Thriller Opening Storyboards [old]

Below you will find my Storyboards for the initial planning of our Thriller Opening.

There are in total 18 slides, ranging from the intro to the ending of the 2 minutes, the bulk of the information can be found in the post below explaining most of the key details.

Shots 1 - 6



Shots 7-12



Shots 13-18

Thriller Opening Planning [Old]

In this post you will find all of the Thriller initial Planning and ideas ranging from Location to Costume. Please note due to the shear amount of information and the lack of being able to correctly display it will relevant links on Blogger it's a slight mess.

1. Brief Synopsis of plot

2. Shots Outlined

3. Characters

   1. Victims

   2. Villains

   3. Extras

4. Casting

5. Location

6. Sound

7. Props / Objects

8. Equipment List

Brief Synopsis of Plot

The plot entails the 2 main characters who are related by blood, brother and sister, who are immigrating into Britain and someone end up getting caught up in what appears to be a kidnapping, which is all seen by a witness. The opening ends on a "corpse" lying face down on the beach.

Shots Outlined

1. Opening Scene consisting of a very long shot, car hidden near a darkened building with low-key lighting (done by editing if necessary).

2. Track Camera towards darkened building where car has suddenly disappeared.

3. Before getting to the building camera "Whip Pans" towards the floor where it suddenly darkens out

4. Whip Pans again to see the Main Characters on a peer holding hands slowly walking towards the camera (Tracking)

5. Camera Pans to follow characters who walk down the pave where low-key lighting is used again with dramatic contrast from the dark areas and light

6. Very Low-Key lighting to make it so the 2 characters that appear on screen are simple blobs of human flesh which are in "Shallow Focus" with the main characters still walking in the distance.

7. The image is still in very low-key lighting with “Shallow Focus” where a third figure appears which is clearly more dominate than the other 2 figures due to coming in between them both. Camera tracks towards the henchmen until you just see the blackness.

8. Camera emerges from darkness to find henchmen reaching out to grab the male main character. Over the should shot of the arm reaching out towards male character.

9. Main characters put up no struggle and seem to allow themselves to be lead to a car. Camera uses tracking once again staying a few feet behind the characters.

10. Car lights suddenly turn on blinding the camera, with a realistic wobble affect like as in lowering down to cover your eyes with your arm, which also pans away.

11. Camera then has mid shot of the characters lit up shadows where you clearly see 2 characters which are presumed to be the main characters due to one being smaller and holding hands (as in fourth scene).

12. Camera then pans back unto eye level where you find the male main character struggling with one of the henchmen while the female main character is being held away, the car lights are still on providing front lighting making the characters have a halo affect.

13. The camera then close up shot of the female main character watching the struggle, henchmen is slightly darkened so you concentrate completely on the female character.

14. Female character sudden reaches out as though trying to cling on to someone where the henchmen yanks her back. Camera slows down with the shot darkening out.

15. Close up of large ripples on the water, which enables the audience to conclude their own ideas.

16. Camera turns around to see the back door of the car open and the figure of the young girl looking hopeless with her head bowed and hair flowing over her head to cover her face in a shroud. Car door shuts and drives off.

17. Shot then pans once again back down the path the characters came up and tracks the henchmen until a clear corner of a building can be scene where the camera suddenly switches to a close up of the witness looking afraid, who quickly runs off.

18. Final shot of the opening is a beach shot where you see a figure lying face down on the sand, camera moves slowly along the beach to centre itself on the “body”. After a few seconds the camera then whip pans up into the sky and the opening is over.

Characters

Within the Thriller Opening there are 6 characters, the 2 main characters, 2 henchmen, bossman as well as the witness. The opening is dominated by the 2 main characters and henchmen, you see the bossman rarely and never a full face shot which is similar to the witness who you only see in the second to last shot of the thriller opening.

Victims / Main Characters

Sarinca – Leading Female Role – 17 years old – Clothes are Tatty linen trousers and shirt

Raphel – Leading Male Role – 18 years old – Clothes are jeans, shirt and also has a shoulder bag.

Both the main characters are related by blood, brother and sister, and have come to the country for money to improve their standard of living as immigrants. They are the only family each other have left for unknown reasons which are explained later in the thriller.

Villains

Ben – The Bossman – 47 years old – Clothes are an suit jacket, formal shoes, white shirt, jeans, with a marriage ring on the right hand.

Daniel – A Henchmen – 41 years old – Clothes are similar to Ben's' with no rings or jewellery.

Adam – A Henchmen – 35 years old – Clothes are similar to Ben's' with no rings or jewellery.

The villains consist of Ben staring as the Sex Slave driving mastermind who had organised young people to come across from foreign countries, he is rarely seen beyond a darkened shape within the opening scenes. The 2 henchmen Daniel and Adam are both heavily involved in the business with Ben and rarely are seen without him. All 3 are related due to being involved in the same criminal activity, however Ben is clearly in charge.

Extras

Witness – Unknown age, presumed 18-25 years old – Clothes are a heavy rain coat jacket, trainers, jeans, scarf, with no rings or jewellery visible.

The extra character is the witness who you see in the 2^nd to last shot of the opening, you don't learn that much about them however you clearly see they saw everything that happened, and ran away about it. Adding another layer of thought to the thriller itself.

Casting

We have come up with a few names so far to fill in most of the positions.

Sarinca – Sara Novak.

Raphel – Andy Drane

Ben – Ben Howard

Daniel – Richard Jordan

Adam – ?

Witness - ?

We are currently having discussions about who to caste for the other parts.

Location

We have decided to set the thriller opening in Yarmouth docks at Night, which is a generic unglamorous and dodgy setting which will add quite an amount of tension. A few photos are provided below taken by another member in the group.

Sound

The majority of sound within the opening scene will be Diagetic apart from the first few shots with the title / actors on and a few other scenes with music similar to a heart beat. We want to build tension up with a lack of sound, not to much of it.

Props / Objects

The props include the Car – BMW with a custom number plate of “B3N” for the Bossman character and the Should bag for Raphel to carry. Objects include such things as the crates and boats around the docks.

Equipment List

Under revision

Questionnaire

1. What was the most recent thriller that you’ve seen?

2. What is your favourite thriller?

3. What actor do you think of when you say “Thriller”?

4. Why do you like thrillers?

5. Which do you prefer: thrillers over Comedy, Action, romantic?

6. Do you prefer seeing thrillers are a cinema or at home?

7. What would your preferred escape vehicle be?

   1. Car / bus

   2. Foot

   3. Tank

   4. Helicopter

   5. Train

   6. Boat

   7. Other

8. What is your preferred weapon of mass murder?

   1. Knife

   2. Tank

   3. Gun

   4. Explosives

   5. Other

9. If you were stranded on a dessert island what item would you take? E.g. FHM Magazine

10. If you had the choice would you be villain, hero or victim?

The above is my finished questionnaire, I asked quite a few people to gain some useful opinions. I found that the most relevant and interesting information came from questions 5 and 10. The results are displayed below in the form of 2 graphs.

Question 10 was clearly dominated by most people preferring to play as the victim and none wanting to be the villain. To implement this into our thriller opening I tried to keep as much camera time on the victims themselves as possible to make you feel more as if you were there.

The 2nd graph, or question 5, was also quite interesting due to the fact most people preferred action over all the other 3 options, comedy didn't even get picked once which surprised me. To try to bring this into the equation of our thriller opening we decided to add in a small "push-contest" to add some action to our 2 minute shot.

Overall I found the questionnaire quite interesting, however I think I put to much "fun" into it with question 7 and 8.