Locations

The next part of my production was looking into locations. I originally had some ideas of where to film this ut wanted a wide range of possibilities in case some others sparked different ideas. However, I knew I wanted to film in a rural setting. This was because for all the superheroes who are confined to the city Thor is one that can appear in both and look natural. So I thought a rural setting would benefit by A; not having the noise and disruption of traffic, B; there's less likely to be people in the background not reacting properly to the events I'm filming, and C; if I could find strange enough locations they could look off-world, where as a city looks very earthly. The only disadvantage of this was that rural locations are harder to control in lighting and still have weather issues to plan around.

I wanted to display the process going around in my head, so firstly I wanted to document ideas for locations, and later scout them if they were a possibility.

1. The first idea was to use a ruin, so this world would look ancient and abandoned.
So I considered Bolton Abbey (which is often very busy even off peak times and would be difficult to film without people in shot); 

 Kirkstall Abbey: While I liked this I still felt it a little too well built and very earthly looking, but it did still provide a suitable location.

I also considered an ruin on a walk half way up a forest ridden valley in hebden bridge, but unfortunately I have no photographic reference to display.

2. Scottish Highlands. This was a very rural and old place virtually undisturbed by modern man. I love it up here but I also feel to bring a team of filming equipment and people up here would not be feasible and very expensive as we would have to spend most probably two nights there, and hotels aren't common.

Glen Coe. The enormous mountains and landscape provide a huge scale and would be brilliant to film in, and as many Hollywood films are filmed here (such as Skyfally, Harry Potter, Monty Python, Rob Roy and Highlander) it would be a very professional and believable location that would add scope and a high standard of locations. However, as I previously said, in the time scale and budget I have it is not possible to work here, although I would love too.

Another great location in the highlands (although there is many) would be Eilean Donan Castle. Used in: The New Avengers (1976), Highlander (1986) and James Bond - The World is Not Enough (1999). Although I don't know how a story would relate to Thor, (perhaps Loki is hiding out there?) I still feel it would be an excellent location, but again, the expense and distance makes it impossible for me to film there.

3. The next location I thought off was on the moors of Todmorden. one of them being the Bride Stone Rocks of Todmorden. These I thought were incredible, as they looked strange, oddly shaped, misplaced and I thought would work very well for a Sci-Fi location like what I needed. They could also provide a good location for an action scene as the environment is abstract and visually interesting.

The next location was just across the valley from here called Stoodely Pike, a 121 foot monument built in the 1800's to commemorate the defeat of Nappolean and the surrender of Paris in the Napoleonic Wars. This I felt was a brilliant location as it looks strange and misplaced like the Bride Stone Rocks, and looks like it could provide a structure that could have been for many uses, as it looks very mysterious and odd.

 

The last location that stood out in my mind was Malham cove, which was used in films such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.While I thought this location was great, with the large and imposing wall, I felt it looked good as it had a huge scale and looked abstract, but didn't really make a fantastic location for an action sequence. None the less, the location could prove very useful but again is often very busy.