Thursday, October 17, 2013

Pre-Production: Storyboarding the Trailer

We began storyboarding in July 2013 to develop our narrative idea, this allowed us to test how well we could communicate the plot to an audience. Although, in our AS project we realised that sticking to a storyboard can limit creative thinking, so we mainly used storyboards to document main ideas/scenes we wanted in the trailer.  This meant we were not so precious of things like the chronological order of shots, as we only used it to prompt the production stages more than the post production stage. Considering our media text is a trailer, we anticipated that a structure will come from how well filming went and the choice of music. 

Here are the storyboards with explanations:
(some shots are not in full order)



Sheet 1&2
We wanted to begin with a close up of a clock to establish the importance of time, in anticipation for the life changing event that occurs next. We planned to have no music in this opening, just the ambient sound of the clock ticking and an intriguing silence.  

The next shot was of Eve glancing through the opening of her kitchen door.  We wanted the door to creek above the silence to show the intrusion of Eve. 

Cutting to an eye-line shot of her mother on the phone to her work, but it's late at night which is curious. Her mothers dialogue '12 hours from now?!' refers to when the event will begin, but the preciseness is interesting because it invites questions from the audience. We decided on 12 hours rather than any other amount of time because then time seems to be viewed more intensely since it is a full cyclic period of time on an analogue clock, rather than 2 hours which has less effect on the viewers thoughts. 

Then it cuts to less tightly-framed shots of Eve walking towards her mother to say goodnight. As they hug, we cut to another eye-line shot of her mothers work folder. It has a logo on it that indicates the government, showing that it is important to the plot, while the eye-line helps to portray Eve as a main character again as it puts the audience in her eyes.

Looking at the storyboard below at no.8 we then wanted to introduce the institution logo, signifying then end of the calm beginning that introduces the context of the plot.

This is continued with the occurrence of the mysterious event. We first imply the adults are gone, through Eves mother. Iain and Lizzie suggested that she is doing something normal like making food, and as she walks out of the camera frame, the sound of a spoon hits the floor to suggest she has instantly vanished. The clash of the spoon on the floor symbolises the harsh disruption that the story is built around. 

This would be followed by a reaction shot (located on a sheet further down, shot no. 13) of her son and Eves brother Alfie. He would walk into the room holding a gaming gadget and looking up to find his mother in his sight but she is not there. His dialogue is 'mum?' so we plan to get Matthew to say it in a question-like tone of voice. This shot also captures the spoon on the floor, having two main subjects of drastic distance/size; this helps exaggerate the the thought that the adults are gone, leaving the children alone, small and defenseless. 





Sheet 3
We thought that so far the story only exists in Eves kitchen, therefore we went to the setting of the teens during the event, as that allows the narrative to focus on the idea that the children are untouched. In a classroom, the lesson was taking place while the teacher vanishes. We wanted to cleverly execute this, so we planned to used a dolly/over the shoulder shot (at the back of the classroom) so that through the movement of the students heads passing in front of the subject (teacher) he could vanish by ducking down out of the frame- this requires good timing and we planned to figure of the composition on the day of the shoot. 

After that, in following trailer conventions to portray the narrative, we wanted to use copy to engage the viewer with a question like 'what would you do if all the adults just...' but we felt it was difficult to think of anything at that stage, and agreed to finalise our use of copy in the editing stage. 
















Sheet 4
We then planned to cut to the part of the establishing shots. The purpose of these are to show the mass disappearance of adults. We wanted a long shot of clinical and bare corridor zooming in to create some movement on screen as we planned to use a part of a song, for effect. Other locations were important as they showed a range of places: the beach, a forest and industrial area. However, we realised that the mise en scene connoted ideas that will be shown later in the plot. We needed to communicate that the adults we gone, so we thought of main places adults would be, and we thought the motorway tilt-up will be particularly powerful in suggesting that, as well as shopping areas. Finally we ended on a skyline pan shot to summarise the mass effects- covering a large portion of land helped say that it was a major event effecting every adult. Reflecting Roads structure.




















Sheet 5
We planned to separate the establishing shots from the focus on the teens after the event with another copy that stated 'based on the best selling novel' as that makes the film seem like other films, functioning as a minor/made up USP (it's not really based on a book and the film isn't real anyway). We were influenced by The Road. We imagined if this was really based on a book, it would attract the readers/fans of it, therefore has a wider demographic.

The main characters are slowly introduced now, firstly Michael and Eve and her little bother, walking on the beach (we really wanted to use teen-associated locations to secure the genre) while the location and canted angle helped to convey emotional connotations (crashing feelings) as the effects of realising what's happened (world is on a slant). I thought it would be another good mise en scene idea to have the camera capturing the industry in the background to show that they are left in a polluted world, foreshadowing what bad things the world will bring them as a result. The point of this scene was to communicate Michael and Eve  realising what they need to do now in order to survive and work out what's really happened. Through dialogue, we needed to establish that Michael was becoming a leader, so we scripted 'it's time to step up' but we thought it sounded wrong and not fitting to my character, but we were going to try it. 













Sheet 6
This is when the plot takes shape and pace, as we wanted a sense of realism, 
we envisioned that gathering food and supplies was crucial in an apocalyptic state. So we storyboarded a scene depicting this- it is located in my kitchen instead of Lizzie's to create the idea that the teens had resorted to scavenging through other peoples homes to survive. We wanted them be rushing as if there was a threat and lack of time, preparing the viewer for the introduction of the antagonists. Michael is meant to be clanging the tins on the counter top as her collected them, while we wanted to be creative with the camera as Eve opened the cupboard door and grabbed the camera like it was another piece of food. 























Sheet 7
In shots 32 and 34, we wanted to exaggerate the fact Eve's mothers folder is gone, through dialogue, re inviting it back into the plot to show that it's important. On this sheet you will also find the previously reference spoon/alfie shot, and ignore the tin close up. The folder shot leads us onto the next sheet.


































Sheet 8
The antagonist, Haden, is introduced through reading Eve's mothers work folder, and as it holds the key to bringing back the adults thats the last thing he wants since his personality was made for a world that he can claim rule over. I don't think we crafted the communication of this very well in the planning stages. This shows that they have stolen the folder, and must have been going through Eve's home, suggesting the threat. 

We go onto a campfire scene, this again is cliche of teen movies which targets the teen demographic and reflects TWTWB. This helps distinguish the group identity now, and they are discussing Michael being a leader, but he has no choice since 'they look upto you Michael' spoken by Lizzie character. But this was only early stages of planning, we all wanted to do more improvisation this year- getting into our roles mentally to evoke natural speech in scenes rather than planning it, so we weren't too concerned.

Haden and Selene were scripted to both look at each other and say 'vanish at 17' to help clarify some details about the event. This was also to add urgency, since both groups knew, they knew that time was running out, but they didn't know if it would still affect them after the event. 












Sheet 9&10
The first frame is relevant to the campfire scene, the group shot was to identify the protagonist group. The rest capture the chase scene. Both groups are shown in this, representing the nature of their relationship (protagonist chased by antagonist) we plan to use the farmers fields near Iains house, leading into the forest for a classic Eden chase. The bad group will be carrying bats to show the extent of their threat. The chase opens with a extreme long landscape shot, then they run diagonally past the camera and into the forest. 

The shot of the forest path shows two arrows, indicating that the good group split up to escape. I added the foot print shot- I planned to lay on the ground as Fiona Grey jumped over me, then I'd lift up and track her, as I said it was crucial to have unstable camera movements in a chase to immerse the viewer. I learnt this from AS, because we used a lot of fixed shots in a chase, which proved very ineffective. This then shows that we were focusing on Fiona in the chase- she was the victim, the weakest of the herd, almost to support the concept of 'survival of the fittest'. We than planned a tracking shot, in which meant we would run beside her as she ran to add further intensity. We scripted her to trip over in front of the camera, reaching out, as this directly addresses the viewers in a way to emotionally involve them in the unpleasant situation. I added the POV blurred tree shot, this was to communicate Fiona turning on her back to get up, while the trees showed the distortion and adrenaline of the chase. 










































Sheet 11
Continuing from the last sheet, Haden asks 'where are they?' in obsession for defeating the good group, he is pacing back and forth because it bothers him that much. Selene, in response says 'who cares?' which results in Haden lashing out at her by slapping the magazine out her hands. We planned this to gain an insight into the bad group, especially to show how they treat each other. We planned that Haden apologises but I objected to this since people like Haden have no remorse for killing innocent people, why would he be sorry for anything?

The locket in the hand was a scrapped idea.

The last frame captures Eve and her brother hiding, and using a match to provide light in the dark, inspired by The Road.



























Sheet 12&13
At this point the antagonist group are directly introduced to the viewer as the emerge from the back tunnel, it portrays their ugly and infected personalities, as sociopathic leaders/henchmen who seek to destroy the good group and rule the area for themselves. The unpleasant location can reflect their current social position in a way because they are trekking through dirty water, they want to be on higher ground. 

On the close up of Haden's face, we want the music to pause for a mid climax as he says in his cruel toned voice 'find them!'. This tells the audience that they are not a passing threat, their aim is to find 'them', the fact the good group are referred to as 'them' creates the idea that they have been talking about them/well acquainted to their opponent, but not personal towards them. It is quick-spoken and commanding, adding depth to Haden's character. 

The shot of the bat being dragged across the ground was really to shows that they is bats, and this bat is different because it has nails in it- which we plan to buy one and modify it ourselves. Highlighting how dangerous the antagonists are.  

I suggested that Lizzie and her brother should run into their home and slam the gates shut to represent their desperation to shut out the dangers the outside brought them. In between the two gate shots, is copy 'FEAR', as we planned to begin using copy of key words and themes in the story, towards the end, building up to the climax. We placed certain shots of imagery with the copy to reflect each other and help encourage ideas in the viewers mind. For example, the next copy is 'RIVALRY' so we followed it with a group shot of the two groups standing opposite each on (this comes closer to the climatic scene)




































Sheet 13,14&15
We had lots of ideas about hands reflecting emotions and relationsips. The clenching fist goes with the rivalry copy to symbolise the anger, while the other shots of hand hold showed the 'TRUST'. In reflection to this part of the storyboards, I feel that we all shared the same vision by this point and never really documented much in drawings because we spent more time discussing ideas vocally and debating things like organisation because we wanted to get on with the production processes very quickly. 

We came up with other themes linked to the plot like 'SURVIVAL' which evoked contradicting ideas of the nailed bat swinging down towards the camera in the murder of Fiona Grey, aimed to shock the viewer to a degree. 

Inspired by the biblical connotations of Eves name, we added 'BETRAYAL' creating the plot line that  Lizzie's brother was taken by the antagonistic group, and Eve had to betray her own group in order to retrieve him- although I thought this idea wasn't effective in theory, since it's a trailer, there could be other sub plot lines of betrayal. It can also function to represent the conflict, since it juxtaposes our previous copy of 'trust' and connotes typical teen relationships that the demographic might relate to. 

The two top frames on sheet 15 reflect our 'betrayal' idea, showing a new location as the archway entering an old church near Lizzie's house. The setting in this scene acts as the 'new name' for the bad group because they murdered Fiona, the graveyard was selected to be the background as they have earned the connotations of death. 





























































Sheet 17
This briefly depicts the climax of the trailer. We wanted a sort of battle between the groups to end on, much like THG. It captures Michael and Haden intensely facing one another as patriarchs of their group, their fight was the main focus. 

 We want to look at other group members like Selene taking on Eve, I suggested that  Selene grabs Eve from behind and pulls her hair back, allowing herself to whisper in Eve's ear 'watch them die'. This adds character depth to Selene, being a sociopath like Haden, while gaining sympathy from the audience for Eve since she is in danger. 

We planned that the ending is in slow motion of Haden slamming Michael to the ground. We thought watching the bad conquering good really emotionally involves the viewer, and encourages them to watch the film to see if bad really does beat good, as it's unusual. The use of slow motion is good to bring the trailer to an intense end as it endures the climax for effect. 

We decided from our narrative that the importance of time within it was a clear indicator for the film title, we couldn't think of many others so we went with it. We also appreciate the fact it's a one word title. so it's memorable, hitting and relates to everyone and the world, reaching a wide demographic because it doesn't sound like a teen movie as such. 

Here are some extra sheets:







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