Practical Task - Location Scouting

For my second location scouting practical, I decided that I wanted to make it more specific to our initial film opening idea. I visited Rochester Castle and Rochester Cathedral for my location scouting.

I took a variety of different shots using different angles and varying how close I was to the castle. This was effective as it portrayed the castle in different ways. Also, I didn't need to add any filters to my photographs as I liked the contrast of the stone castle against the grey sky.

 I liked the intricate details on the castle, including the different colours stones as well as the black windows which can be seen, as this added a mysterious tone to the castle as it could suggest that you are being watched from something within.

On the castle, I also liked how it wasn't quite perfect, as there were many imperfections to it such as missing bricks and different shapes, but this added to the feel of the castle, which I think would work really well with our initial plot.

As it there was a christmas fair when i visited the castle, i decided to take this to my advantage and photograph some of the fair ground rides which were there. I really liked the ferris wheel because of the bright colours and lights compared to then grey sky. 

I liked the angle of this picture and how the castle is presented, as a large number of the windows are seen as well as the brick detail on the very top of the castle. The christmas tree and fair ground rides in the forefront of the picture added a nice effect to the photo, as there is bright colours and lights compared to the bleak colours of the sky and castle.

Within the castle grounds, there was a large tree and as it was winter, all the leaves had fallen off. I really liked this because of how intricate and detailed each branch was, which added to the effect of the photograph having a mysterious and aged feel to it. Again, I did not need to edit or manipulate these photos in any way and was very lucky that they sky was dismal at the time when I took the photos.

As it got darker, the castle was lit up with bright white and red lights. I thought these were very effective and improved the eerie feel which is associated with the castle. The red light was effective as it was not a major part of the lighting or the shot, but it was visible enough to change the portrayal of the castle.

I then took some pictures of Rochester Cathedral, and because it was getting dark, it had been lit up with a series of spotlights. This added a huge effect to the photo as the bright light being focused on the building exaggerated all the details on the walls. This also increased the shadow in the shot and the light only focused on the spire.

 This is one of my favourite photos because the main focus of the shot is on the spire, although the rest of the Cathedral can be seen but is more of a darker shadowed colour, as the spotlight is not directed onto it. I also love the colour of the sky against the light colours of the Cathedral as this was a nice contrast.

Overall, I think the use of old buildings such as Cathedrals and Castles will be very effective for our opening sequence, as we can manipulate the light to highlight the parts of the building that are the best and most detailed, and old buildings in general come with an eerie feel and a sense of mystery. This specific location scouting will be very helpful in deciding where to film our project as we can have a comparison of different buildings in different areas to make our final decision.