Individual Storyboard - Miss Miller

A storyboard is a sequence of drawings, typically with directions and dialogue, which represents the shots planned for a film or a television programme. Storyboards are important because their the best way to show your vision of the production your creating. The visual aspect allows you to share and explain your vision to your other group members, showing them how exactly your video is going to be mapped out and look like. Also creating storyboards help guide us and structure what will be included in what frame, and the order they would be in. Creating individual storyboards will be helpful as it allows every member to express what visuals they have which they believe will be conventional to our thriller opening scene. Once we have our individual storyboards we will merge all ideas and agree on what to include within our thriller to make it a successful one which follows all the conventions. 

Frames 1- 4 

Overall the whole thriller will be in low-key lighting as it is set in the evening, however there is a flashback which will obviously contrast the normal lighting to show that this is a flashback. The low-key lighting will foreshadows that theres going to be a dark atmosphere within the thriller opening. Within the frames 1- 4 the aim is to create curiosity in the audience. The sequence begins with a boy laying down in the middle of the road, beginning with this will puzzle the audience as they do not understand why anyone would put themselves in such danger. Throughout these frames, it begins with the boy with his eyes shut which implies he must be dreaming or something else. But after this the use of the editing style dissolve will incorporate that theres a change of scenery and that the audience are not where they were at the start of this. The use of the editing will introduce our flashback showing a swing in a mid shot so that they can see the location of where it is at, which is a park. To emphasise the flashback we will enhance the colour making it look more gloomy and misty to convey to the audience that this is not reality, it is a dream that is taking place. Which will hopefully make them feel suspicious and tensed as they do not know what is going to happen in this flashback in the meantime. 

Frames 5 - 8

As its the end of the flashback in frame 5, there appears a little boy swinging on a swing. This will shock the audience as before there was no one on the swing and it was moving by itself. After the next two frames will be of the boy waking up and sitting up as he hears distant chatter,  there will be no sound in this which exaggerates him concentrating hard to listen to the noises. Lastly in frame 8 it'll introduce two more characters which are girls with a two shot, this will automatically inform to the audience that they are the possible protagonist as girls as victims are conventional to a thriller due to their innocence. This drama will also show the state that the girls are in, which will be in a unable state as they are coming back from a night out. The use of this will exaggerate their vulnerability and will make the audience create a closer relationship with them due to their lack of stability so they won't be able to defend themselves if anything was to happen. 

Frames 9 - 12

In these frames it'll mostly be focusing on the two girls, and will give a more insight on who they are and what they're like. Firstly, in frame 9 it'll show in a panning shot the girls walking down from the bus stop. The parallel sound of cars in the background will give the audience a sense of normality, so they can relate to the girls and build a closer relationship with them. This carries on onto frame 10 where the girls finally reach to the location where the mysterious boy is who is the antagonist and one of them notices him and wants to check on him. After, frame 11 will be taken in a point of view shot as one of the girls decides to go on check on him, the slow editing added will create suspense and tension within the audience as the slowness suggest something unexpected is going to happen. I was inspired from the scene in Scream 4 - Olivia's death where he friend slowly walks up the stairs towards where the murder was. I chose to use slow editing because like the girl in scream the slow editing and the slowness creates suspense within the audience especially because they know that the antagonist was there or is there. Also behind this will be a non-diegetic sound which will mirror the girls heartbeat which increases as she gets closer to him, this will make the audience feel apprehensive as they do not know what is bound to happen. Now this section will end with a jump cut to the girl who is on the phone, this will gradually shallow focus her surroundings so that it makes the setting look more blurred. This will make it harder for the audience to see whats happening in the background and also feel tensed as they have just seen her friend walk away towards the antagonist who is on the road. 

Frames 13 - 16

Within the frames 13 - 16 , this will clarify to the audience what character representation is which. Frame 13 is simply an extreme close up of the antagonists eyes opening which will be accompanied with an alerting, non-diegetic sound which will make the audience jump. After this a reaction shot will occur in frame 14 which will show the girls facial expression to her response of the off screen screaming she hears whilst being on the phone. I took this inspiration from the scene called Olivia' death in the film Scream 4. This reaction was shot was used when the friends were in the opposite house looking across the window witnessing the horror of their friend being killed. This inspired me to use a reaction shot so the audience can see the reaction from the girl which they can relate to her as they're just in the same shock as she is in Behind all of this, there will be an non-diegetic, alerting, screechy music that will represent the shock and horror of the audience and the protagonist of just happened as the mysterious boys body is gone but left is the girls friends dead body. 

Frames 17 - 20

These last few frames are all about the chase scene that includes the victim and the antagonist. In frame 17, the girl is running away from the scene where she saw her friend dead and is running towards the forest. Forests are conventional to a thriller as they are dark and isolated so if anyone was going to be in danger, they'll have no help. The next frame will be shot with a handheld camera, this will make the audience relate to her movements as she is running in the woods. I chose this because it will make the audience put themselves in her shoes and feel tensed because if there was something to suddenly change, they'll jump as it is unexpected. After, in the frame 19 it is shot from a low angle of the protagonists perspective as she has fallen onto the ground after tripping over. The low angle will gradually look up to the dark figure that is distant from her path way, this will suggest that it is the antagonist as you cannot see his identity which is conventional to a thriller. As this is a low angle this will portray the girl as weak and the dark figure as more powerful as he is more upper and dominant because she is on the floor. The editing of this will be slow as it will create suspense and tension whilst the girl looks up to the dark figures direction. What inspired for me to include a screechy, non - diegetic music like The 'Heres Johnny' Scene from the film The Shining. This was included when the antagonist was getting closer to the bathroom door where his protagonist was hiding at, the music quieten down the closer he got to the door. I'll incorporate this in my thriller when the girl slowly looks up to see the dark figure as the music will quieten showing that the antagonist is in power and is going to win this chase. Finally in the last frame it will jump cut to this frame and will be a point of view shot of the boy who's wearing a mask looking down on the girl who's fallen over. When this is shown, an alerting, non - diegetic sound will go off which will make the audience jump as it is unexpected to happen and also the on screen sound will be of the girl screaming as she sees him. Both sounds will imply that the chase is over and the girl is in danger due to her reaction, this could also suggest that she is going to be killed by him. The whole opening sequence will finish on a fade of this frame which will creates suspense and curiosity within the audience as it is left on a cliff hanger and they do not know what is going to happen to the girl, whether she dies? or escapes the antagonist who is in her way. 

I believe that my storyboard flows very well, and the audience who watch our thriller will understand the narrative. The editing, cinematography and sound used carefully links each frame together making it easy for the audience to watch and also it helps create suspense, shock and surprise within the audience and conventional to a thriller. The improvements that I'll consider within my storyboard is to include different kinds of sound to give a more impact within the thriller, I feel that the sounds I've included are a little bit repetitive which will eventually make the audience feel bored. But I will discuss with my group this slight problem I have and see if they agree or disagree to include more sounds onto our group storyboard or just to leave it as it. 

When I get into my group, we will all discuss our different types of individual storyboards and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each so that we understand more in depth what we would like our thriller to be like. This will allow us to see if we like any of the ideas and choose to incorporate specific ideas into our group storyboard or whether we simply follow one individual storyboard depending on how conventional it is to our narrative and a thriller. 
There are certain things that I think all my team members will agree on including from my storyboard and that'll be the extreme close up of the antagonists eyes opening. I believe all my members will agree on using this as it shocks the audience and also exaggerates that he is awake after having the flashback making the audience feel tensed. 

Planning our individual storyboards was very efficient in regards with filming our sequence because it sets a guideline of what were going to include in each frame. So that when we are actually behind the camera recording, it wouldn't be as time consuming and chaotic as we know what were doing because were following the group storyboard we have came up with. Also with having a storyboard it is easier to visualise as it is a brief plan of what your going to do and include in the sequence, this is helpful because because we can see through pictures and brief writing what we need to do when actually filming.