Location Scouting - London

In this blog post I will be scouting a London location - specifically a block of flats in Market Place, the Blue, Bermondsey. I am very familiar with this location, and have easy access into one of the flats, and so I will look at the advantages and disadvantages of this setting.

 This location would only be used if we chose an urban drama genre, as it is a council estate in East London, which is a conventional location for films of this genre. Location is a key aspect of defining target audiences, and so a lot of thought must be put into the setting we choose for our film genre.
I firstly believed that this would be an effective location as it conforms to conventions of the genre by portraying the working negatively, as shown through the graffiti, considered vandalism, which is a criminal offence, and the overall uncleanliness of the location.

 Additionally, the use of signs warning of CCTV depicts how the working class cannot be trusted and so need to be constantly watched, and the advertisement of a karate club portrays how the working class are often shown as dangerous and violent.

I chose to take the photographs at night time as this is conventionally when most of urban drama films are shot, and so I wanted to see how the lighting would work in the dark. As shown, although the lighting was not terrible, it was also not the greatest quality, and so we would probably need to take additional lights with us.
The shots were taken from the top of the estate, and at the top there is a 'roof space' which is sealed off with bars and is locked, and so could be a potential location within the setting as this encapsulates how the working class often feel trapped within their social status and within their lives in general, and would also work as symbolism to convey how middle and upper classes view the working class as no better than animals kept in a zoo.

I also thought that this could be a potentially useful location as it offers a view of the London skyline, particularly showing the Shard which is an internationally iconic symbol that now represents London, and so would appeal to a specialist target audience who would recognise the building.

However, in the dark lighting it is fairly difficult to make out the structure, which could prove to be problematic.

Furthermore, from the top of this estate there is a view of conventional terrace houses which are commonly used as mies-en-scene with the British working class. 

Evaluation
We have decided that our chosen genre will be social realist, and so we could potentially use this location, but due to its many disadvantages, we will likely choose not to. Some of those disadvantages include travel issues as this location is in East London and so would be expensive to travel to, and it can also be a fairly dangerous area, particularly if we needed to take expensive photography equipment with us.