Before we started any filming, we ensured that we had a solid storyboard planned out as guidance for our shots and scenes. Each of us contributed to the drawings as we had all studied Fine Art at AS level (Daniel and Iain carried it as an A2). We thought this was a fair way to work and it allowed us all to practice our drawing and storyboarding skills.
Before we drew it out, we thought of basic scenes that would occur within our narrative (if we created the full film). That way, we could edit the scenes around to create a trailer rather than separate scenes.
Shot No. 8-13
For
Shot No.8, we decided to introduce our logo quickly. From our influences, we noticed that the logo is shown after a few shots beforehand. Therefore, we felt it was suitable to place it here; between the 'normal' lifestyle and the dilemma that occurs.
For
Shot No. 9, we wanted to challenge ourselves with a dolly shot. We hoped to have the camera dolly right behind someones head, while Ged was teaching, and have him disappear when the camera reappears. We thought this would be a task but it would
look great if we could accomplish it.
Shots No. 10-13, we wanted another adult to disappear. Therefore, we decided to use Eve's mum (Karen) to represent this. We planned for a mid-shot of Eve's mum cooking, followed by a zoom
out from the door and Alfie (Matthew) to walk in.
By using the home, the plot idea creates a sense of realism as it is a relate-able place to associate the demographic with.
In
Shot No. 13, we wanted an extreme close-up of the spoon with Alfie saying the dialogue 'Mum?'. This would suggest that Eve's mum has vanished mid-cooking.
Shot No. 14-21
For Shot No. 14, we felt it was necessary to use copy to help to pull the narrative together. We wanted the interrogative 'What would you do if...?'
to appear screen to make the audience think about the situation that the characters are going to face.
Following from this, we decided to have a series of establishing shots. We had already found a section
of a track to use within our film and we felt these shots would work nicely.
By using empty, gritty establishing shots, we thought we could portray how lonely the world is without adults and show the disappearance across the
world. This would hyperbolise how drastic this change is going to be.
Also, we chose quite a variety of different locations for these shots, such as the forest, college and the beach (all locations which we thought may be useful for other parts of the trailer.)
For
Shot No. 21, we wanted a skyline
shot. We hadn't tried this shot within any of our previous work so we decided it may be useful to try new techniques. We also thought it would emphasise
the loss of adults.
Shot No. 22-28
For
Shot No. 22, Daniel suggested that we have the copy, 'the world just...' whereas I thought we could have 'based on the bestselling novel' as this is a generic feature from our influences. Therefore, we decided to write down both ideas and decide later when we needed to edit.
Shots
No.23-24, we wanted to introduce the main male protagonist with a characters the audience have already seen (Eve and Alfie.) By using Eve and her little brother, the trailer creates '3D' characters that the audience can atatch with (young characters often spur empathy from viewers.)
To follow S
hot No. 22, Daniel wanted the copy 'stops' to emphasise how drastic the change is. One word creates focus on the problem as the audience have time to think rather than read long complex sentences.
To show the bond between the characters and their worry for the 'new world', we decided to have some dialogue between Michael and Eve.
We planned to have two over the shoulder shots, one with Michael saying 'it's time to step up' and Eve stating 'then step up'. This would inform the audience that the character Michael has some potential to be a leader, leading into the narrative of the film.
Shot No. 29-33
Our next question was 'what would happen when the adults vanish? What would you do?'
With this in mind, we decided that the first thing would be to gather food and resources to survive. Therefore we wanted to have Michael and Eve searching houses for food.
For
Shot No. 31, we wanted the hand to grab the camera as if the camera were a tin on beans. This would create an artistic/creative element to the scene and allow us to experiment with camera shots.
The close-up in
Shot No. 33 would help the audience to understand how important this element is to the plot, without food, they will not survive. It also suggests that the social structure has began to fail as they are searching for food rather than buying it.
Shot No. 34-35a/35b
To bring the main plot back into perspective, we decided that Eve would look for the folder that she noticed her mum had. That way, it appears that the teenagers are trying to figure out what has happened to the world.
As an added sub-plot, we decided that the folder should have been stolen, hence Eve's dialogue: 'It's gone'.
This enabled us to bring the 'bad' group into the narrative. We couldn't decide on S
hot No. 35 so we came up with two ideas (the folder being opened or the camera tilting up the folder to show Haden (Iain).
Therefore, we planned to film both and choose afterwards.
We thought the folder would be symbolic to show who ever has the knowledge, has the power, causing friction between the two factions.
Shot No. 36-41
Within our narrative, to create more tension between the 'good' and 'bad' groups, we thought that the 'bad' teenagers could take over the town causing the 'good group' to survive in the forest.
To show the lack of social structure, we wanted shots of the 'good' group gathered around a camp fire. That way, we could introduce new characters and develop on the main ones.
In
Shot No. 36-38, we thought we could introduce Lana with the dialogue 'they look up to you Michael'. This once again reinforces the diea that Michael is the leader of the group. However since we wanted him to be an unlikely hero, we wanted
Michael to respond with 'I'm not a leader'.
We wanted to break the scene up with a clip from the 'bad' group. Since they have the folder, we wanted them to reveal something about the plot. We wanted a close-up/ two-shot of Haden (Iain) and Selene (Clare) with Haden stating 'we vanish at 17'. This adds more of a time limit on the plot and put the viewers 'on the edge of their seat' as they will begin to question what the teenagers will do.
For
Shot No. 40-41, we wanted to show a group shot of the 'good guys' to represent that they do not know what the 'bad guys'
Shot No. 42-48
To build up the pace of the trailer, we decided to add a dramatic scene to it. Since the two groups have already found some form of dislike to one another (with the folder and territorial space) we
thought a chase scene would work well. Since we had done a scene like this within our AS work, we thought ti would be useful to adapt on our camera shots and ideas.
We felt this chase could lead to something drastic to lead the trailer to its climax and we felt that hinting towards the death of a character may be a good way to approach this. Therefore, we wanted the audience to have sympathy for the 'good guys' so we felt we should have a member of this group to be killed.
As the most vulnerable side character, we chose Fiona as the victim.
As a group we thought we could experiment with camera shots and movements within this scene; having shots from low angles, turning in a 360 angle and using close-ups.
At this point within the trailer, we thought it would be good to have intense, faster music to help build up the pace.
Since a trailer cannot show too much violence, we wanted to hint towards it. We wanted to 'bad' group to carry baseball bats.
To end the scene, we decided to have a point of view shot of Fiona rolling over to look, implying that she will be killed as she is left behind.
Shot No. 49-51
To switch to a later scene within the film, we decided to go back to a less dramatic scene. This was to keep the trailer flowing rather than staying on one scene.
We wanted to show Haden's mean side even to his own group. Therefore we planned him to have dialogue that states, 'Where are they?'
This would then suggest that the 'bad' group are looking for Michael's group. With Selene responding with 'who cares', Haden would smack the magazine out of her hand, ultimately cutting to a close-up of Selene's reaction.
In
Shot No. 51, we wanted Haden to comfort Selene, showing that he is not just an evil character, and that he has feelings too.
Shot No. 52- 56
The next few shots were going to be a series of different locations to pick up the pace ready for the climax.
For
Shot No. 52, we wanted to have Eve open a
locket, she owns, to find a note from her mother.
This was going to have a quick cut to an over the shoulder shot of Haden, with one of his henchman stating 'the girl knows'.
Shot No. 54 would have Eve and Alfie hiding, suggesting that they are being hunted, creating a faster apce. We wnated all the shots to be edited with quick cuts so the tension would build up.
Within our AS work, we considered using a tunnel that Iain had found, however we didn't. Due to this, we felt it may work better in our A2 work instead.
Here is a link to my AS blog where you can find images off the tunnel location.
http://www.lizziesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2013_04_01_archive.html
In
Shot No.56, we wanted to hint towards violence by dragging the baseball bat.
Then, for
Shot No. 57, we decided to have the music stop so that Haden could say a very sinister, 'find them'.
We thought this would be a good way to hit the climax of the trailer.
Shot No. 58- 60
After Haden's dialogue, we wanted to have quick cuts of different clips followed by one word copy to represent themes within our film.
For these shots, we decided to use the lexical choice 'fear' followed by a shot of Eve and Alfie.
By using two main characters running away and slamming a gate shut, we thought it would create tension within our trailer.
Shot No. 61- 66
The next theme we decided on was rivalry.
We wanted a 'final stand' scene where the two groups face one another so we decided to use a beach location. A beach can be quite gritty with the harsh sounds of the waves so we thought it would portray the mood nicely.
For
Shot No. 63, we wanted a flashback of Haden slamming Michael against lockers in college/school.
This was to show that the tension was there before the adults disappeared and to represent Haden's bully-like nature.
We thought that having two close-ups of the four main characters would be useful to shwo the bianry opposition of the. Therefore, for
Shot No. 64 and
65, we wanted close-ups of Haden with Selene and Michael with Eve.
To portray the emotion anger, we wanted an extreme close-up of a fist clenching, to represent the rivalry between the factions.
Shot No. 67- 70
We picked trust as a major theme as we felt it was positive in comparison to the other lexical choices.
Once again, we decided to use Eve and Alfie for this as the younger sibling creates emotion for the audience.
In comparison to the lose-up of the fist, we had a close-up of the hands holding to suggest the opposition of relationships within the groups.
We then wanted a close-up of Eve to show the emotion within her facial expressions.
Shot No. 71- 73
Survival was our next idea. We wanted to bring in the scene of Fiona's death earlier so we wanted a low angled shot of the bat coming down onto the camera.
Following this, we wanted basic survival
l needs such as food so we decided hat we would improvise some food shots closer to the shooting day.
Shot No. 74- 76
As for betrayal, we wanted an element of hidden identity within our trailer. Therefore, we decided that Eve should betray her group to save her captured brother (from Haden's group).
However, we didn't want her face to be shown so we decided to have a hand help shot of a hooded figure coming into the frame.
For Shot No. 76, we wanted a group shot of
the 'bad' guys with Alfie, to hint that it may be Eve as the hidden person.
Shot No. 77- 84
For the final shots, we wanted to have a fight scene to finish the trailer off with questions such as: who wins? what happens next? will the adults come back?
We planned a few shots such as close-up and Haden slamming Michael down, however, we wanted to improvise on the day and ask other cast members of what they would like to do for this scene.
As a final shot, we wanted Michael to be losing against Haden and Eve to be held back by Haden's henchmen. From this, we wanted Eve to scream until Selene tugs her hair back.
Then, the screen would cut and the title 'Time' would appear, followed by the date.
We decided on the name 'Time' as we wanted a one word title like our AS work; once again, we were inspired by Hitchcock's titles such as 'Psycho'.
We felt that 'Time' reflected the idea that the teenagers vanish at seventeen (so they are against the clock) and that it is just a matter of time before civilization breaks down.
Also, we decided to release our film during July as most Hollywood blockbusters are released during this period. Moreover, at this point, we felt our filmw as going to be a lower age rating so we wnated families to be able to see the film (the six weeks off are around this time so it would pelase our demographic.)
Extra Storyboards.
These were extra storyboards we drew out but decided not to keep. This was due to the lack of structure, ideas and narrative portrayal.
As for Haden and Selene, we thought they should wear pea coats to represent their status and wealthy background. Moreover, as for make-up, we suggested that Selene should wear heavy black eye-shadow/eye-liner, alongside red lipstick whereas Eve should wear a very little amount. This was to portray the idea that Haden's group could afford to stay looking glamorous as they live in the town unlike Michael's group who are drastically effected by the loss of adults.
