Storyboard process- working storyboard

Working Storyboard

This is the storyboard for our idea of the opening sequence of our idea 'Elizabeth's Diary'.

A story board is written after there is a concept for a film and script. The story board shows the action in a simple format; to show the location, action, movement, sound, lighting, edit transition, timing and a drawing of the action.

When we finalised our idea, we listed the shots in order in the sequence. We then opened up a storyboard template from the shared server. We decided that we would split the task of the storyboard by each of doing a page of two pages of the storyboard each. In order to complete the storyboard we opened it on a word document. We then implemented the information from the shot list onto the storyboard. We estimated the time for each shot and then added them together to see if they fitted the time limit. We then printed the storyboard off and checked for any mistakes. Then T-k did the drawings for the storyboard as she is the most artistic person in our group. We used the information of our storyboard shot and the overall concept of the film, to do the drawings. Davina then inked the storyboard above T-k's pencil drawings. I then looked over the storyboards the finalise them and Ross scanned them into the computer.

We decided that we were not going to include the exterior scenes of the barn and start inside the studio. This is because we decided that we were not going to set it in a barn as it might not look very effective. Also, it may be random that she is hanging herself in a barn as it has no relevance to the film and it may distract from the diary element.

Research sources

In order to have an understanding of the film genre and the themes and ideas in the film, we researched on similar films and other media. This helped us understand how we could build up tension through the scene and what other films have similar themes to 'Elizabeth's Dairy'.

The Shawshank redemption

After the murder of his wife, successful banker Andrew Dufresne is sent to Shawshank prison, who suffers the usual unpleasantness of prison. Over the years, he retains hope and eventually gains the hope of his fellow inmates. He becomes friends with prisoner 'Red', and realises why it is crucial to have dreams. With Andy's spirit and desire, the film leads us into a world of spirit and imagination on Red and Andy's Journey inside the prison walls.

There is a famous scene in The Shawshank Redemption that will be useful for our film. This features a hanging scene, where the character Brooks Hatlen hangs himself when he is released from Shawshank as he feels he has no quality in life in the outside world. In this scene you see feet rocking on a chair and the chair fall over. This then reveals Brooks was here on the beam he was hanging from. We might use this in our product because it could make the scene more effective than showing the face of the girl hanging. This would leave the girls death to the audience's imagination which would be more realistic than how we could show it.

The Ring

A mysterious video tape is killing off anyone who watches it. Whenever the victim watches it, the phone rings, telling them they have only one week to live. A young reporter named Rachel is investigating these events, but after she and her small son watch the tape, it becomes a race against time to find out why the tape is killing everyone and how it could be stopped. The girl who is featured in the killer video tape, has the look that we wanted to have for the girl in the film. She has inspired us for the Elizabeth's character, hair and dress, which will help us choose a suitable actor.

First production group meeting

For the thriller sequence we chose Davina's idea. I liked this idea because it was original but had aspects of other thrillers and horrors to create a tension building opening sequence.

The thriller is based on the character Elizabeth Carter, who is a loner and constantly gets bullied by her peers. Elizabeth Carter is constantly being bullied at school due to her autistic disability. She is an incredibly keen writer and reverts to her black diary for comfort in expressing her feelings about her peers.Suddenly two of the four bullies die, in horrific ways. Elizabeth discovers that the deaths match the way she wanted them to die according to the writing in her diary. Once she discovers this, she turns suicidal and delusional.A few days after the deaths, Elizabeth is announced dead. An investigation is put into her death where they discover she committed suicide.Just when everyone thinks everything is solved, they find a new picture in the diary, and another bully dies. Once again, an investigation is put into this, with the same investigation team. They eventually link all the evidence back to the forth bully, and then the twist that it was her all along, unfolds.Davina, the forth bully is then announced missing, and is nowhere to be found.

In the first production group meeting after deciding which idea we were going to use, we decided on group roles. These were;
Davina- Director
Ross- Producer
T-K- Chief Editor
Me- Director of photography

I was incredibly happy with the decisions made. I think Davina makes a good director because it was her idea and she would have a clear understanding of the plot and how she wanted the opening scene to look. I think Ross makes a good producer because he is organised and is good at making decisions at appropriate times. T-K has a very clear understanding of editing. In the preliminary task, it seemed she found editing easy to cope with and enjoyed the process of editing. I was pleased I got the director of photography and did volunteer myself to have this position. In the preliminary task, I shot the sequence. I think I am very able to use the camera and have the skills for the director of photography. For example, a steady hand and an understand of the 180 degree rule.

In the meeting, we also discussed the opening sequence. We decided in this meeting we wanted the opening sequence to be the hanging scene which is mid way through the film. We thought this would be tense and would make the audience ask questions which would later be answered .

We had many ideas that expanded from Davina's initial idea. In Davina's initial idea the face of the girl was shown as she adjusts the noose and ties it around her neck. I came up with the idea of not showing her face and just showing her feet walk up to the stool, climb on to it and then hang. I thought this would add more of a sense of mystery and would leave the audience wanted to know more for example, who is this girl? Is she the main protagonist in the film? Which will later be answered as the film progresses. I thought this idea would also mean that the audience are even more shocked when the twist is revealed because they thought all their questions were answered. Ross came up with the idea of flash backs of her writing in her diary. This would add another element into the opening sequence and make the audience aware of who the girl is and the importance of the diary in the film. Although this is a good idea, I did feel that flash backs would be hard to edit so that they are fast and professional, but also it answers all the audiences questions within the first two minutes. Just showing her feet, although it may not be as exiting as the flash backs has more tension and atmosphere and makes the audience ask questions rather than have them answered which is an important part of a thriller.

I thought our first production group meeting was successful because we decided what oles we would have in the film making. This helps us to understand our capabilities within the process of this film being made.

My possible thriller idea

My thriller idea is about a small rural town in Alabama, where a string of suicides leads the town into confusion and disbalief about their town and the people in it. The film follows one teenager's death Harry Parker and his family life. The audience are unaware of why he died but focus more on the family. After the death the family are spooked by a strage presence in the house. This becomes the house's poltergiest. They experience paranormal activity in the house especially at night, like screams and cries of what seems to sound like Harry and furniture movement. Harry's sister Mellissa is worst affected by Harry's death and the paranrmal experiences and is eventually possed by his spirit. The family are tempted to contact an exorcist as has fits, screams Harry's name and even talks like him. However, the mother refuses as she is to depressed by what her family has gone through and does not want to believe in the paranormal.

What is a thriller?

In order to shoot the thriller, it was essential to learn what a thriller is and the difference between the thriller and horror genre. A thriller film is designed to keep the viewer on edge with suspense. Thrillers have also been produced for radio, books and television. Thriller is a 'meta-genre' because it is difficult to define as the emotions and reactions come from the experience the audience has of the entire film. The genre of thriller is flexible and ambiguous and can easily cross over with other genres for example, horror. There are many sub-genres of Thriller, for example supernatural thriller, crime thriller etc. The Thriller relies on a detailed plot to create fear, tension and suspense for the audience.

A thriller plays on the audience's everyday basic fears by focusing on the most infantile and therefore repressed thoughts. These thoughts can be voyeuristic, sexual or violent. Thrillers raise questions or Enigma codes in the mind of the audience. Thrillers also have universals themes for e.g. love, death, and money. There is also a sense of delay which is follower by a sense of relief from that tension. However the Thriller genre is sadomasochistic meaning that the audience often enjoys watching the director cause pain and suffering to the characters. Our pleasure is derived from their discomfort. We know this due to the popularity of thrillers. As well as evoking visceral, gut-level feelings rather than more sensitive, delicate emotions, thrillers also create a sense of ambivalence- they feel a sense of identification and sympathy with the hero or victim’s vulnerability.

For example, Flight Plan which is a thriller focusing on abduction of a mother's child on a plane. The tension is built up throughout the film because the child seems to not exists to the other pass angers and staff as she did not have a ticket for the child. This makes the audience believe the women is mentally in and believes she has a child, however there is a sense of relief from the tension when her daughter is found in the plane and has in fact been abducted.
A horror is different to a thriller, in the sense that a horror is intended to scare, unsettle and horrify an audience. A horror film experience is often the intrusion of a disturbing supernatural element into everyday human experience. Horrors have morbid, gruesome, surreal, or exceptionally suspenseful or frightening themes.
Horror often overlaps science fiction or fantasy. Horrors are more visceral meaning the audience get a more immediate reaction of they see on screen.
For example, The Strangers. This is a horror film based on the brutal murder of a couple in their isolated holiday home. The are murdered by strangers from the village in masks. This is horror because although tension is built up, it is through the murders and gruesome scenes. Instead of questions being asked, the audience is horrified by the events in the film.