Individual storyboard - Miss Miller

Story boards are a key component to the planning of a film. They are used to plan out the different factors for each shot including; the cinematography, location, iconography, lighting, actors, sound, editing and narrative. It gives us a set out plan for how we are going to shoot and develop our sequence; therefore avoiding mistakes and disorganisation. The group and I are creating our individual storyboards before coming together to create a group one. This is done so that we are able to incorporate different ideas, giving us a more rounded storyboard, being the best possible outcome. It will help us greatly in the planning of the main storyboard as we will all have a clear view on the production of our clip and the set up of each shot. It results in much better communication between the group and will mean that the process will run a lot smoother.

During the clip we switch through 4 different scenes. This includes are main scene in the present tense and 3 flash back scenes shown to be in the past tense. The first shot will be in the main scene; it will show the victims state of paranoia as she is on the edge suicide. The iconography within this shot includes bricks, water and a bridge .This added to the use of low key lighting and a long shot showing the everything in the shot gives us a clear insight into what is happening and what the film is based on.Next is the 3 flash backs, a filter will be added to these to show they are from the past and to emphasise how horrible the thoughts are.
The first flashback is of the girl in her home comforts innocently watching a cartoon whilst being stalked by the antagonist. She stops the man and runs for a knife only to see him disappear. This takes up 4 of my 20 shots and will last for 50 seconds. The cinematography used within this scene is done to show the danger that our victim is in. The use of high and low angles on the characters shows the antagonist to be more menacing the victim to be vulnerable and innocent. Also hand held camera technique helps us feel the panic that the victim is expressing. It increases the surprise effect as she becomes so panicked. All this is done to make the audience sympathise for the likeable victim. The sound and iconography furthermore highlights this innocence and sympathy shown by the views as we see her in pyjamas watching a children's programme. We will also see a reaction shot of the girls terrified facial expression to emphasise the sympathy we feel for her.
The next flashback consists of the young girl walking home from school on a forest pathway. It will take only 3 shots and last for 20 seconds. During this scene we want to emphasise the menacing presence of the antagonist. This is done through both the cinematography and the sound used mainly throughout frame 7. An extreme close up is used on the boot of the antagonist and parallel sound to emphasise his vital presence within the scene. The close up highlights the importance of the boot and elaborates on the fact that she is in danger, building up suspense for the viewer. The parallel sound emphasises these effects and helps us build a relationship with the character as we clearly hear what she hears. In addition to this a jump cut is used as we show the boot to create an added sense of shock for the audience.
 The final flashback consists of the victim walking home from a night out, it is used to show her state of paranoia as she presumes a innocent runner to be the deranged stalker. This lasts for 4 shots and 20 seconds. The objective for this scene is to highlight the victims crazed emotions, this is mainly achieved by showing clearly her facial expressions in frame 12. We do this through a extreme close up and a reaction shot to clearly show her reaction to, what she thought was, the antagonist. Both these techniques elaborate on the emotions of the young girl, this is done to furthermore make the audience sympathise for her.
The last part of the clip is set in the main suicide scene in the park, on the bridge. It is the largest scene in the film, consisting of 8 frames and lasting 80 seconds. This is because it is the main event of the clip. The scene shows the girl about to jump off the bridge, however she is saved by a passing women, this being the protagonist; the scene consists of a plot twist used to shock the audience and create an enigma as the protagonist is killed by the antagonist. The aim of this scene is to shock the audience done through camera angles, iconography and editing mainly through frames 17, 18, 19 and 20 as the protagonist dies. Suspense it used to great effect as the antagonist slowly walks towards the victims. This is emphasised greatly during frame 17 through the effective use of cinematography and editing. A POV camera angle is used to put us in the perspective of the antagonist; this is a very effective way of building suspense as it means that we see something about to happen. This results in us predicting what is about to happen and therefore making us worry for the victims and creating a great amount of tension. The tempo of the shot also has a great effect on the suspense built. The tempo will be slowed down greatly, therefore prolonging the clip. This gives us more time to think about what may happen and the consequences. We therefore feel a lot of tension as we desperately want to see the outcome. Another key convention conveyed during this scene is the sense of shock. This is built through the death of our innocent protagonist; mainly being shown in frames 18 & 19. A close up camera angle will be used to highlight the reaction and emotions of the protagonist as she is stabbed. The camera will show only the women face, focusing mainly on her facial expressions. The effect this has on the audience is that we build a relationship with the lady, we feel great sympathy as we see he pain she goes through. It elaborates on the convention of shock as we didn't expect her to die. The suspense and shock within this scene end the film on a cliff hanger, creating an enigma and forcing the viewers to want to watch the full film.

After now completing my storyboard me and my group will come together to discuss each others plan and create a final storyboard that will be vital to the production of our sequence. We will go through the plans shot by shot and come up with a compromise of 20 shots that we all agree on. My own personal storyboard went very well. There were very little mistakes and I feel that all of the preparation added will have a good effect on the clip. The only issue is the timing. The overall time of the clip was shown to be over 3 minutes; this is far over the recommended time for the sequence. I will therefore have to cut down the time of each clip so that it fits into a more respectable time frame. This has helped greatly wit the production of the clip as we now have a lot more understanding and  structure into the filming of each individual shot, meaning that we are far more prepared to compose our opening thriller sequence.