On Monday the 12th of May, 2014, me and my mother returned to Kelevedon Hatch - the secret nuclear bunker - and spoke to people who worked there. Because we weren't allowed to take pictures before, we were then allowed to re-enter the bunker free of charge, and take photographs of the location, and confirm more details about filming there.
This is the main entrance to the bunker. It's an extremely long, dimly lit corridor that slopes down gradually towards the main doors of the bunker. I'm planning on filming the 'escape' scenes here, where they are heading towards the exit but are cornered as they do so.
Just past this corridor, outside of the blast doors, there's two small rooms for some sort of communications centre. I'm not sure I'd use this, and it's fenced off anyway, but it looks interesting at least.
Slightly further along, but also fenced off, there's a small room containing decommissioned guns and props. There's also a sign on the door saying that they rent these out to a film company to use. When the owner of the bunker returns from his holiday, I'm going to ask about possibly being allowed to use these for my filming too.
These are the blast doors to the bunker. They're huge, and weigh about the same amount as a car each, but they look very sci-fi and might work well for scenes where someone is unable to access somewhere due to these doors.
This staircase is more or less in the middle of the bunker. There's three flights of stairs that lead to each floor, and would look interesting for a chase scene, if there is one at all. The only issue is the signs that are placed around for visitors, so I would have to cover them up somehow when filming.
One of the doors that lead off from the bottom of the staircase is the rooms with the telecommunication devices inside. I asked my mother to stand at the top of this small staircase to demonstrate how I could frame a shot if the main characters are entering a room, for example.
This room is also extremely interesting. It would be nice for a shot of someone walking past all the equipment, but the walkway is extremely narrow, and the equipment is all fenced off too, so it wouldn't look as good.
The room with the communication devices in was interesting, but because of how dated the machines are, I doubt I would use it to film in.
There's another room that's something like the command room of the bunker. It's large, open and has a number of maps and location coordinates, etc. It looks like it could be quite good to use as a location for filming, and we would be able to remove any barriers so therefore it would look decent too.
This huge table in the middle of the room could possibly be moved a little bit to be able to give us more space to set up a camera and film in, and we've been told that we can also remove the metal barriers to make it look more realistic. I would not be planning to get the plan in shot, however.
My mother noticed this red light on the ceiling. I was planning to use torches and red gels to create a smilier effect of flashing alarms, but I'm planning to ask more about this to see if we could maybe use it in the shot.
My mother possibly suggested using this as a spot to film in, which I found quite interesting. The wall is actually glass and see-through, but from this angle, you can't tell and it looks like a solid brick wall which someone could hide behind.
Slightly further over, there's a small room that looks like a makeshift living quarters. Although it is interesting, I doubt I would use this in any shots.
These are some stairs that seem quite dark and mysterious. I am unsure what they actually lead to, however, so I will ask more about it after the bunker owner returns from his holiday.
There are a second set of blast doors that lead to something of a air filter room, which looks interesting, and could possibly be used for filming.
At the end of this room, there's an emergency staircase which I've been told we would be allowed to film in. This could easily be used during a few of the shots.
There's also a stretcher that is propped up against a wall. Although I doubt I would use it within my film, it is an interesting thought nevertheless.
There is also a huge engine room which looks like it would be completely out-of-bounds in a normal headquarters. I'm considering using this place to film in as it looks like it would work well.
I was also testing out where a few shots could be taken, and the two below - although they are directly next to each other in reality - they look like two separate places, and so this could even be used for two different locations when filming.
And then we have this small room, which - if the mannequin was removed - could easily serve as a security office, as it looks quite suitable. There is also another red alarm light outside, and a number of plug sockets that we could use for lights.
The room leading off from this is completely filled with maps. I'm not sure if I would use it at all, but it looks reasonably interesting for a shot or two.
There's a small room that leads off of this walk way, and although there's not much to it, it could possibly be used as a place for people to sit when they don't want to go to the canteen upstairs, and when they're not being used for filming. There's also a number of plug sockets in this room, too.
When we returned to the staircase, I asked my mother to once again pose for me so I could get a bit of an idea about how I could frame some shots if I were to use this location for filming.
On a higher floor of the bunker, there's a number of resting quarters, although I doubt I would use them much - and if anything, it would be where they are holding the daughter during the film.
If I needed a long, narrow corridor, I could easily prop open these two doors and film someone walking though here.
It leads out into a main office sort of area, which is filled with computers, phones and telecommunication devices. It's an extremely large room, and I could easily use this to film a shot or two in.
There's another room that leads off from this one that contains a small fridge, which if for some reason people needed to store something in a cold place, this could be used. It also contains some cold drinks which people pay for using an 'honesty' box.
I'm not sure if this would be used at all, but we noticed an old oil lamp hanging from the ceiling.
We noticed another stretcher in this room, too.
This is the fridge that I referred to earlier in the blog post.
In this same room, there is a number of military outfits and costumes which I could possibly use instead of buying my own costumes. I'm not completely sure if I want to use these or not yet, however.
There is also a number of plug sockets in this room too.
The room leading off from this has a lot of paperwork scattered around on shelves. It looks extremely interesting, but I'm not sure how I'd be able to use it in my film - if at all.
At the top of the staircase, on the third floor, there's an odd crane hanging in the middle of the staircase as well as a number of lockers and a wooden crate that looks like it could be used to store weapons. This all could be quite interesting if I were looking for a place for the bad guys to grab some weapons before running to ruin the main characters' escape plan.
There's once again another extremely long corridor, although I'm not sure how much use two of them would be.
A shot from the top of the staircase, down the stairs.
There's a corridor that turns off, which could be quite interesting to have a character or two run past.
This corridor leads to an infirmary, which I'm not sure I'd have much use for when filming.
However, my mother did point out a stack of mattresses, and this made us wonder that if we needed someone falling back after being shot, for example, could we use these to cushion their fall?
The living quarters are extremely small and cramped, and I'm also not sure how much use I'd really have for them.
The non-usable bathrooms on sight, but once again, I doubt I would use these in my film at all.
There's a small room that's closed off to the public with a number of chairs and tables that they use for scouts groups, and things like that. Perhaps we could possibly use this to store some equipment in?
I found the lighting in these quarters to be extremely interesting, and I really liked it. However, I'm not sure I'd have much use for this location on the actual day of filming.
The exit to the bunker is a strange looking corridor that leads out to a grassy opening, and is somewhat hidden by vines. It looks very interesting for a shot, and I might possibly be able to use this.
Outside of the bunker, you can see this huge radio mast that could look rather interesting in a shot.
After taking photos of the bunker, we looked around outside to see if there were any possible locations that looked somewhat derelict so that we could film the entire short film in one place instead of having to travel to different locations.
There's also this road that we presume leads directly to the front of the bunker, so if we were to bring heavy equipment, we could pull the car up outside instead of needing to walk with them for quite some distance.
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