Location Recce

Production Details: The Huge Snooze: A short Film Noir.

Producer: Ciaran Davis

Details of Location: A foot tunnel in London used to represent a foot tunnel in 1930’s New York. In this scene, the films main protagonist, PI Marshal Mallows runs down the tunnel towards the camera, and his hat comes flying off behind him.

Address: Greenwich Foot Tunnel, Greenwich, London.

Advantages of location: The main advantages of using the Greenwich Tunnel was that it is an old fashioned tunnel so fitted in with the 1930’s era; and also there isn’t any graffiti on the walls or signs that will make it clearly modern. There is nothing about this location that makes it obvious that it is not really a foot tunnel in 1930’s New York. As the ceiling lights are the only form of light in the entire tunnel, as no sunlight gets in due to it being so far underground, the lights create an interesting shadow effect on the ceiling. This is perfect for Film Noir as the genre heavily focuses on light and shadow play.

Location Considerations (problems, timings, permission etc): The only problems I faced while filming in this location was the amount of ordinary members of the public walking through the Tunnel while we were filming. This meant that we had to time the tunnel sequence perfectly, to not capture anybody in modern clothing or with modern objects, i.e. a ruck sake or a bike.

Details of Location: This flat was used as the interior of the main protagonist, PI Marshall Mallows, office.

Address: 37 Vicarage Way, Colnbrook, Slough, London

Advantages of location: The main advantage of this location was that it is my father’s flat, who played the main protagonist Marshall Mallows, so we did not have to hire out a suitable venue to film in, and it didn’t matter how long it took us to film the scenes. Also, my father collects antiques which were perfect for bringing the set to life when I built the set to look like a stereotypical 1930’s New York detective’s office as conventionally seen in Film Noir.

Location Considerations (problems, timings, permission etc):  There were no real issues with filming in this location, apart from the fact that the flat is so small; so the set and the filming equipment took up a lot of space.