AS Media - Storyboard

The Brief:
- To create a storyboard for our media 2 minute film.




Location[s]

As a group we were originally going to film at Boughton Mount Centre, which is an abandoned school, however recently it has been cautioned off by police and trespassing laws now abide in that area so we had to relocate. We then came up with the idea of filming in Loose Valley instead, in specifics nearby the stream that is located in that area. We also chose Loose because it was still just as suitable to the storyline and we could make even more creative shots in the location due to the appealing landscape that surrounds the stream.

Here are the listed locations we will use:

- Loose Valley
- Forest

These two locations are both near to us and each other making it widely more accessible for the whole of our group making them convenient for us all.

Actors

The two listed actors we are going to have are:

Myself [Josh] - as the killer
Lucy [Group Member] - as the victim

Due to Lucy and I being A-Level drama students this made the choice of actors much simpler as we were both comfortable playing the roles we were given, also this meant that we would be more reliable than someone else outside of the group who is giving up their spare time whereas we are required to be there regardless.

Props

Here are the listed props we will require:

-Fake Blood
-Animals Blood
-Twig
-Replica of victims top
-Cushion
-Blood Packs
-Knife
-Earphones
-School bag
-Un-smashed phone
-Smashed Phone

Costume[s]

Here is the listed costumes we will require:

[Killer]
-Walking Boots
-Baggy Joggers
-Baggy Jumper/Sweatshirt

[Victim]
-Casual Clothes
-Clothes with stab wound and blood on

Sound

Here is the listed sounds we will require:

-Music (uncopyrighted and manipulated to sound more eerie)
-Distorted Ringtone
-Sound effects of walking/twig snapping

Film Titles

These are the film titles we came up with:

-Silent Killer
-The Watched
-EYE-SPY

These titles are all relevant to the stalker idea portrayed in our film opening however some are less conventional than others such as "EYE-SPY". Due to the genre of our film being slasher we thought involving the word 'Killer' into a title such as "SIlent Killer" would lead to the title conforming to the conventions of the genre and man=king it a successful film title.

We then decided that "Silent Killer" was indeed the prefered option of the group as a whole and stuck with that option as it is far more conventional than others and captures what the film is about in a simple two words.

Storyboard - Audience Feedback

On Tuesday 29th November, we presented our first draft of our storyboard to our audience and explained our plot, props, actors etc. to them, so they could give us positives of our piece as well as some constructive criticism.

Positives

Our shots are good and creative and our blog posts explain well how we will edit the shots, for example the sound manipulation when the victim is listening to music in her earphones and the use of the 'in headphone' sound effect, in which the music is playing diegetically but sounds as if it is being heard through the headphones.

The audience also told us that they liked our shots and angles, which are creative and effective. This is important and useful feedback as the shots are what make the difference between strong and weak coursework.

The final positive bit of feedback from the audience was that we had a strong title option; 'Silent Killer'. We were told that this was the best one because it conforms to common slasher film titles yet doesn't give too much away, and that it was a lot stronger than our other title options, in particular 'Eye-Spy' as they thought that this didn't fully relate to our story line.

Constructive Criticism

The audience didn't think that we should include the 'muddy, bloody footprints' idea/shot in our final shots. This was because the concept seemed unrealistic and didn't fully follow our story line. Our group later decided stillt to make the boots muddy to make the killer appear to live in a dirty and isolated area, but not have a shot of the footprints.

The audience loved the idea of some of our other shots, such as the 'bloody water' shot and the 'stab' shot, however they did recommend that we practise these and experiment with different ways to create these shots before filming. This was so that they look as realistic as possible and so that we knew exactly how to create them on the day of filming which would save us time and allow us to be as productive as possible in a short amount of time. Following this feedback, some members in our group have created a blog to experiment with each of these shots.

After our presentation we were asked a question regarding the music that the victim would be listening to. A member our group did a blog post finding good in-copyrighted music and another deciding which one of these songs we should choose for our final piece. We were told that we needed to choose a song quickly so we could experiment and practice manipulating the song. As a result The song was decided on and there was also a blog post made on ideas on how to manipulate the song. I also did one on actually manipulating the sound, and deciding the most effective way it could be manipulated.

AS Media - Story Board Peer Feedback

The Brief:

-To review the story board feedback from class

Feedback:

Positives:

We gathered a lot of positivity from our story board presentation and our peers were able to see and feedback on the creative shots that we  have implemented into our film opening, including the cold breath shot and the earphone shot.

We were also praised on the angle variety of our shots in our piece especially the canted angle shot at the end of the piece.

Finally our peers thankfully agreed that the title of 'Silent Killer' as the other options that we provided such as 'Eye-Spy' were off topic and unconventional.

Overall the response from the audience was mainly positive as they agreed that most of the store board made sense and was relevant to the chosen genre. However they gave us some constructive criticism on what we could do to improve and polish it off.

Improvements

- To make sure that the blood floating down the stream is both;
safe (if it is a biohazard or not)
or
looks appealing (fake blood can dissolve into solid pieces)

to combat this we are going to do a practical that shows wether the fake blood, food colouring or real animal blood works the best.

- To make sure that we don't use 'muddy or bloody footprints' because;
it is a nice idea but doesn't directly link to the story
it is out of place as there is no real explanation as to why his footprints are already bloody
it doesn't fit in the story line

to combat this we decided on only using muddy footprints so that we didn't loose the amount of shots we already had and didn't have to adjust everything around that change whilst keeping the main idea of seeing foot prints walking in the distance.

- To make sure that the stabbing of the victim looks realistic and smooth;
the stabbing idea makes the film a slasher due to the conventional expect killing
it needs to be perfected so that it doesn't look unproffessional
it needs to look realistic otherwise it looks poor and lets down the rest of the film opening

to combat this I am going to do a stabbing practical in which I will be practising and refining the stabbing action so that it looks perfect in the final piece

- To make sure that we choose the music that the victim is listening to
we are undecided on our music and we need to decide soon so that we have time to distort and manipulate it
it will work well if we experiment with the music once it is decided

to combat this we are doing a blog entry on choosing the music and later will be distorting said music

First Storyboard Draft- Audience Feedback

When we presented our first draft to our audience and explained our story-line, props, actors etc. they gave us constructive criticism and good points about our final piece.

Even Better If

Overall, the audience told us that we should not include the 'muddy, bloody footprints' in our final shots due to the concept appearing unrealistic and not following our story-line. As a group, we decided to just make the boots muddy to make the killer appear to live in a dirty and isolated area.

When we told them some of our other shots, such as the 'bloody water' shot and the 'stab' shot, they recommended to us that we practise those and experiment with different methods of creating those shots before filming, so that they look realistic and so they we know exactly how to create them on the day of filming so that it saves time. As a result of this feedback, we have created a blog for each of the experiments.

One of the questions asked to our group after our presentation was regarding the music that the victim will be listening to. Here is a link to my blog explaining the song that we have chosen: Song for Our Opening Scene Blog. The audience told us that we needed to decide on a song quickly because we needed to experiment with manipulating this. As a result we decided on the song and I also did a separate blog on manipulating the sound: Sound Manipulation Blog.

What Went Well

Although the audience gave us some constructive criticism and some points to think about, they also gave us some positive feedback. One of these were that we have good creative shots in our blog, such as the sound manipulation and the use of the 'in headphone' sound effect (where the music is playing diegetically but sounds as if it is being heard through someone else's headphones).

The audience also liked our creative and effective angles and shots. The shots will make the difference between a strong and a weak piece of coursework.

A final positive point that the audience fed-back to us was that they liked one of our title options of 'Silent Killer'. The said that this was the best one and conforms to common slasher film titles, however, they did not like the other titles, especially 'Eye-Spy' as they believe that this was going 'off-topic' in regards to our story-line.

Storyboard 

Location- Loose valley

Props:

• Iphone 5s gold
• Iphone 5s gold smashed
• Knife
• Animal blood from Butcher 
• Sandwich bag filled with blood
• Earphones
• Bag

Actors:

Lucy Armstrong- victim
Josh Kumara- killer

We thought it would be easier to use people from our group as they are more reliable and don't work either, so its easier to find days to film.

Titles:

• Silent killer
• Eye spy
• Scream of the crop
• The Watched

Storyboard

 



 

 

Locations

 

We had 4 possible locations:

• Forest
• A graveyard
• Side streets
• Loose valley - the stream/bridge

We initially thought a forest would be good, as it would be very easy to make it creepy and sinister. However we were told that forests are very overused in AS media, and didn't want it to be boring, so decided not to set it in a forest. A graveyard would also be very overused, and also could be disrespectful and possibly difficult to find one to film in, so this idea would be good but impractical. Side streets is quite vague but is a good idea, and in Loose valley there are some quite old cobbled side streets which would be good and could easily be made to be sinister. The stream/bridge in Loose valley is contrapuntal to a slasher film which I believe makes it more sinister, so that's why I think this is the best option.

 

Actors

 

Because we would be filming quite frequently over a short period of time, we needed actors that were reliable and weren't busy a lot of the time. Therefore we thought it would be best if we used people in our group - so I will be the victim, and Josh will be the killer.

 

Props

• Earphones
• Smashed phone
• Non smashed phone
• Blood (from a butcher)
• Handbag (for victim)
• Twig
• Knife
• Cushion
• Extra top (replica)
• Intestines etc.

We need the earphones, the non smashed phone and the handbag for the beginning where the victim is walking along listening to music. The smashed phone is for when she drops her phone and smashes it, and we can use someone's old already smashed phone rather than smash one specially for it. The twig is for when the killer is behind the victim watching her and he steps on a twig causing her to realise his presence, but we may not need a twig as we may not actually film the killer stepping on the twig. The knife, cushion, replica top and blood is for when the killer stabs the victim, and we are going to do this by stabbing a cushion covered by the top with the blood bag underneath so that it bleeds when stabbed. The intestines are for afterwards when the girl is dead and they will either be in the river or on the floor.

 

Titles for film

 

Our possible film names were:

• Scream of the Crop
• Silent Killer
• The Watched
• Eye Spy

Scream of the Crop is a pun, as we were going to set it in areas that have cornfields etc. so this would be fitting for the location, but seeing as we no longer are it wouldn't really make sense. Silent Killer is good as it is creepy and tells the audience that there is a killer. The Watched is also good as it is creepy and tells the audience someone is being watched. Eye Spy is also good as it is sinister and again tells the audience that someone is being watched/spied on. Overall my favourite is 'The Watched', as I think this tells the audience what's happening without giving it completely away, and it isn't 100% clear either which I like.

 



Storyboard- First Draft

This is the first draft of our storyboard for our final piece of coursework.

Location

As a group, we were originally going to use Boughton Mount Center, which is an abandoned and desolate school in Loose. However, when Lucy went location scouting she found that we would be unable to get access into the area. Instead, we came up with the idea to film in Loose Valley, as it is a suitable and easy area to get to and film in and we can be creative with some of our shots for our final piece. We mainly use the stream and some woods nearby as they are relatively near each other.

Actors

In our final piece, we only need two actors: the victim and the killer. To make it easier and more practical, we have chosen Lucy from our group to be the victim and Josh from our group to be the killer. This makes it easier because they are reliable and know exactly what to do and what the final shots should look like.

Props

Here is a list of props that we need for our final piece:

• Earphones
• Smashed phone
• Un-smashed phone
• Blood
• Bag
• Twig
• Knife
• Cushion
• Replica of victim's top
• Blood pouches
• Intestines etc.

All of these props are cheap and easy to buy and find. They are all very realistic so will make our coursework look professional. 

Film Title

Here are a list of some potential film titles:

• Silent Killer
• The Watched
• Eye-Spy

We came up with these ideas because they are all relevant to our concept and all sound sinister and creepy. We have checked to make sure that there are no other films with these names.