Individual Story Board - Miss Miller

Story boards are used by film producers to gather all ideas i director may have into chronological order. Story boards are a way of seeing how you would expect your narrative to play out, how you would expect it to look like on paper. The are used to plan where the flinging is going to take place and what the finished project will look like, so everyone involved is made aware of what bit has to be filmed so they do not miss any out.



When planning our group narrative, each member of the group had to create our own story board to show how we each visualised the story line in our heads. We did this so that we would contribute all our ideas to make one overall idea that has been put together from all the best parts of each of our story boards, this is so we can have an original idea that has come from everyone's input. By creating my own individual story board, it has allowed me to develop my own ideas and gather them together in order. After all my group has contributed i will be able to look over or add in anymore elements to make it best fit the thriller genre.





The first page of my story board shows one close-up picture of the victim, this is set in a dark planning room where the camera then zooms out to see a montage of other pictures of the girl. I wanted the first frame to be on screen for 4 seconds as the audience will remember the victims face. This is followed by two other frames that have pictures of the girl in different stages of her life. The first three shots are used to emphasise and convey this girl is being targeted by someone who's identity has not been revealed. This will keep the audience interested because already there is an enigma. These frames will all be in low key lighting and will have non-diegetic tension building soundtrack playing faintly in the background. This will build suspense and as the opening sequence is just beginning have the audiences attention straight away.





The second page shows the establishing shot of where the rest of the opening sequence is filmed, the school the victim goes to. Here only the natural lighting will be sown to give it a more realistic affect, this will then fade into a shot where high key lighting will be used o show the transition from being outside the school to indie the hallway where the victim is catching up with her friends, the lighting will change into low key lighting to signify something is wrong that someone has a dark side. The girls will then tell the boys that she is going home as we see an over the shoulder shot of her leaving the school building. I though this would be the quickest way to introduce that the victim goes to the same school as the killer. The next frame shows the girl walking home this will be a straight cut from the over shoulder shot of her walking out of the school building, the girl constantly looks over her shoulder and frantically looks at her surroundings to see if she is being followed. The next frame in the sequence is where the victim goes into the girls toilet where the friend follows her. After she comes out low key lighting and a suspense building soundtrack will be used to show an unbalance. As she comes out of the toilet a panning shot will be used to show that she walks right past the killer, without even noticing him. This makes the audience feel anger as the girl is oblivious to what is going on.


The third page begins with a close up on the friends face for around two seconds showing he is not scared of the girl, he tells her that he has something to show her and a mid shot is used to show them two walking out of the back doors of the school and into a quiet area. The next frame shows the scared facial expressions of the girl as she is aware she is being stalked but unaware of who by. These facial expressions convey to the audience that she may be planning something and has suspicions of why he brought her to a secluded area. The next shot will be an establishing shot of the secluded area that shows no one around, this helps the audience imagine what is running thought the girls mind.


The fourth page of my story board elaborates the establishing shot that is seen in the last couple of frames, by zooming out from where they are both stood, it will convey how distant the audience must feel from what is happening, displaying that an expected twist is about to take place. Then a close up is placed on the girls pocket where her hand reaches in and she pulls out a knife, this is where the audience are shocked as they were believed to think the friend was the killer the whole time. I will have the next frames really fast to show how fast her heart is beating and so it does not lose the impact of suspense.


The fifth page of my story board starts with an extreme close up of blood on the girls had. I will use this shot as it is conventional to the thriller genre leaving the audience what has happened in the previous shots. It will help highlight the importance of the blood which is conventional to the thriller genre itself. The frame will fade to a blackout where we hear more sound affects of someone being stabbed which makes the audience think that the girl is stabbing him the next image I want is of the girl dragging the body into the bushes. I think this will make the audience no long sympathise for the girl and question her mental state.




The next page of my story board will start with a point of view shot facing the girl who is walking away from where she left the body and walking of as if nothing had happened. This makes the audience wonder why she is not upset or in a state, this leads the audience to believe that she may of done this before and is experienced. The point of view shot follows the girl around until she looks around to see if anyone is watching her. Her movements become quicker as she tries to leave school as quickly as possible. As the point of view shot gets closer we begin to see who's point of view it is and who has seen her do this to her own friend. As the point of view is revealed we are shown that it is the other friend that has been watching her the whole time. As he approaches her on the main road he tells her what he has just witnessed. With that one sentence the girl does not hesitate but brings out the same knife and stabs the stalker. The last couple of frames will be of  a zooming out shot which creates distance between the audience and the scene to reflect what has just happened. The black outs will be parallel as the boy has just died and also parallel to the music playing.


Having created my own individual story board, I found it helpful as it allowed me to gain  a better understanding of what each frame should include and how my planning should be set out.}It has also enabled me to present my ideas in a clear way to my group so we can easily combine our ideas together