Risk assessment (by locations)

Winchmore School: Schools are busy places, which means there are many things that pose a risk to filming. There are a great number of kids running around which means that filming is slowed due to people trying to walk through the set. Meticulous time planning is required to be able to film smoothly and without issue – i.e. filming only into separate periods ensuring time for all the students to get to classes, settle down and begin working to ensure no unnecessary interruptions. There are a number of teachers in the school that need not to be disturbed while teaching. As a result the noise pollution needs to be taken into account and quieter scenes may be shot. We were not able to make as much noise and ruckus as we would have liked during the conflict scene between Laura and Erica, although this was something that we had taken into account. The surroundings needed to be assessed as well as we were working with a locker and so needed to be aware of the door and position of it in relation to the actors and the camera shots. 

44 New River Crescent – the house: The house is private property and so needs to be treated with the upmost respect. Spatial awareness when filming inside the house is a must. Things can be damaged in the house by bulky camera equipment and clumsy film crews so equipment needs to be placed delicately and sets selected carefully, to ensure minimal disruption. Noise needs to be managed but luckily for us the people in the house were not bothered about the amount of noise needed for the tense fight between Lindsey and Vincent. Respect for property is also key as any mess made in the house needs to be cleaned well. The filming needs to be done with the least amount of hassle for the family and for the film crew. Movement of family members also needs to be considered, as the scenes need to be shot without interruption. However, thankfully the family members in the house were fairly sedentary and stayed out of our way. 

Laburnum Grove: The main and most obvious risk of filming on a road like Laburnum Grove is the cars that will be driving up and down it. Crossing the road safely with media equipment is extremely important and all movement and positioning needs to be done with road safety in mind at all times. As well as avoiding the cars due to danger, it is important to be aware of them in regards to the shots – driving into shots or the noise caused by them drowning out the dialogue or the surrounding sounds. Because people live in Laburnum Grove it is also important to be aware of people being caught on camera or walking through the shots. The noise of the surrounding area: the houses, the school and the wind and atmosphere were also taken into account as we needed to be sure that it wouldn’t show up as much through the sound of the clips, and focus more on the dialogue of the characters.

‘The Pit’: The wide-open area we used had a number of things we needed to consider. The various animals and birds needed to be accounted for – the birdsong and possible squirrels that might blunder on screen. Because it is an open area, the wind would be stronger and louder so we needed to get the actors to speak louder to compensate for the wind noises that our camera would also pick upon. Our biggest issue about shooting in the pit was the dog walkers that were milling around. The dogs on a lead were noisy but were reasonably controlled. The ones that were off leads posed more of a problem as they had the potential to get in the way of the filming by coming in and around where we were shooting, making noise and disrupting the set. Thankfully none of this actually happened but it was very annoying as we had to stop every time a dog and owner came into shot or was within earshot of our scene.