Video Production: Story Board

Original Stroryboard


This is a copy of our story board which we have produced to help us when filming our film opening.

The first scene will be rapid jump shots of areas/items in the room or body parts of the character. The lighting will be dark so that it is difficult to see what has happened in the film yet you begin to guess what may have happened.

The second scene may be difficult to film. We are hoping to get a reflection in the aviator sun glasses of the villain beating the female. Again there will be jump shots to add tension and a narrow depth of field. So that you are able to details in the room this scene will be a medium close up.

Our day scene will be located in the high street with a medium close up of the female character. Over her shoulder you will be able to see the male character (villain). The camera will be straight infront of the female character and will have a slight trachk out as she is walking towards the camera.

Video Production: Logistics

Cast/Costumes

• Harriette Mullen- Casual
• Kris Roberts- Unusual and untidy

Locations

• House/Flat
• Beside River

Booked Equipment for February 13th-February 23rd

• Digital Video Camera
• Video Case
• Rechargable Battery
• Recharger
• Tripod

Time Keeping

We did recording for the evening scene on Wednesday 18th Feb at 9.30pm, we then decided that what we had planned for the day scenes would not be suitable due to the unconvenience of other people in the high street. Therefore we decided to change our story board and we produced these on Thursday the 19th Feb at 2.30pm. This took an hour to finalise things. We then planned to do the day scene of Sunday 22nd Feb due to the lighting and expected quietness. We started filming at 11am and finished at 1.30

Video Production: Sypnosis

First 10 Seconds

1. There will be a brief start to the film opening with credits
2. Flashing images around the room

Next 40-50 seconds

1. Main woman lay on floor
2. Beaten up character
3. Reaching for her phone
4. She sees the reflection of the villain in glasses reflection
5. You see him about to kill her

Following/Last 60-70 seconds

1. Main woman walking in high street
2. She goes shopping
3. Looks in shop windows
4. Villain seems to be everywhere she goes
5. Phone rings from 'unknown'
6. They bump into each other
7. She gets in taxi to go home
8. They stare at each other through window

Video Production- Two Minute Opening Analysis

For our project we have chosen the genre Horror- slasher/stalker. We have analysed the two minute opening to 'When a Stranger Calls' and this is what we will use to help us chose important details to our films such as the genre features. When a stranger calls was produced by Davis Entertainment and Screen Gems and was distributed by Columbria and Sony Pictures. This will have been as quite a few films with the same genre have similar distributers due to them knowing how to target their audiences. Our target audience are teens/late teens, C2, yet our film will be targetted towards a mainstream audience, and as a rating it would be '15' this is because there will be quite disturbing scenes which younger children would not be able to manage with. The teens would probably be people who look for gory films with low age ratings for them to go watch. Our characters are also quite young so this would appeal to them. We have recognised certain genre features such as the darkness and the empty dark house. There are also children laughing and screaming and a fayre ground which is usually linked to clowns- something which in the correct context can connote horror. The only narration in the two minute opening was a woman saying 'hello, who is this?' on the phone. You cannot see her, or the phone therefore this is non-diegetic. However there is diegetic sound coming from the children and the fayre ground. We may use non-diegetic sound as this creates confusion as the audience do not know who the conversation is between, until later on it the film. There are many fast paced edits throughout the opening. This is a good way to create tension and excitement during the first two minutes therefore we will probably use this technique in our opening. There are uses of enigma codes which also makes the audience unsure of what is happening. Narrative consists of the girl on the phone who is suggested as the victim; later on we will eventually find out the villain. Our film will contain enigma codes also as there will be a slight suspicion as who the villain is yet it will not be certain.

Video- Film Openings: Narrative and Genre

When looking at film openings there are several that we looked at as a class; one of these was 'Dog Soldiers'. Watching this allowed me to see whether I liked this genre and what aspects of this film I liked enough to include in my two minute opening. 'Dog Soldiers' is an action/horror genre and it's sub genre is a werewolf movie. Several things that are used to connote this sub-genre are: a solid silver knife, the setting being in the woods, a full moon and howling.

There are several things i focused on while watching this; the conventions used and the narrative structure.

To help the audience understand the narrative structure there are uses of binary opposition. The main example of this is when there is evil and good. The audience are drawn to believe that the villain is the sergeant who kills the dog and the hero is the man who stands up to him. The use of the other group of characters in their tent allows the film to explore the todorovian stage of equilibrium. These characters experience a disruption when the werewolf attacks them, however before this everything was balanced and normal.

As the audience have a good understanding of the narrative structures this is a good way of keeping the audience involved and also captivated. These effects allow the audience to predict in their minds the rest of the story.