opens them	n/a	Victim	Hannah (victim)	Church
41	An extreme close up of a match being ignited and lighting up a candle	Candles Match	n/a	n/a	Church
42	An extreme close up of the murderer’s hand picking up one of the knives	Knife	n/a	Mike (murderer)	Church
43	An extreme close up of the victim’s eyes looking up and to the side	n/a	Victim costume	Hannah (victim)	Church
44	Back to the eyes looking down to the side this time	n/a	Victim costume	Hannah (victim)	Church
45	An extreme close up of her grasping the knife	Knife	n/a	Hannah (victim)	Church
46	An extreme close up of the murderer’s side being stabbed with a knife	Knife	Murderer costume	Mike (murderer) Hannah (victim)	Church