The Final Storyboard

After the results of my audience questionnaire, I decided that my storyboard needed to be re-done to fit with what an audience would prefer my thriller to be. This has led to me completely changing the last scene within the opening to something that is far less explicit in its detailing of the plot and includes a number of techniques that were suggested to me.

 The first shot of the movie will be a close up of a full moon. The shot will last for 10-30 seconds as the credits appear on the screen. The music in the background will be slow and incredibly eerie.






The second shot will also feature the moon, although it will be much more zoomed out. This shot will last for about 10-30 seconds depending on the length of the previous shot and to allow for more credits to be shown. The eerie music from the previous shot will continue into this one.

The third shot will tilt down from the sky into a long shot of Lynette James standing in the middle of the road. The character is looking up into the sky at the moon. The shot will last for about 10 seconds as the collection of credits are shown.

The fourth shot sees a close up of Lynette James' face as she turns towards the camera in fright. This shot will  be incredibly short at about 3 seconds.



The fifth shot will be the only canted angle shot in the entire opening, this is because it will add a particular disjointed horror to the revelation of the antagonist walking into the scene. The shot will only be about 3 seconds long, but this should be more than enough introduction to the villain.
By this point, the eerie music will have stopped only to be replaced by an epic string melody that makes Lynette's attempt to escape seem courageous.

 The sixth shot is the start of the running sequence. This shot will be a 4 second close up tracking shot of the actress's legs as she runs to screen right.

 The seventh shot is an action match shot that is a close up of the character's torso as she runs. This shot will also be approximately 4 seconds and will be preceded and followed by a simple cut.

 The eighth shot is the final part of the running sequence and this time it focuses on the character's head as she runs and eventually turns to look behind her. This shot will also be 4 seconds and this is because the sequence needs to be short and quick to show the panic in Lynette's character.

 The ninth shot shows Lynette bending over out of breath after running for her life, it is at this point that the audience realises that she is finished an cannot continue running. The shot will last for about 1 seconds to allow this to be noticed.

The tenth shot is a mid shot of Lynette as she picks herself up and looks at her murderer. This shot will take about 3 seconds. The epic string non-diegetic score will be slightly quiet at this point with deep bass undertones.

The eleventh shot will be a mid shot of Lynette as she looks straight at her murderer. The 3 second shot will continue the lack of dialogue within the first scene. If anything, this shot will include the heavy panicky breathing that you would expect of Lynette.

The twelfth shot will be an extreme close up of the character of Lynette's eyes widening as she realises what is about to happen to her. This shot will only be abou 2 seconds long to keep up the pacing of the sequence.

The thirteenth shot is a black screen that is quickly cut to with a gun shot sound effect. The sound effect itself is about 2 seconds long, but this black screen will last for about 3 to 4 seconds to give the audience time to digest what has just happened.

Next, a collection of information appears on the screen with a typewriter sound effect. This creates the feeling of a factual account on the murder but also makes for an unnerving collection of seconds as the audience waits to see where the film will take them.

The fourteenth shot will be of a collection of confidential files on a car seat. The text will be readable so that the audience can see that a second murder has taken place. The background score will be eerie and quiet, but with strings creating a peaceful contrast.

After a fade, the fifteenth shot will be an over the shoulder shot that depicts the character of Zoe Moon sitting in her car wildly attempting to find a link between them.The shot will only last about 4 seconds.

The sixteenth shot is an extreme close up of a mobile phone as it rings. During editing, I will make sure that this shot seems rather jarring to create a feeling of unease in my audience. This shot should only last for about 2 seconds.

The seventeeth shot will see Zoe Moon picking up her phone and listening to the information that is revealed. After 2 seconds there is dialogue as Zoe says "Another one? But....." She writes down the information that is coming from the other end of the phone. This should take the shot up to about 7 seconds. The score will start to increase in power at this point.

The eighteenth shot will be a reverse shot to allow the audience to see what the character has written. There is more dialogue in this shot: "John Clarke... Where's the link?" This shot will last for approximately 4 seconds.

The nineteenth shot will be a side shot that will involve an overlay of the paper that the character is writing on. This is to give an idea to the audience of what the character is trying to figure out. The shot will last about 10 seconds.

The final shot that I will need to film will be an extreme close up of Zoe Moon's eyes as she comes to the realisation of a potential link. The shot will last about 6 seconds. During this shot, the score reaches its climax and then changes to a very quietly sombre melody the moment the shot ends.

The last thing the audience will see is the logo of the film. The logo will stay on screen as the music fades out and this could be anything from 3-14 seconds depending on the score but 6 seconds might be the preferred length.

 This is an animatic version of my opening sequence. Although I will not be able to use the two songs included in this animatic, "Ship Of Fools" and "Ruthless" from the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Official Soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura, however, for the purposes of a simple animatic they show roughly the kind of score I am going to try and create. This will allow me to create a much more effective opening as I now know exactly what I need to create rather than guessing and then working on that.