This week I've been working on a storyboard for my new concept. I was unsure of how to do this because A) I'm not quite 'van Gogh' and B) I wasn't sure about what needed to be put on paper.I found a useful video on storyboarding and used a template to draw on.
Working Title: ________________Production
Company: ________________
Shot No:Location:
Action:
Shot/Movement:
Sound:
Lighting:
Edit Transition:Timing:
See my initial storyboard post from October for more.
"The point of getting things done is to know what to leave undone."
Due to weather conditions and technical problems the protagonist will no longer drown in a lake but her mother will drown in a bath. The younger girl, Evangeline, will be filmed through a keyhole and later on herself in the bath. The road shots will still take place. The reason we will no longer film in a lake is because to film the actual underwater footage we planned to use a heated swimming pool, even with extensive research and editing it will not look dark enough and won't create the effect we want to achieve.The teenagers won't be camping either as it is shot in February and will be too cold.
An audience's attention relies heavily on the genre of a film. It allows them to predict and understand the film they're planning on watching. If people want to see a horror, they expect to be scared during parts of the movie and terrified to go to sleep that night once its finished. If someone wants to see a hardcore action movie they won't want to find themselves watching a movie about a couple's long distance relationship and the troubles they suffer in between.
Institutes and directors have different views on genres and how they should look and evolve but each genre will have similar set, plot and props. The institute will also make sure the right actor is cast to correctly portray the character. Certain actors are archetypes and are associated with different genres.
A movie trailer will be made specifically to show the genre of the film. The producers will assure this and the audience will look out for it.
For example: Jane Eyre will instantly;y come across as a romantic period drama. An audience will understand from the trailer that it isn't an action film or a thriller/horror as there are no action scenes and no serial killers.
"A painting that is well composed is already half finished."
MoodBoard
This is the moodboard for my opening sequence. These photos all have a meaning in it. The lake and house are important as they are the main setting, I like the sunset element in the lower landscape photo.
The idea of the stalker is for him to be a watcher. We will see his eyes and lips but never his whole face in a shot. I like the idea of a cross dissolve between eyes or mouth and a forest. The car will most likely not be convertible as we will film in January and it will be too cold but i like the angle and proxemics. The drowning scene is important and I want the material of clothing and her hair to be a major visual point.
"Money won't buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a large research staff to study the problem..."
Difference, Repetition and Similarity
Two films with very different elements can still be classed as the same genre. Take Divergent and Silence Of The Lambs, although both placed in the thriller genre, the films have completely different Mise en Scene, characters and narrative events.
Divergent,Although a thriller it is sub categorized as an action, sci-fi and adventure movie. It is not set in a present day government and costumes, setting, characters and events in the movie are very different to our modern day. The morals of the story aren't applicable to our everyday life.
Much like silence of the lambs we want to discover more about the plot and it keeps us anticipating more.
Silence of the lambs is very different in the fact we can relate it to our present world, The characters are exaggerated but very naturalistic and possible in the plot. It is based in several parts of America and very accurate in location. Unlike Divergent, Silence of the lambs has no romantic elements attached to it at all, it is very much a psychological thriller.
The setting is accurate as we are all aware of what a prison looks like, although it is extreme.
These films are similar in the fact that the audience are always wanting to discover more and read into the plot deeper. There is a protagonist and antagonist, and a major catalytic event is the base of the conflict. The conflict is also often between a male and female character.
Eye-line Match shot in DIVERGENT
C.U Of Hannibal Lecter in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Over the shoulder shot of Clarice in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
Legal Thrillers- Law, court, crime, justice, questions, penalty. Supernatural Thriller- Hero/Villain, paranormal, myth, vampire, demon, werewolf, witches. Psychological Thriller- makes you think, messes with your head, deceptive games, intelligent. My Opening Thriller Sequence
My opening thriller sequence is in the psychological thriller sub-genre, throughout the film the dialogue and conflict is internal and is supposed to make you think. There are some action-thriller ideas in the plot but not likely to be shown in the opening sequence.
Sub-Genre:a subdivision of a genre of literature, music, film, etc.
Hybrid Genre :A cross-genre is a genre in fiction that blends themes and elements from two or more different genres. As opposed to the conservatism of most genre fiction, cross-genre writing offers opportunities for opening up debates and stimulating discussion.
Sources : Wikipedia And Google
Why Is Genre Used?
Genre is used to stereotype, archetype and categorize films, it allows an audience to get an idea of the film before they see it. Different genres will have different target audiences. Eg. A film in the horror genre will not be targeting young children or elderly audiences. What Are Genre Conventions? Genre conventions are the smaller elements in a film which refer to repeating plot points. Usually films will have a set of particular elements then an audience will expect in a film of that genre. These tend to evolve over time and are revealed as the story unfolds. Conventions can also change depending on the situations occurring in real time.
"Nobody heard him, the dead man. But still he lay moaning. I was much further out than you thought.
And not but drowning. I was much to far out all my life, and not waving but drowning."
Rain For Morgan - Underwater Footage. I really love this underwater footage. This has inspired my opening sequence. I plan to have different shot angles though and create several differences.
Here is the initial idea for my Thriller opening scene.
The first shot will be a crosscut between a woman drowning and the contrast of two girls and two boys in a car going on a road trip. The woman will be filmed underwater floating peacefully. The sequence will be a mixture of mid shots and close ups. It will be at an eye line height. There will be non diegetic classical music and no diegetic sound. This will then cut to a shot of the four teens, they will be driving and the shot will be through the windscreen of either the driver, passenger of front windscreen. The foursome will be listening to diegetic dance music and raving in the car. The shot then moves onto Dan who is smoking a split out of the car window. The scene then cuts back to the woman drowning and we see her hair and dress getting wrapped around her body and face. There is a close up of her face from a direct over head angle. As the shot cuts to a wide shot of the teenagers truck we zoom in on a car following them. It is an Audi. The truck is seen turning off and pulling into a open space near a lake and the shot cuts to the car pulling in towards the camera. The music is turned off and the four teenagers grab their bags out of the back of the truck this is a wide shot showing the kids with their bags and tents. A few lines of dialogue are exchanged and they kids go to put up two tents. We cut to a shot of the tents in place and it is now early evening. The next shot is in the tent with both the couples, as they unpack the girls notice their underwear is missing. We see the girls empty their bags. Josh offers to take Maddie to get some more clothes from home and we see them walking towards the car and the headlights light up. During this time Jasmine and Dan decide to go swimming in the lake we film them from a wide shot and see the couple splash into the lake. It cuts back to Evangeline drowning and the classical music has stopped and we hear the diegetic splashing from underwater, a voice over is played over this and it is Evangeline talking about her death. As if she is watching herself. She continues to speak as we cut back to the couple in the water. In sync both the couple stop moving and Evangeline finishes her speech. We see an over the body shot from Evangeline and we see Jasmine open her eyes underwater to see Evangeline's corpse. She screams and the noise is heard through the water and bubbles escape to fill the shot. Fade to black. See Phoebe's Blog. I Will Work With Lucie And Phoebe Phoebe's Blog
Evangeline is a young woman living with Thanatophobia. This is
an abnormal fear of a person’s own death.Evangeline developed this phobia as a child due to an incident in which
she nearly drowned in a lake at her childhood estate. This phobia begins to
take over Evangeline’s life. She avoids doing anything which may be linked to
or cause her owndeath.She came from a wealthy aristocrat family and
has never worked a day in her life. Her mother and father died while she was
still a child and she was raised by her grandmother. During a car trip one
afternoon, the rain begins to fall heavily and the weather becomes severely
violent. Evangeline suffers a halloucitation in which the car begins to fill
with water, she pulls over and desperately tries to escape but the doors are
locked from the inside. After this event Evangeline makes the decision to visit
one of the most renown doctors in the world, Dr. Alastar Cagney. She travels up
to the small rural village in Ireland where his centre is based and is admitted
for an unknown period of time. During their first meeting Dr. Cagney seems
uninterested in Evangeline’s condition and shows little attention to her.
Evangeline begins to experience more and more nightmares and is obsessed with
her own death. One night Dr. Cagney follows Evangeline back to her room and
photographs her in her sleep. We see Evangeline get up after he has left and
lock her door, unknown to him she saw him taking the photographs. Very soon
after this event a new story dominates the papers, two bodies were found in a
nearby woodland. Evangeline becomes fixated on the fact that she will be next
and the killer is Cagney. She plans her escape and that night leaves the
treatment centre without telling anyone. Not knowing where to go, Evangeline
checks into a small B&B in the neighbouring village. Once inside she
realises she’s left her purse at the centre, but she remembers her credit card
in her pocket. She pays for the night by card and locks her door as soon as
she’s in her room.
The next morning Evangeline wakes with ease and as she sits up
she notices a very familiar object on her bedside table. Her purse, and inside
several photographs of her in her sleep. She leaves the B&B in a panicked
frenzy she returns to her home in Kent. During the next few days Cagney is
arrested under suspect of murder, though Evangeline can’t put to rest her
feelings of unease still. We see Cagney’s court cases and are led to believe he
is sentenced until Evangeline is seen sat in a café and is watched receiving a
phone call, we hear the caller with his strong Irish accent and become aware it
is Cagney, he threatens her. Evangeline takes off leaving all her belongings
and phone in the café, she drives through the rain for a long period of time
and arrives at the estate we are aware is her childhood home. She is seen
walking into the lake fully clothed and drowns herself. Alastar Cagney is seen
watching from a window of the house.
