Independent research project:

 SWAT techniques for entering a building:

 

As my idea is based around the police, or a higher level of law enforcers entering a building, I thought that I should do an independent research project to find out a bit more on how police or SWAT teams’ storm into buildings. To start off my research, I watched this YouTube video on an FBI SWAT team clearing rooms in practice.

 

 

It seems that from what I’ve learnt from this video, when storming into different rooms, they cover all possible angles they could have on the door without compromising their position or the sight the target may have on them. There are 6 of them in the group of the SWAT team, and they seem to split up into 2 groups of three when they storm into different rooms, with three of them on the adjacent wall close to the door, and the other three on the opposite wall, further away but with a better angle on the room inside. The formation doesn’t change, so it is always the same three, and also always the same two front men leading the three. One thing that is also consistent through the exercise is that every room that they storm into, they through a flash bang grenade in before to stun the enemy. This is once concern I have as I’m not sure how it will be feasible to get or use a flash-bang whilst filming this scene.

 

 

The uniforms from this exercise have enlightened me as well. I always pictured this scene with the police officers, or the swat team in a navy blue, police-like colour, as oppose to the full camo that this team is in. However, besides from the colour, they are wearing exactly what I imagined, with the full suit, and the bullet proof vests and the helmets and glasses, holding guns. The only thing that I was curious about was if swat teams dressed in the navy blue that I had previously wanted for this opening title sequence.

 

 

This is what I thought the police officers would be dressed like in this opening scene.

 

The only other thing that I needed to research is their formation when running in open areas. My original idea for this opening title sequence was the have them coming out of police vans, but it wouldn’t be feasible to get police vans, and if they came out of regular vans, they may give off connotations of being bad guys as oppose to being the police. Now I think that I am going to skip that part of the opening title sequence, and just have them running towards the building they are going to storm, and so I need to research formations for running in open areas. I always imagined that they would be running in the ‘flying wedge’ formation, as it looks realistic, adds no unnecessary complexity to the scene and also adds depth to the shot. It can also be achieved with fewer cast members.

 

I think this is a good formation, as all the other formations that I have researched are for when police are having people run at them, like in a riot for example, and so the police stand in a flat line to stop any attackers breaking through gaps. I will continue to research the formations, as I want to get it right, but since the shot of them running towards the building won’t be very long, I think that the ‘flying wedge’ is a good formation, as not only does it increase the depth of the shot and can make the cast look bigger, but it also conveys that they are police officers running in a specific formation as oppose to criminals attacking haphazardly.