Storyboard

We storyboarded the opening sequence to our thriller film, as all film directors do, so we knew exactly what shots to film and from which angles, as well as the lighting and dialogue required when it came to filming. This was very useful and ensured the filming process ran as smoothly as possible. Here is the final storyboard for our opening sequence:

However, prior to producing our final storyboard, we produced a number of others in which we generated and developed different ideas. Our final storyboard shows aspects of these original storyboards and has also been developed further to create the best possible outcome. We found storyboarding a very useful method of planning, as it allowed us to see what shots may look like when put into practice and helped us to consider mise-en-scene. We learnt that the planning process does not simply involve one idea which is then used, but is a process in which ideas are constantly developed and changed to produce the best possible final concept.

Below is our first ever storyboard, which did not even reach the filming process. Following analysis of other real media products, we recognised that they do not often involve much action in the first few minutes. Therefore, we decided there was too much going on in this sequence, making it more like a short story, which is likely to confuse the viewers.

After deciding our original idea would not work very effectively, we began to generate a new storyboard. We incorporated aspects of the original, such as the phone call, however simplified the story, in order to not confuse the audience. This storyboard reached the shooting stage, however on beginning to edit the footage we discovered it was very grainy, with the actress and action barely visible. This was due to us making the mistake of blocking out natural light, to create darkness in the room. We did attempting to create the sinister atmosphere typical to that of a thriller, but soon realised there are in fact much more effective ways in creating such an atmosphere than darkness such as mise-en-scene, camera shots and music. As we were left with low quality footage and also had reservations regarding the storyline, we decided to develop yet another storyboard. The development of our storyboards enabled us to generate and develop our ideas, leading to the creation of our final storyboard, which incorporates aspects of them all. We learnt that ideas do not always work when put into practice and planning involves much more than producing an original storyboard identical to that of the finished product.