Chantage Specifics

CHANTAGE ACTORS

Connor Smith............... Ernest Hamilton

Holly Hayes................. Vivian Peterson

Tom Roper................... Roy Peterson

Helen Inman................ Evelyn Harris

Nathan Gilbert............. Richard Wilkinson

Barney Taylor.................. Passer-by

CHANTAGE FILMING LOCATIONS

Chantage was filmed in five different locations including the school kitchen, the street outside Megan's house, the back of Tesco's car park, an alleyway branching off of the high street and the summer house at the bottom of my garden. The following is a rundown of those locations, what was filmed there and why we chose to film what we did where we did:

The Summer House:

The summer house appears in two scenes, both scene 1 and scene 3. We used the summer house as Roy's office in which Vivian threatens him and he has a meeting with his solicitors. We used the summer house because it can either be very bright or very dark. It also has blinds which enabled us to create some interesting shadows that followed the traditional film noir convention. The summer house also had a desk with a large monitor and other office equipment which would show exactly the kind of man Roy is. Professional, wealthy and important. We also have studio lighting in the summer house as it's also used as my photography studio which meant which could use these lights

The Kitchen:

We decided to use our school kitchen because the colours were simple and bright which helped to represent the innocence and happiness that we wanted to radiate from Evelyn in contrast the much darker atmosphere we wanted to radiate from Vivian. The kitchen was also very easy to access as it was in our school and meant that we could film during film time as we were already finding it hard to meet up outside of school. The kitchen also looked good in black and white and helped to create a very clear contrast between thee actors/actresses and the white cupboards. The natural lighting that filtered through the window also really helped to create a bright, positive lighting that would again show the good, sweet character that Evelyn was and also how good Ernest was before Vivian tricked him.

Alder Close:

We decided to use Alder Close to film some of our night time scenes as it was dark, but was also lit up by a fair amount of street lights which would enabled our camera to pick up the faces of our actors and actresses. We chose Alder close specifically because it was cut off from any main roads so the background noise of any cars would be minimum and there would be very few people that could pass by and potentially interrupt one of our takes. The road was also very easily accessible for all of our actors, it wasn't too far and was even walking distance for those who couldn't drive. This made it easier for all of our crew to meet together and film.

Tesco Car Park:
We filmed the murder scene in our local Tesco's rear car park. This was because it was lit up evenly by a lot of street lights and is normally very empty as it's only often used by employees. As you can see from the Google maps view to the right you can see that it's a big, open space surrounded by tall trees. This would enable us to film without being interrupted by people passing by. The car park was also local and looked almost abandoned when you film from the right angle which really helped aid our story. Towards the very back of the car park it's very empty and hasn't been very well kept meaning that filming here gave our film an abandoned and intimidating feel which helped again to set the mood of the film. 

Pepper Alley:

For the final scene in our film we decided to film in an alleyway as this is a very common location for film noir. We also received a lot of audience feedback when researching which told us that alleyways were very effective and common in film noirs which helped lead us to the final decision of filming in an alleyway. However, for this scene we decided to film during the day time to break the typical convention of film noir. Pepper Alley is a very narrow alleyway that's also quite long. Filming here helped create a lot of shadows as it was a bright sunny day. The alleyway was also very close to our school which again helped us to film during school time

CHANTAGE CHARACTER COSTUMES

The costume we wanted for out femme fatale was elegant, classy and sophisticated. We didn't want it to radiate seductive-ness or anything too revealing as for our film the femme fatale was intelligent, serious and threatening. Our femme fatales main costume can be seen to the right. The colours are fairly neutral except for the skirt which is the part of the outfit that shows the traditional red found on traditional femme fatales. To accompany the clothing, we included red lipstick, red nail varnish and black heels. This was the complete look for Vivian our femme fatale and it helped to bring out her personality perfectly in comparison to the sweet Evelyn. Evelyn was the stay at home girlfriend who is sweet, honest and caring. Evelyn wears bright, sophisticated colours, her top is a bright pink with pastel white and blue flowers. The flowers show an obvious sign of innocence and kindness. Evelyn's trousers are office, black and show that she's modest and professional in comparison to Vivian wearing a shorter skirt. Evelyn wears little make up and simple black shoes. The two characters wear completely different costumes which shows how opposite their characters and personalities are. All of the male characters wear suits. This shows that they are business men who are professional and smart.  The suits show specifically that Ernest and Richard are working men who are on the job, it shows that Roy is also a working man who is wealthy and knowledgeable. At the end scene, Vivian has changed which shows that it's a new day (3 months later) and again it breaks the traditional convention of a film noir femme fatale. We chose this outfit as it shows dark colours that would really stand out in black and white in order to create a really contrast which actually is a very common film noir convention that we conformed to.

CHANTAGE FILMING PROPS

For Chantage we only had one major prop which was the gun used to kill Roy. I bought this gun from Amazon for a very low price and it was perfect. We decided to go for an older style of gun to represent how old film noirs are. The rest of our film was modern since we used iPhones, computers and modern costumes. In order to represent the history of film noir we used an old fashioned pistol style of gun to shoot Roy, almost as a tribute to all of the classic film noirs. We also used some other smaller props like a folder with fake documents in it to show Roy changing his inheritance and a fake Chanel purse that Vivian drops in order to capture the attention of her next victim, "The Handsome Man".