Storyboard Shots

Shot analysis for storyboard

1- ELS on door opening, goes upstairs, eye level shot
2- Mid close up of feet going up stairs, low angle
3- From top of stairs, man walking towards camera, at high angle and medium shot
4- Medium long shot of walking towards first door, eye level
5- Medium close up of opening door (from inside room), him looking around then closing it again, slight low angle
6- Mid shot of walking to other door and opening it, eye level,
7- Shot five again but in different room
8- Running feet along corridor. Low angle shot.
9- Opening parents door, looking around, walking towards drawer, eye level, medium shot, zooming out as panning backwards
10- Close up, POV shot of man getting stuff out of drawer, slight high angle
11- POV shot of his hand swerving to get objects into bag, slight high angle
12- Flood light from outside comes on, reaction shot his head turning, medium shot, eye level
13- Man walking towards window. Panning, medium shot
14- POV looking out window as car drives into drive, high angle
15- Long shot from door, his reaction as he speeds up getting items, eye level
16- Action of him grabbing things (not too sure what yet)
17- Girl gets out of car drunk. (not sure how yet)
18- Repeat shot 16
19- Girl walking up steps (not sure how yet)
20- Man running down stairs to leave back door, low angle of looking up the stairs, long shot
21- Extreme close up of putting key into lock, turns (music climax and suddenly stops)
22- From top of stairs, him half way down, door in background beginning to open, he runs back up towards camera, long shot, tilting up,
23- Girl walks through door, medium close up, eye level and shouts “Mum?” but still drunk
24- POV of girl walking up stairs, blurry vision. Eye level
25- Man in parents bedroom, Long shot from door, he doesn’t know what to do.
26- Feet walking up stairs from side, medium shot, low angle
27- Man’s arm opening cupboard door, medium shot, eye level
(all this is built up with suspense from the music)
28- Medium shot as she finishes stairs and pan as she turns the corner
29- Close up of hand opening door
30- POV walking in stumbling, blurry
31- Long shot of her walking in, mumbling “Mum?.. Dad? That’s strange they’d usually be back by now…” etc. In background cupboard door slightly opens and creeks. She turns around
32- Girl slowly starts to walk towards door, pans and follows her movement, medium shot
33- Quickly opens door (Music builds suspense), see that mans not there, she laughs quietly to herself
34- Long shot from the corner of the room as she walks back towards door, the camera tilts down as this happens to reveal him hiding under other side of bed, breathing heavily when she leaves, hears her stumble back downstairs
35- He gets up, medium long shot of him walking quietly out of room with big bags
36- POV of him walking down first couple of stairs, hearing girl closing bedroom door
37- From bottom of stairs high angle looking up towards man creeping down
38- Close up of his hand searching in his pockets for something
39- Medium shot of him walking towards door
40- Movement of his hand reaching with something onto her door, sticking a letter of some sort to it.
41- Pan of him the running to back door to escape, at eye level, then panning back towards the door slowly to see the letter, revealing what it says.

Signed,
Nicole

23/02/09

Today we have re-booked the equipment we will need for filming tomorrow. Although we will not be able to complete filming tomorrow (due to time restrictions and not having the car), we will get as much done as possible and will upload the production shots afterwards.
We will hopefully be uploading the storyboard today also, via a college scanner (as Nicole is having problems with hers).
We will also be getting the animatic storyboard done as soon as possible.

Signed,
Keira, Hannah and Nicole

19/02/09

Today we went to Nicole's house so we could all look round and confirm the location. We decided exactly how our shots would be filmed and where in accordance with the storyboard. Unfortunately there is no evening in this half term in which everyone in our group is free for filming (it needs to be dark outside) so we have decided to begin filming on the Tuesday when we return to college. This will mean re-booking all the equipment first thing Monday morning.

Signed,
Keira Smalley

Location - Photos

Photo (top to bottom)
1- cupboard which the man will be hiding in
2-Bed the girl gets into and sleeps in, the letter will fall on the floor next to bed
3- Driveway (won't be snowing for filming)
4- The house

We are using my house as the location to film our thriller opening. The photos of the locations are above. My long drive is good for the scene as she stumbles up it drunkenly and it will be easy to park the car in there too. It is a ideal house as the bedroom is right on the left hand side of the hall as soon as you step in the door, so will be pratical for shooting. The bedroom we are using is a typical girls bedroom and the cupboard can be easily filmed as it is at a good angle. I have a bank going alongside the driveway so will be good as we can film a range of angles and heights. The quick montages of the man grabbing things will be done at random points in the house, such as the kitchen/lounge/bathroom etc. Furthermore as it will be filmed in the dark, there is a autosensing light over the top of my garage which will be useful.

I'm sorry for the delay on the storyboard uploading, I'm having a few troubles with the scanner, but will be put on asap.

Signed, Nicole :)

Nicole's Second Essay

Editing and Mise en scene in thriller opening ‘Memento’

To continue to develop a wider understanding of the ways in which thriller openings establish the situation and characters, I am now going to analysis two different elements which are involved in the thriller genre, these being editing and mise en scene. I shall also investigate into these elements through a different film, very contrasting to ‘What lies beneath’, so I have a range of ideas and storylines to learn and progress from. The mise en scene used in any film is the main key to distinguishing the genre, mood and storyline of the production. Editing is a significant emphasise to this, as the cuts used and the technique/pace of these can change and have a big affect on the atmosphere created throughout the whole production. Memento is a very unique thriller opening with a unusual opening style, so this shall hopefully widen my ideas for our main production and allow my group to think of wider and wilder ideas.
The first shot is a clear shot of a hand holding a Polaroid. The whole shot doesn’t reveal a lot, as it just focus’s on the Polaroid until about 1:11 minutes into the film. But this makes it clear that the Polaroid is a important element in the opening, as the amount of focus drawn to it is vast. The picture isn’t clear at all, but it is clearly something dark and dramatic due to the shadowed figure on the ground with what looks like blood surrounding him. This brings up questions already and intrigues the audience to grasp a better understanding of the events at hand. It is clearly a man’s hand due to the masculine features, and this together with the dark surroundings already suggests a hypothesis arising - has a murder taken place? Every so often within this 1:11 of the opening, the hand shakes the Polaroid, but this through the sound and movement of his hand is done in a strange manner, suggesting something isn’t quite right. By strange manner, I mean it seems the shaking is too abrupt and the movement appears unusual. Another reason to emphasise this is the fact the picture appears to be fading gradually rather than progressively becoming apparent. The length of the cut is used to keep the audiences attention on the Polaroid’s content and probably focus on the opening credits. I would think this due to the boldness of the titles and how they are centred in the frame.
The first cut made into the second shot is a match on action shot of the man who was holding the photo to him drawing up the photo and into the camera. You can now definitely establish it is a man. The first thoughts I had on establishing the character and his involvement in the film is through his clothing. His long brown jacket to me suggests the thoughts of a detective? As this is the type of clothing stereotypically associated with detectives/investigators. Furthermore, the type of camera used suggests a investigatory atmosphere, maybe even set in a earlier period of time.
The end of this shot pans up to the mans face as he takes the photo. The lighting is still dark, which cleverly shadows his face, causing questionable suggestions. The close up of the mans head is helpful in discovering the events occurring. The man is quite young, with a slight confused and taken aback expression. You cannot establish why this is or his involvement in what’s taking place yet but from the scratches, blood and sweat from him it suggests many possibilities. His eyes are clearly looking down towards what he was taking a picture of, but it is still unclear as to what this is. But this consequently stresses the significance of the content of the Polaroid. His body language from his expression and movement suggests tension within him and highlights the fact he is not at ease. It is made clear at this stage of the opening, that the sequence of events is being done backwards, which is a very clever way to edit the piece. The shots lengths shorten and quicken the pace gradually, with no establishing or wide angle shots, so the surrounding and location of the action is not known to the audience. This emphasises the tense feeling and emotion of confusion to the viewers. The cuts for the next few shots are of little subjects which build up to the knowing of what is occurring, but in-between these it goes back to his reaction and expression.
The shots contents are very important, like the trickling of blood and the bullet. The whole piece has now been established as a murder. The focus on the bullet emphasises this. The most important shot of a object is the broken glasses surrounded by blood. The birds eye view shot of the dead man is also significant. All the lighting and set ups of the shots have been dark and shadowed, which fits in nicely to the murky impression trying to be created.
The backwards theme of the opening is a very clever editing technique and is used throughout the film, so it already creates the atmosphere for the audience at the beginning, creating a confused basis for the film.
After the man is backwardly shot and killed, the scream fades and is drawn into a cut of pure darkness, even though just for a few seconds, this brings a good climax to the pace and style of the first lot of action which occurred. Everything changes rapidly in technique and movement, as the next shot is a close up tilt up of the mans face. It is done in black and white with a voice over of the man. The next few shots drawn out length allows the built up tension from the first lot of action to be relieved and calmed down. The voice of the man fits in to his actions, suggesting it is his thoughts occurring at that précised time. There are many pans and tilts establishing the surroundings and setting.
From the first two minutes of this thriller ‘Memento’ I have discovered a variety of clever techniques and tactics through editing and mise en scene which emphasises the thriller genre, creates the atmosphere and sets up the storyline. The way in which this film carries out its opening creates a lot of unanswered questions and confusing queries, which intrigues the audience and consequently wants us to watch further.

I used this youtube clip to analysis the film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kN_fCm4I6Q

Lighting

we are going to do most of our filming at night.
all of our scenes that take place out side are going to be filmed at night as our opening takes place at night.
we are going to try and get most of out shots outside on the same night as not every night will look the same.

for filming the man in the house we are going to need lots of shadow on his face as we do not want to give his identity away. so we will light him using a redhead mainly from the back to help disclose his identity and cast shadow onto his face.

when the girl is walking up the drive there is a security light which we can use along with the redhead to illuminate her more. also at the point when she puts her key in the lock we need quite a strong light on the lock because this is quite an important feature to our opening.

inside the house we can use the normal lights to assist us as the girl can turn them on to see her way. we will also use the redhead when we want the effect of no lights but also so that the characters can be seen and there actions can be seen clearly.

when we are filming inside the car and just outside the car we will use a dimmer light to simulate night time in a car. but also again want it to be clear so all of the characters can be seen.

we will only use one redhead as we want it to be quite shadowy and creepy looking also its set at night so a really bright light would ruin the setting. however we do not want it too dark as the characters will not be clear enough and there actions will not be clear.

signed Hannah (:

11/02/09

Nicole is not in today meaning we are without photos of our location and storyboard
however we have booked equipment out for half term to start our filming.

We will upload the animatic storyboard and location photos as soon as possible.

Signed,
Hannah and Keira.

List of Roles

Nicole -
Storyboard artist, lighting engineer, location scout, co-camera operator.

Hannah -
Chief camera operator, chief editor, lighting designer.

Keira -
Blog updater, writer, prop scout, general organisation chief, co-editor, actress(?)

These are our main roles though everything was a group effort.

Keira's Second Essay

Sound and Editing for ‘Memento’
To discover more about the openings of thrillers and how they should be presented, I am now looking at a different film and analysing it in terms of two different production elements. Sound can be very important in distinguishing thrillers from other genres of film as it has a lot to do with the atmosphere created, and this can strongly influence the feel of the film upon the viewer. Likewise, the style and pace of editing can communicate a specific meaning to the audience; ‘Memento’ is considered a fairly unusual film in style and storyline so this will make it interesting to look at.
The music at the start of the film is the very first thing the audience hear, and so sets the tone for the rest of the film. ‘Memento’ has conventional thriller music in that it is in no way upbeat or cheerful-sounding, but rather slow and in some ways creepy. However, it doesn’t really attempt to establish a tense or thrilling atmosphere and is instead quite sad sounding. This is created by the long, drawn out chords which are played slowly and repetitively which sound like they come from a variety of instruments – most likely from an orchestra. String instruments are commonly used in thriller music as they can produce both sudden, sharp sounds (such as the well-known screeching noises in ‘Psycho’) and more beautiful, choral sounds such as the ones heard here. Over the top of this music is the occasional sound of the Polaroid being shaken. This draws our attention to the movement of the hand and what is on the Polaroid itself (which is important to the story and in particular the following shots). This is a very long shot which continues throughout the beginning titles - there are no cuts until 1:10 minutes into the film. This keeps the audiences attention on both the names on the titles and, more importantly, the content of the picture. It also eases us in to the action of the film, which corresponds with the music perfectly.
The first cut is a match on action to the man whose hand we’ve just seen as he takes a photo. When the camera takes this is another sudden noise which appears to have been emphasised as it is louder than one would expect, and again draws our attention to what’s happening. The music stops at this point, also, and is replaced with a more surreal sound – still music, but with more reverberation and almost sounds as though it is being played backwards (which is perfectly possible, considering the action taking place). This adds a tenser feel to the scene although the sounds are still drawn out as before, carrying on the sad atmosphere. The shots are still of reasonable length at this point but become shorter and increase in pace as soon as we start to see the objects in the room. Notice that there are no ELS shots to establish the setting – just straight cuts to shocking images of blood on the wall, a bullet etc. This means the audience don’t have time to fully take in the surroundings which may give them an uneasy feeling, and partly add to the enigma code of the film. We can also hear the sounds of these objects moving (bullet, glasses, gun etc.) which sustains the realism somewhat. These sounds build quite rapidly (with the shots) to culminate in the gun shot and the unintelligible scream of the man – the loudest and most sudden sound so far – which is supposedly intended to shock the audience and draw them into the scene. This shot is cut very short, and stops before we get chance to properly see the man’s face; this shows the audience that they’re not allowed to know whom is murdered here as that is the mystery of the film. Before this final shot there was a cut back to the man so that the audience could see his facial expression and to remind us of his involvement in the scene (a useful editing technique in thrillers appears to be reinforcing information in the viewers’ minds so that all is more clear at the end of the film).
It is very important to note that all the shots in this scene were shown backwards, as though we were watching a sequence of events being rewound. This is one of the main themes of the film, and so sets it up right from the beginning with a confusing opening.
There is an immediate change in this sequence in that it has been put in black and white, contrasting to the vivid red we have just witnessed. Also contrasting is how the shot length has returned to being more drawn out so as to relieve the tension and the shots are left for enough time to allow the camera to move – taking in more of the setting by tilting and panning, which is far less unsettling than the previous short shots. The sound here is again echoic, with a fairly metallic, tinny edge to it. This repeats in rhythm of a heartbeat throughout the sequence, quite fast, which could both represent the man’s heartbeat and echo the audience’s after the shock they’ve just been given. Either way, this is an effective backdrop to the dialogue and introduces a reassuring certainty (juxtaposing to the confusion we are likely to be feeling). In a similar way to this, the shots seem to be edited to change in time with the speaking, both to add a sense of organisation and to emphasise certain words (‘but’, ‘perhaps’, ‘3 months’) The voiceover itself is a calming, relatively deep male voice, which leads us to assume is of the man in the shot. This helps change present a more relaxed atmosphere than the urgency and suddenness of the previous sequence. The only other sound is the keys being touched which I presume shows the audience that this is really happening, and is not just someone’s vision or dream. The final shot is faded out which could suggest the passing of time or perhaps the fading of a memory; either way, it seems the natural way to end the unusual scene.
From this first two minutes I have observed some more unusual techniques in creating the opening of a thriller which are nonetheless highly effective in communicating atmosphere to the viewers. This surreal opening intrigues the audience and makes us want to learn more – something which is essential in the start of any story.

Here is the youtube clip i used for my analysis:

Location/Setting

Our opening only requires the setting of a normal house and as such, for sake of convenience, we have decided to use Nicloe's house as the location for all our filming. We will be filming most of it at night to make it look as authentically dark as possible, and so that there are few others on the road that day from whom we'd need to get permission.
We will also need permission from Nicole's parents, but she assures us this won't be a problem.
It will also be useful for the bedroom shots as the character in our sequence is a teenage girl and as such is likely to have a similar room to Nicole, making it look more realistic.
At first we were concerned that one setting will not be interesting enough but after discussing it we have decided that the tension in the scene will be created by our interesting camera work and editing, rather than where the piece is set. Moreover, this singular setting is appropriate to the story and is the only place we have time (in the fairly restricted time of 2 minutes) to actually show.

Nicole will be taking photos of her house and the locations within it that we'll be using and uploading them to the blog as soon as possible.
Signed,
Keira Smalley

Prop List

The prop list generally consists of everything around the house we choose to use, but more spesifically we will need:

-> Suitcases/bags
-> Picture frame with picture of girl in it
-> Clothes/toiletries/jewelery/other things for the man to be packing
-> Key for front door of house
-> Cupboard in which the man hides
-> Clock (digital or anolgogue, fixed to wall)
-> Something heavy for the man to drop (e.g. a large book)
-> Letter saying 'Gone away for a while. Don't worry and don't try to find us, we love you, mum & dad x'

For every thing but the letter we can use things in our own possesion. The letter can just be easily written in a messy style on a normal piece of paper to show urgency.
Signed,
Keira Smalley

The Script

...consists of only a very small amount of dialogue.
1. When the girl gets out of the car, something along the lines of:
'Thank you, that was awesome, night! See you tomorrow'
(directed at driver)

2. When the girl goes into her parents room:
'Packing for the holiday already? Weird. I wonder where they are, they don't normally stay out this late...'
(directed at herself, for benefit of audience)

We don't have much dialogue becuase our opening does not require much character interaction.

Please note, these words are likely to change/develop during filming depending upon what seems natural at the time. We will post a more realistic version of the dialogue after this is finalised.
Signed,
Keira Smalley

Synopsis for our Thriller Film and Opening

Media Studies – Thriller Film Synopsis
Our idea is for a detective thriller, set in present day in Britain. It tells the story of a woman whose parents disappeared when she was a teenager, and has since dedicated her life to discovering what happened to them. She does, however, lead a reasonably normal life in that she has a boyfriend (who she lives with) and a job writing articles for the London Times about current ‘big stories’ in the news. Due to this, she is asked to appear on a programme discussing a topical event in the world news about a seemingly unsolvable detective case. During this programme, the host mentions the woman’s past and what happened when she was younger, commenting on how strange it is that no one ever discovered what happened. A local police detective is watching this programme and contacts the woman after the show, claiming he may have some leads on another case that could help her find her parents and that he would be happy to help her. She is at first unsure (mostly due to her boyfriend’s disapproval), but he is persistent so she decides to give it a try. It turns out that the leads are not helpful to her, however the police detective insists he helps her anyway as he’s very interested in the case. She becomes more and more intrigued, spending less time with her boyfriend and more time at the detective’s house, which makes the boyfriend jealous and increasingly more irritated. The detective begins to hint that it could be her boyfriend who killed her parents, but very subtly and suggests that perhaps that’s why he’s getting so uneasy about the woman finding out more about the case. At first the woman completely denies this possibility, but then they find more and more evidence to suggest that this is a possibility and the woman begins to suspect her boyfriend, asking him to move out and give her some space while she thinks about everything. He immediately blames the detective and says that he’s poisoning her mind, but she just takes this as more evidence for his guilt (the audience are also led to believe he’s guilty due to the way he’s been acting). After this the police detective suddenly confesses his love for the woman, and asks that she completely leaves her boyfriend for him, saying that he’s dangerous and not good enough for her, but that he would take good care of her. The woman is completely taken aback and tells him she does not return these feelings and says it’s best if they stop seeing each other so much. The detective snaps, refuses to let her leave his house and shouts at her that he her ‘more than her own parents’. He then explains, smugly, her parents are not dead (which explains the lack of blood or traces of bodies etc found at the house) and that he was the one who made them leave because he has always loved the girl and wanted to have her all to himself. It turns out that her parents are now living somewhere near by, with changed names and new lives, because the man had threatened them that he would kill their daughter if they did not. They couldn’t go to the police, however, because the father was already under cover from having hacked into government information and would get life in prison if found out. The detective harshly points out that the parents couldn’t have loved the girl very much to just leave like that. The girl is shocked and horrified but doesn’t believe the detective’s story, so he says he will prove it to her and drives her to the new location of the parents’ house, intending to threaten to kill her parents if she does not promise to stay with him forever. Meanwhile, the boyfriend has gotten more suspicious about the detective’s intentions and decides to break into his house, hoping to save the woman. As they are not there however, he goes trough the detective’s things and finds a letter dating the year of the girl’s parents’ disappearance from them explaining everything to her (which the detective has clearly intercepted) and decides to go there, assuming that is where she is now. The parents have been explaining to the daughter that they tried to contact her but clearly failed and telling her how sorry they are etc. Then the detective tests the father’s dedication to the daughter by pointing a gun at her (his police gun, intended only for emergencies), he jumps in the way in order to save her life and is killed himself. (A tragic event, fairly conventional in thriller films). The detective is clearly/has gone insane and upon the daughter telling him she will never love him, turns the gun on both her and her mother, is about to shoot when the boyfriend appears behind him and strikes him over the head with some kind of heavy object (essentially ‘saving the day’).

Our opening, then, will show what happens on the night of the parents’ disappearance (though obviously not everything that happens as this would give away the ending of the film). It will start with lots of shots in quick succession of a man rifling through draws, gathering clothes etc. (he is the detective man, gathering the parent’s stuff for them, although the audience will currently be unaware of this as that is the mystery of the film. It might be filmed in such a way to make them believe he is stealing things instead). It will then cut to the girl getting out of a car, stumbling up the drive etc. But this will be interspersed with more shots of the man in the house (dressed all in black), he will also check the time occasionally in an urgent sense to show he is worried about how long he has to do this. Throughout this section there will be fast suspense music (un-copyrighted) which builds as the girl comes nearer and nearer to the house. The moment she puts the key in the lock for the front door, however, the music will stop abruptly as the man hears her coming in and panics. The man will then hurriedly hide somewhere in the parents’ room (e.g. the cupboard) as the girl enters the house. There will be some POV shots from the girl which will be filmed in time delay and with a hand held camera to show that she is drunk and has just returned from a party. The man upstairs will then accidentally drop something or somehow make a noise which makes the girl investigate. She comes upstairs but, finding nothing, just mutters something along the lines of ‘packing for the holiday already? I wonder where they are? ...not normally out this late...’ before climbing into bed. The man then creeps back downstairs with the bags and a letter which he silently sticks to the girl’s bedroom door; he then peers in and stares at her for a brief second (an over-shoulder shot) before quietly closing the door. The final shot is of the paper, which states clearly ‘Gone away for a while. Don’t worry, and don’t try to look for us x’ before a cut to the title screen then a ’10 years later...’ slide.


*we have not decided upon a title yet, but will post that as soon as we're ready*

Signed,
Keira Smalley