Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q1: In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

1 from meg2606

This is the link to my magazine cover and film poster survey.

Click here to take survey

Problems with our original location

Managing time with regards to filming has been difficult for our group as a result of problems with our chosen location. We originally made a shooting schedule, planning to have all of our filming done within three weeks. We were told however that we would have to postpone this by a month due to building work on Mulberry house.

We were initially prepared for this to be an issue as we were warned about it whilst shooting the animatic. In this regard, it was a shame that we weren't allowed to do any filming at the time we were photographing the animatic. At that time, the building had more of its original period features which added to our mise-en-scene, as our film is set in the past. When we were able to film we were slightly disappointed by the changes that had been made in the building, but at least we were still able to film in the cellar, conference room and canteen and chapel. We managed to shoot scenes of Harri (the psychiatrist) being led into the building up the steps, the interview scenes, and some patient scenes. We filmed Rachael as an extra patient, as well as a shot of Sean having a fit of anger in his room. We were also able to film Gethin being threatened by a knife,as he is one of Sean's suspects, (sean believes that Gethin is withholding information from him, and siding with the head of the asylum.)

It seemed positive when we were able to secure the first few filming sessions, but soon there were problems arranging dates again, due tobuilding contractors and health and safety supervisors.
In order to meet our deadline and get as much footage as possible, we decided to find a new location, whilst editing the footage we already had.

New Location

As a group we began discussing potential new locations. We felt that this would be more productive than waiting for possible dates to film at Mulberry house which our actors may not have been able to make, (especially if we were only given one day to complete everything.)

We started doing extra research of local locations, and discussing whether they would be appropriate, and what their advantages and disadvantages would be. We concluded on three main realistic locations, and contacted all of them. These were:

The Drama Centre

This building is just down the road from Mulberry House. It was one of our original considerations, but at the time we contacted, nobody was available. The building is large, spacious and also has period features. It is open regularly as more of a public building, so we felt that this would be good in terms of easily arranging filming dates which could last all day. 





The Hill college mansion house
The Hill college is directly behind our school , which again would be perfect for accessibility. As a college, it has shut down and the building remains unused except for occasional venue hire. We hoped that this would perhaps mean that the owners/ whoever is now responsible for the building, would allow us to film there just for a day or two. The grand exterior would have been perfect for some extra exterior asylum shots, and the corridors inside the college building would have created a good representation for corridors in a mental hospital. We decided that this building would be the most ideal choice, and so called numerous numbers to find out who was now responsible for the site. It was difficult to gain permission as Coleg Gwent are still responsible overall for the buildings. 




The Skirrid Inn
The Skirrid Inn has a massive reputation in Wales as one of the most haunted places in Britain. There are multiple stories about ghosts and hauntings as the building is so old. For this reason, we felt that the old features would create really effective mise-en-scene and create an overall creepy atmosphere. There is also an old stairwell which has an authentic noose hanging from the beam, where people had genuinely been hanged in the past. We felt that this might add some realism and clearly it was the perfect pre-set prop for a horror scene. It was however, the furthest away location and most difficult to access. We made calls to the Skirrid Inn but it was problematic asking for any more than an hour or two, and we were asked for payment to use the building for any longer than this time. As a result, we dismissed this location as a possibility, as it would also mean arranging transport for our actors and would limit our time.