Location Research.

Last week I took a visit to my local cinema during a viewing time, to pitch to them our film idea and ask them whether or not it would be possible to film in their cinema. The staff directed me to the manager and I explained my idea to him, at first he was a little unsure, as it would mean  opening the cinema for us out of his work hours. After further explaining our idea to create a short thriller/documentary film on the history of his cinema, he began to really love the idea and became very enthusiastic. He gave me his contact details and asked me to send him an email with the dates of when we want to film. He also started to tell me some of his own ghostly experiences he had, whilst working in the cinema, which we could definitely incorporate into our film!

I later went home and wrote a very long email explaining the details of what we wanted to do. Below is a copy of the email I sent:

Hello,

My name is Laura Johnson and I am currently studying Media at.... I visited...cinema last week and was told to address the email to Rob, regarding filming in your cinema to create a short film. You seemed very keen and gave me this email to let you know dates etc.

Myself and my media partner Michelle want to Create a documentary styled film about the history of your cinema. We plan on the documentary being partly fiction but holding some truth regarding the cinema being an old Gaol in the past. We will use actors to play most characters but if any of your staff are willing to appear in our film, that would be great to add a realistic sense to our documentary.

Would it be possible to film for two days in your cinema? Perhaps the 14th and 15th of September which is a Saturday and Sunday?

Myself and Michelle really appreciate this opportunity and are extremely excited to create this film. We would like to know if we are able to use the name of your cinema for our film as we are planning on creating a hype before it's released? Our plan is to create a 'Blair Witch' buzz with the locals asking themselves' 'is this real?' I currently write for the local newspaper and I hope to write an article regarding the film for the paper. We think that this would not only be a great opportunity for ourselves but also for your business.

I hope you are as enthusiastic about this as we are and we really appreciate your time. Please don't hesitate to ask any more questions and I would love to know if you or any of your staff have had any paranormal experiences in the cinema, or if you know any more about the history.

I hope those dates will be okay for you but if not could you suggest two different days please for the beginning of september. I look forward to hearing from you shortly. Thanks.

Laura.

Very shortly after, I had a reply:

Hi Laura, That's fine I will be happy to help you ,give me a ring a few days before, the dates are fine ,Regards ...

I am extremely happy we have secured our location for filming. I will call him a few days before we go in to film and I will ask again for their permission to use the name of the cinema. We need to be professional and considerate with what they are happy for us to do. After this good news, myself and Michelle decided to start planning where we're going to get our filming equipment from. We both have connections with our local Media studio in town, so we decided to give them an email and ask if we could use one of their professional cameras for the 14th and 15th of September. The studio responded very quickly and is happy to help! They have booked the camera ready for us to collect on the Friday before filming.

I feel that in the past week we have got lots organised and now we need to work on our storyboards and scripts, making sure they are very accurate. We now need to start thinking about casting and our ancillary tasks. We would like to release our poster and newspaper article before the film is released to create a buzz, therefore we need to begin our research into film posters, so that we are ready to start producing them very soon.