The process of storyboarding

A storyboard is an account showing the series of individual shots that come together to make up the film sequence. There is an image of what each shot will roughly look like, accompanied by text which explains concisely what is going on in the mise en scene each time. The text should also tell us what sort of sound and light is used and the editing involved.

In order to develop our storyboards, we came together as a group to make a list of the shot types we are going to use in our sequence as well as the editing transition from one shot to another.
We were then given storyboard templates as seperate documents which we typed the details into before printing off so we could draw in the pictures of each shot.

When doing my section of the storyboard sequence, I sometimes found it difficult filling in the details of the location as we are still not completely sure as to where exactly our sequence is going to be filmed.

Research-Witches

This is a picture taken from the 17th century. It is an image of a woman being accused of being a witch during the time of the Salem Witch hunt. This gave our group inspiration for our synopsis.

Initial Research

The Shining





This is clip which we looked at when doing our initial research. The idea of the maze gave us inspiration for the corridor idea and the concept of being trapped.

We came acroos this image on google and came to the conclusion that it is a vague idea of what we invisaged the corridor to look like, although we would probably have a bright light at the end.

It is filmed in a point of view shot and creates a sense of perspective

Synopsis of our thriller idea

After establishing a definite idea for the opening sequence, we were asked to come up with a synopsis. We came up with a possible back story or given circumstance which gives the audience a reason as to why the main protagonist is the way she is.

The story is set in 17th century England, a time when Catholicism ruled. The main protagonist is a girl between the ages of 16 and 20. She is of Irish nationality living in England and is very beautiful with red hair and bright green eyes. Intimidated and frightened by her beauty and intelligence and the fact that her father mysteriously dissappeared, leaving her alone, the other villagers accuse her of being a witch and abuse her, throwing rocks at her when she walks down the street. Tormented by this cruel treatment, the girl decides to isolate herself from the rest of the world, building a metaphorical wall around herself.

This is not necessarily our definite idea for our synopsis. It is work in progress and just one way in which the audience can interpret the sequence.

First group meeting

We were put into groups and came together to discuss and develop our chosen idea.


My Idea

The scene starts with a close up of a girl's hands building a wall in the dark
Voice over in the background: 'good fences make good neighbours' (repeated over & over)
Jump cuts to a girl about age 16-18 waking up in a white room
Camera tracks out to wide shot, revealing that the girl is strapped to her bed, in a mental institution
Camera tracks forward into the girl's eye, as if going into her mind
We see a shot of her trapped in a long white corridor
She opens doors along the corridor but behind each door is just a wall
She is screaming-runs through a bright light at the end of the corridor
Jump cuts to another shot of her in bed, screaming again

Symbolism

We had the idea that the corridor is a metaphor of the girl feeling trapped within herself-it is all in her mind
The fact that the girl is building her own walls at the beginning suggests that she has trapped herself
The phrase: 'good fences make good neighbours' is taken from a poem by Robert Frost & means that people get along better when there is division & separation between them-perhaps the girl conviced herself that she is better off with walls around her

Set & props

We will need to use a narrow corridor which we can paint white
Bricks and cement
White paint

Tension

Tension is generated through sound:-
Repetition of 'good fences make good neighbours' -gradually getting louder and louder
Girl screaming as she runs along the corridor-sound of doors opening and slamming shut-creates a sense of panic
Visual:-
Filming corridor part in a point of view shot-helps the audience empathise with the character and feel their fear
Building walls-only being able to see the hands-creates an air of mystery
Sudden jump cuts from scene to scene-shocks audience

Why is it a good idea?

It is original

It appeals to a common fear that a lot of people have-being trapped and claustrophobia