Directions | Development: Changes and Complications

As is the case with most productions, not everything has turned out entirely as planned.  Despite being able to come to a finished product, there have been some trials and tribulations with the production process.

I found the most trouble in this project came through trying to find locations for the corridor and stairwell scenes.  I had the perfect location for the hospital room scene, but the other filming locations were much harder to come by, even to the point where I was forced to alter the script to accommodate for this problem.  I had intended to use a corridor and stairwell at Maidstone Studios as these fit in with the aesthetic and mood of the piece.  However difficulties arose for several reasons:

• For the stairwell scene, I needed the lights switched off and for my lead actor to light a match - this was not possible to do in the studios because of health and safety issues due to a lack of visibility and a naked flame.
• I could also only film this scene on the Sunday due to prior commitments of my crew and talent, yet the studios do not open on weekends.  This would mean that a member of the site team will need to let us in to shoot and thus would cause disruption.

This showed me that the studios may not be the ideal place to shoot my scenes due to the logistics of when and what I would be filming and as a result, I will not be allowed to use the studios for my filming.  Therefore I had to browse for more potential filming locations.

I have also decided to prepare to alter the script in such a way that I can work around not having the stairwell scene:

• I could end the sequence just as Rick leaves enters the stairwell, and end by panning to the 'fire exit' sign, which would bring forth the idea that Rick does escape rather than literally showing us as we see in the original scene.  This would also allow me to cut the part where Rick finds the matches, as this would no longer be relevant to the scene.
• I could also potentially shoot the stairwell scene in a darkened room, as we would not see much of the staircase anyway due to the extremely low-key lighting.

The corridor scene would also require a desk for the telephone to be placed on - since this may not be possible with wherever I end up shooting this scene, I concluded that I could simply place a mobile phone for Rick to find which would work to the same effect.