Recce Report and Risk Assessment

For the Keyframes of my film studies coursework, many locations were required. Whether this is for interactions between characters and their surroundings, or simply to fill the space in each scene.

The first, most prominent location used within my keyframes is Jake's bedroom. This bedroom belongs to the actor who portrays Jake, Shivam. The bedroom, pictured below, really gave me the feeling that I wanted to portray in the scene, despite breaking away from the original plan stated in the keyframe treatment.

Originally, I stated I wanted the room to be:

"a blank, minimalist room, with a monotone colour scheme"

As we can see, Shivam's room is nothing like this description at all. Shivam's room is very contrasting in its colours, which paints a very bright and vibrant picture for the character of Jake. The room remains bright and colourful during the morning hours, contrasting from the room during the nighttime scenes, seen below.

The room was able to suit lighter and darker scenes and still look appropriate to the scene. The room felt natural to one that someone of Jake's description, as Shivam was just a few years under Jake's age. I told him to leave his room exactly as it was, capturing that authentic feeling of the room.

The downsides to the room was the fact that it was naturally very bright due to two large velux windows on each roof slant. We corrected this problem by placing bedsheets in the windows, blocking out the majority of the light and then using my lighting equipment to illuminate the scene. Due to the use of these lights, I had to be careful of my light overheating, which could in turn catch fire and/or melt my coloured gel filters, damaging equipment and potentially hurting any who come in contact with the hot light(s). I decided to avoid this by turning off my lights when they weren't in use and making sure that they weren't covered by any flammable objects.
Another issue with the use of this location is the fact that the stairs leading to it are very steep. Myself and my actors had to be very careful climbing them as not to fall up or down them. To prevent this, we held the hand rail and took the stairs on slowly, avoiding distractions.

A second, quite used location is the exterior area of my school. I chose this area as it looked very professional and business-y, whilst also having a large field spanning off into the horizon, which was great for shots in which I wanted to make characters feel isolated.

There are several risks associated with this location, including the weather permitting the times in which we could shoot the rest of the scenes, as any rain or cold could damage my equipment and cause harm to anyone that comes in contact with them, due to the conductivity of water mixing with the electricity surging through my equipment. To prevent this, I checked the weather outside before dedicating that time for shooting the scenes.

Another risk assosicated is the slipperiness of the ground tiles and the mud that could occur after rainfall or with frosty conditions. These conditions can cause my actors or myself to slip and come to harm, or have equipment damaged by the fall. Again, this could be avoided with a small weather check and was tested before allowing my actors to step out on shoots.