Storyboarding

Some reasons that storyboarding is an essential part of the film making process:

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  Helps the film director visualise the flow of camera shots
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  Easier to see whether ideas will work on screen
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  Breaks down complicated action/ special effects/ complicated camera moves so that they can be clearly seen, discussed and planned
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  No misunderstandings or individual interpretations can be taken from it

‘P’ is for ‘Psycho’ storyboard

Q1. What is happening in the opening sequence of the film?

There is an introduction to the antagonist or antihero who is bandaging and washing their hands after some kind of untold violence, most probably a murder, which involved a struggle. As the scene ends, there is the suggested murder of the young boy that disrupts the scene at frame 9.

The main character is identified through a shot of some of their personal possessions; watch, photo, wallet etc., and by other shots that are progressively insightful into the character’s personality and behaviour. We can tell that the main character in the opening sequence is the ‘bad guy’ through the camera and lighting techniques. When we first see the character the camera is at a low angle and tilts up from his legs to his top half. This implies he has power and is in control. The close up of the bloodied plughole adds to the tension and tells the viewer that the main character uses violence to establish his powerful role. We establish that the film genre is crime/ thriller by the instantaneous sighting of blood, a gun and a murder. The props (gun, bandages) imply further violence as does the introduction of the stranger into the same room as the ‘bad guy’.

Frame 11 highlights the main character’s power by focusing on an extreme close up of his eyes and implying a violent/ negative past by the shot being under lit with shadows. The last frame being of darkness, and the two gun shots reinforce this and set up the viewer for the rest of the film.

Q2. How is the narrative flow established?

The narrative flow is established through sound, camerawork, lighting and mise-en-scene.  The first frame is a mid shot that zooms in. This, along with the lighting, implies that the viewer is being invited into the story as a passive audience. The low key lighting establishes a distance between the viewer and characters, and set the mood for the upcoming scene.

The next six frames are a continuation of this inclusiveness; we are being given information continuously about the main character throughout these frames. This is done in stages. First we are shown the legs of the character in frame two. The slow tilt at a low angle join frames two and three gives us a sense of having the character revealed to us. The slow revealing of the character establishes that they are going to be a main focal point in the story.

The fourth frame uses a very slow pan from a high angle over the probable possessions of the main character. The speed and angle infer that we are being laid out part of the character’s life, and that the information being given to us will be integral to the plot line later on in the story.

Frames 5,6 and 7 all show the violent theme of the film and main character; blood-> bandage-> fist show that the character is commonly  faced with violence, and is well equipped with dealing with it. This establishes the strength of the character, and the use of the close ups also show the precision and familiarity the character has with his current situation.

Frame eight and nine show a disruption; the variation in the speed of the character's movements from a previous slow and steady pace into ‘blurs quickly’ shows us that the disruption is shocking to the main character. Frames 10, 11 and 12 show his quick and effective removal of the disruption. The first dialogue is also established here, and it comes from the main character, enforcing his power and dominance within the film. The last two frames also set the scene for the rest of the film, so the ‘fading to black’ lighting direction followed by shots is conclusive to the opening sequence but leaves the viewer unaware of the motives of the main character and the future of the plot. This is effective in bridging the gap between the opening sequence and the main film.

Q3. If you were directing this sequence what aspects of the storyboard would you like to change?

If I was directing this sequence, then depending on how i wanted the main character's personality to turn out to be, I my increase the time and detail spent on the cleaning and bandaging of his injury. I would do this if I wanted one of the main character’s defining traits to be precision in his work.

If I was going to make the character incredibly powerful and violent then I would probably remove his injury and replace it with him simply cleaning someone else’s blood off his hands. This still doesn’t give him a ‘leader’ status though, as a violent leader would employ/ be acquaintances with hit men etc. To suit this idea I would probably change the character in this scene into an annonymous hit man who then reported back to the main character via a phone call, the framing being a big close up on one side of his face, shadowed, as he simply says into a mobile, “it’s done”, or something similar.

Film Opening Analysis

Girl, Interrupted opening sequence up to 2:55 minutes

The film opening I am analysing is Girl, Interrupted; a drama set in the 1960s and based on an autobiography by Susanna Kaysen. The beginning of the film starts in a dark cellar-like place with 3 known women sitting awkwardly and silently, followed by a contrast in lighting as a door is opened and light shine on some bars as some men walk in. The film is about a woman’s 18 month stay at a mental hospital in America.

The first scene remains silent for half a minute, allowing the audience to understand the scene and grasp the setting before the protagonist starts narrating. The 3 women are sitting in a type of cellar and are surrounded by pipes. There is also a cat in the room with them. The setting is very cramped and suggests that the characters feel trapped in more ways than one. The close ups on the character’s faces imply that you should be aware of who they are as they are important in the film. The credits are very simple and scrawled. This messy handwriting style rules out possible genres such as chick-flick, and implies reality and facts as shown in many dramas.

The scene is interposed by another one with the action of pushing the protagonist onto a hospital trolley. This quick transition from one scene to another helps portray the genre – the quick developments and setting of a hospital radiate drama, and also puts the viewer right in on the action. There doesn’t seem to be equilibrium for very long as the date and time flick back and forth. At the beginning when the characters are in the cellar, there is a sense of equilibrium, but also the use of close ups and pans give a sense of unease to the situation and hint at a disruption. The introduction of the narration, people entering the cellar and scene change to a hospital so quickly destroys the equilibrium that there is barely time to establish it. The contrast in movement accentuates this as the actions start out quite passive and then go straight into action. This disruption is hinted at through the narrative, but the action is quite fast paced in the sense that each point made is quickly followed by another; the narrative suggesting a disruption is immediately followed by the disruption.

The visual clues given as to the character’s journey include the characters shown; they all look slightly deranged or upset, apart from the protagonist. This contrast asks the question: will the protagonist reach one of these states of mind; is that what lies in store for her? Or is she the stronger character, and is that what sets her apart from the others? Either way, she is surrounded by these people, so this suggests that that is something she will continue to be surrounded with throughout the movie, but maybe on a more personal level. the additional use of a tilted frame and big close up on the hospital bed so her face is the correct way up on screen implies that she has a disjointed view on the norm, and hints that she has deeper mental problems.

Her voice over in the very first opening scene hints that she is facing some mental problems with the mention of, “maybe I was just crazy”. The use of past tense shows us that this is a memory, and therefore that the voice is her as a ‘third person limited narrator’ as the narrator already knows the outcome of her own story, but is limited in the knowledge of others, unless it ran parallel with her own. This disjointed protagonist, the one that narrates the story and the one that acts within it helps add to the confusion, and shows that her ‘journey’ is very complex.

The equilibrium is restored when the protagonist realises who she is, and who those around her really are, and then she is able to get an informed look on herself, and realise what she has done, and what she needs to do to move on. This happens at the end of the film, so the ‘journey’ that she goes on is one of self-discovery.

Analysis of Still

1) Describe your shot and identify in what way it could be described as representing your chosen genre

The shot we took was a medium close up of a white male behind bars staring fearfully to the upper left of the frame at an unseen ‘being’. In the background there are some steps leading up to a closed wooden door. The characters hands are placed so that they are on either side of the still and we can just see his fingers gripping the bars. This denotes that the character is trapped and vulnerable, highlighting the genre; horror/thriller. The fear portrayed in the character’s eyes and the bars trapping him help enforce the genre along with the use of shadowing on the characters face. This implies that the character is good but has a secret or dark past. the positioning of the character in the lower half of the frame denotes that the character is a victim and does not have much power within the situation. The tilting of the head away from the right side of the frame shows a waryness towards the unseen area that the character is looking at which creates suspense and helps illustrate the genre.The colouring helps express the genre as it is night vision. This colour alteration technique can be associated to other horror/thriller films, such as The Blair Witch Project and Sin City.

2) What did you actually do to achieve the effect?

The still is a partially low angle shot which enables the door in the background to be seen. This helps add a mysterious mood to the still as we don't know what is behind it. It is a focal point as well, showing that it has some significance to the shot. The handheld lighting was coming from where the character is looking, so it illuminates the whites of his eyes and also causes a shadow to fall over half of his face. This helps impose the genre upon the viewer, and adds an atmosphere to the shot.

3) Identify what is successful about your shot

The lighting is successful as it helps create a thriller/ horror mood, and the shadows this creates also adds to the mystery of the character. The character’s facial expression creates suspense as we know that they are looking at something that will impact on the movie in a negative way. The shot angle being slightly off helps add to the effect because it implies that the whole scene is on edge. The amount of white in the eye is also successful as it connotes fear and tension.

4) What would you do differently in hindsight?

In hindsight, We would probably have experimented with different colouring, e.g. black and white or colour. This would have probably changed the mood, the black and white tones would have made the shot more horror based; the night vision used gives the still more depth and connotes a thriler genre as it adds mystery to the still and will induce the question of why it is in night vision, and whether we are seeing the character through the "evil" character's eyes.