CANE AS Media: AS Media Storyboard Practical

Storyboard First Draft Practical

Genre

We have chosen to create an urban drama/social realism film opening. This genre usually presents and educates about issues in urban areas. We have chosen the theme of homelessness, as we believe it is quite original. Normally, urban dramas like "Adulthood" revolve around gangs, which can be fairly offensive.

As it is an urban drama, the majority of locations will be of urban areas. We will use locations considered as 'rough' to show the harsh conditions our protagonist lives in. Some locations we have scouted include parts of London, Maidstone, and more specifically Tovil, which are predominately weathered settings or identifiable ones, as they add realism and are conventional.

Plot

As our theme is homelessness we have chosen to use a young homeless person as our main character. This character will be played by Emma, as she is within our group of the age bracket we found suitable when conducting our survey. As it is an urban drama, the story won't be plot driven, but instead character driven, as this is conventional for the genre.

We aim to create sympathy for a moving piece despite the lack of a plot. This was done by making the character young and a girl, who are stereotypically seen as vulnerable. Hence, we conform to the common representation of girls. To add to this pity, we decided to play with the idea that the protagonist has lost her parents, which would also offer an implication of a plot revolving around the character and her family if this was a full-length film.

Because of this, we will refer to the loss through a locket. We initially planned on having the sentimental item stolen from them, however, we instead decided that instead some shots in our montage have a similar impact and won't be too complex and plot driven. This includes the character's money being kicked over and their shoulder being pushed before being called a "scum". Within this montage we aim to include busy non diegetic and diegetic sounds to further develop the harsh and horrific conditions. This would contrast the scene where the character visits their parent's grave.

Production

As we wish to create pity through the loss of parents, we chose to, therefore, include a sentimental prop of a locket.

We also aim to use locations like a graveyard and a family park in the montage to further develop this. Some of the locations will be filmed at night to make the character seem more vulnerable. Due to safety, we can film some locations early morning so it still looks dark like in my location scouting blog. This would also mean if it is too dark, we can wait until it lightens up slightly and we can find the perfect lighting, where as if you film at night and decide it is too dark it is impossible to make the setting lighter without artificial lighting, which sometimes create a cinematic look we don't which to achieve for a realistic drama.

Outcome

Below is the first draft of our storyboard:

The above video shows the corresponding timings for the below shots.

In shot one, we are planning to use a fade from black to a close up shot of Emma out of focus sleeping to start the narrative. Although, this is not conventional to our genre, we felt it would reflect the homeless protagonist waking up and would ease the audience into the film. This would create a juxtaposition compare to the other shots which are brutal and use fast paced crosscutting. This contrast would emphasis the isolation of Emma in the waking up match on action and the harshness of society.

In shot two a focus pull will be used between her twitching hand and her waking up. Although this is again not conventional, we felt this technique too would elongate her waking up, allowing the audience enough time to notice that she is sleeping on the street, as emphasised with diegetic traffic sounds. This would set up expectations for the film by the audience as it is a social realism film about homelessness.

The camera will then move to the side of Emma as she sits up. The change in camera movement to a long shot to the side will reflect her own change in movement. Then we will cut to a sped up longshot of Emma in the background with people walking past out of focus in the foreground. Unlike, the personal close up shots in the beginning, the long shots will portray the isolation of the character, especially with the people walking past. As seen in my attempts, we will not use a time lapse as we thought it was incredibly jumpy and unprofessional.

Emma in this sped up longshot would start reaching into her pocket. This will be shown by an extreme close up tracking her hand. Choosing an extreme close up will enforce the ambiguity surrounding what she is reaching for.

A high angle over the shoulder shot will show that it is a locket, whereby the high angle shows her vulnerability on the streets. But the camera will then move in front of the hand in a slight low angle mid shot to gauge her reaction to the locket when she opens it. This camera angle will also mean we won't see what is in the locket, to add to its curiosity.

A reaction close up shot that is within the hand and the locket will enforce the idea that the locket is personal. This will cut quickly to the last shot as she begins to close it and then again to the over the shoulder shot, whereby we can see the locket shut. Hopefully if we see her beginning to shut the locket in the mid shot we can still hide the photo in the locket but still be able to create a sudden closure of the locket in the over the shoulder shot.

These three shots in the match on action could be filmed continuously to prevent continuity errors if we constantly move the camera. We can then cut them and edit them later. Having the cut more fast paced in the last few seconds can build up tension to emphasise the sudden title and the fast paced montage.

A montage is not exactly conventional and may be mistaken as title credits, but my group thought it will quickly show the fast and harsh lifestyle of urban areas. These include the following shots in chronological order:

A long shot of Emma with a sign begging.
An extreme close up of money being put in a cup.
A long shot of Emma on a park bench.
A handheld mid tracking shot from behind Emma walking down a street.
A side mid shot of Emma looking in a public bathroom mirror.
An extreme close up shot of a sign.
An extreme long shot at a high angle of Emma in a subway.
A slow paced side close up shot of Emma splashing water on her face.
A mid shot of Emma drinking coffee.
Another long shot of Emma on a park bench.
An extreme close up shot of Emma's hands begging.
A long shot of Emma walking from the side.
Another side mid shot of Emma in the bathroom.
A long shot of Emma in sleeping bag begging again.
Out of focus kid swinging on swing with a long shot of Emma on the park bench behind.
A high angle mid shot of Emma looking down in sadness on bench.
Long shot of Emma at a bus stop in the rain.
Over the shoulder shot of Emma looking in mirror.
Long shot of Emma sleeping on street.
Close up shot of her sleeping rough.
An extreme close up of someone's foot knocking over the money cup.
An over the shoulder shot of Emma opening the public bathroom door and high key lighting enforces discomfort also felt with the previous and next shots, where the public and surroundings are harsh and intimidating.
Long shot tracking shot of Emma walking and coming into contact with stranger.
Close up shot of Emma's reaction to getting pushed by stranger that says "scum". They can be seen behind Emma in the background.

After this we will include another match on action of a graveyard scene. My group are planning to use the one I found in my location scouting blog, despite, the incredibly old graves. We thought doing this would convey vulnerability especially after the confrontation of the stranger played by Angel. It would also provide a reasoning of why she is homeless and shows who is in the locket. I felt that this was unnecessary and provide answers already that would make it seem like a short film. Though, my group felt it would enforce her vulnerability and even came up with ideas like the locket being stolen to provide an implication of a plot if this was a real film. Regardless the next shots were planned.

A pan from behind a grave to a long shot of Emma would produce a transition from the black screen used suddenly to emphasise the insult "scum". Again this is not conventional but we thought it would again ease the audience into the isolated match on action like the waking up scene.

We will cut to a close up shot of Emma's knees buckling. The camera will be to the side of her to present the knees buckling more easily. A high angle mid shot from behind the grave to Emma will be used to make her seem small and weak. Doing this will mean the audience positioning will make us feel pity and sympathy for her. An extreme close up of the locket with photos of supposed parents would become personal and, hence, emphasise pity we feel as we guess she has lost her parents.