R + P Post 15: Our filming location, set design and props

Our chosen location is Emilio's garage, we chose it as we knew that we would be able to arrange it to make sure that it looks very dark, bare and just generally like an interrogation room. Myself and Emilio did an initial recce of his garage to see if we could clear the things in his garage to dress the set and make it look as it should. Here is a floor plan of Emilio's garage:

Floor plan of Emilio's garage

This is what the garage looked like before and after Emilio and I cleared it:

Emilio's garage before

Emilio's garage after

After the basic layout of the set was decided, as a group, we decided to create a props list such as:

• The clipboard with the file of the investigation gave the audience a brief glimpse into the character of Peter, who is never seen in person in the opening sequence.

• The light bulb was a crucial prop as we had to get the lighting perfect to match the common lighting conventions of crime mystery films. Also we wanted to use the effects of chiaroscuro to convey the morally dubious nature of all the characters. We achieved this final look by hanging the light bulb which was on a flex over some of the beams in Emilio's garage, this made the room seem even bigger as it was not clear where exactly the light was hanged.

• The white table and 2 chairs, this was a very important prop as we had to get it right for the tension in the scene to be correctly portrayed. In the test shoot we had a much longer table, we decided to change to a smaller table as it meant we could get tighter with the camera framing and increase the tension.

• The clock which we changed the time for every character that was being interviewed, this supported the non-linearity of the sequence and confirmed that when it cross cuts between  characters then time is actually changing.

• The audio recorder was important as it marked the transition point between the linear storyline and the non-linear storyline that was presented in our opening sequence.

• A phone and earphones and a pack of tissues