Location Recce | Development

Before making an overall decision on the locations we will be using for the shoot, we needed to do a location recce in order to look over every detail and envisage what each scene would look like in the locations.

The first location we will most definitely be using is Laura's house, and the different rooms we'll be using are the living room, kitchen, dining room and entryway.

Living Room

There are two sofas, a rug, a TV and two coffee tables. One small table is placed next to the sofas against the wall, and one large table is placed in the center of the room. The large coffee table that sits on the rug will need to be moved within one of the first scenes in the house, as it will be replaced by a yoga mat. We will potentially move the table in front of the doors, leading to the back garden, as the doors won’t be in use and it’s out of the way in terms of the set and where the cameras will be placed. The coffee table will then be moved back for any other scenes in this room to show the change of time during the day, and it will stay there during days that we aren't filming in that room.

When the shoot is in a different room, this room can be used for actors to sit and rest when they are not needed on the shoot. 

To dress the set, there will be photographs and a few traditional ornaments, spread around the room.  This will be done to give the impression that the couple have collected these items over the years, which helps in showing their age. The family photographs, including their children and grandchildren, will highlight that they miss the connection they used to have with them, and their need for being involved in their life again.

The room is spacious which gives us a lot of area to work with in terms of dressing the set, and placing the cameras in suitable positions.

Entryway

The entryway is an open space that has a staircase, sideboard and a shoe cupboard. To decorate this room, we will place small knick knacks along the side board, along with some framed pictures of the family. The knick knacks will include quaint ornaments that are vintage or old fashioned, potentially some letters, and little necessities like a pot of keys or any items used daily. This room is the first the audience will see of the Davis house, so it must introduce the family clearly and work alongside the story.

The room is quite large, meaning a good area for set design and camera placement, but it's not very big that it takes the audience away from their determination to become famous and almost wealthy.

Kitchen

The kitchen is a mix of traditional and modern, which suits the characters trying to be young again and updating their look.  There’s a ‘To Do List’ chalkboard on one of the walls which will say “Be Young & Get Famous” to play alongside the characters doing everything to gain the attention of their children and grandchildren. In the kitchen there will be utensils on the side to show they are experienced and well equipped, but obviously set up in a tidy way to show that the characters aren’t messy. There will be moments within the episode, where props will be used by the characters, so there needs to be enough space for movement and improv when handling those props. Due to this room being quite big and not too small, it means we have enough space for the characters interaction with props and other characters, while also having room for the cameras. Not much extra designing needs to be done for this room as it is already in the state that is needed for the scenes in this area.

Dining Room

This room has an oak table and six chairs along with a sideboard at the back of the room. On the sideboard will be an old clock, one of Annie’s precious objects, which in the episode is seen to have some technical problems. This prop will need to be added to the set as it isn’t an original item within the household. We've decided that the dining room table is always dressed as the neighbours often come round uninvited and Annie tries her hardest to be “the hostess with the mostess”. This means that the room needs to be presentable and tidy, with very little mess and items around the room.

This room is also quite large, meaning good space for the cameras and actor movement, but it's not large which is perfect for what we want.

All of the rooms within the house are prefect for Annie & Dean's house as it shows the progress of them wanting to become young, through the mix of modern and traditional decor. It's also large enough for the crew and cast to fit in to the rooms, along with cameras and other props we may need, which is what we originally desired, due to the Multicam set up we wish to do.

Another location that we will be using, but have yet to view is the project space room at our university. It will need to be dressed to look like a conference room, which will be done through props and camera positions.

Project Space Room

This room is quite large and will need to be set up to look like a magazine release event. For this a presentation board will be needed, as a magazine front cover image will be stuck on top of it along with other front covers posted on the walls to show the reason for the event. A table will be situated somewhere within the room, and on top of that will be a couple of champagne bottles and champagne flutes. This won’t be too difficult to complete, and it should have the resemblance of a conference room.

Due to the large room, there were will be enough space to manipulate the size of the room and fit all of the cameras in together with the cast and crew.

Overall, we are all really happy with the locations for our episode. We still need to visit the project space room, but as the script develops we may need to find new locations.