Storyboard

To create our storyboard, firstly we drew pictures relating to the theme of our opening sequence. In order to produce our final product we came up with a variety of different ideas and decided this was the story that we favoured. Our storyboard uses 7 different pictures which we edited using final cut pro to add effects,text and transitions.
Each frame shows what is happening and describes the camera shots, angles and audio tracks we want to include.

Evaluation

We feel our storyboard went well as it successfully shows our ideas and plan for filming our opening sequence. We also think the effects added suit the theme of our film.
If we were to make another storyboard we would consider adding colour and bolder lines to each frame in order to make the pictures stand out more.

ScreenPlay

25 word pitch

The slaughtering of young girls plagues this quaint town in surrey,  a bloody 'X' engraved onto the bare chest of his victims marks their death. Who's behind the mask?

Synopsis

X Marks The Spot

A current year film set in a quiet town in Surrey opens with images of mind maps showing various girls faces pictured on a wall during the title sequence. The film then jumps to follow a hooded figure wearing a mask stalking a young female through a wooded area late at night. As screams are heard we see the killer crossing the latest target off his list. The picture that is crossed out reveals it was the girl being stalked.

The main family are then introduced into the film; Lisa, Martin and Henry. Shortly after they receive a phone call from the towns local detective saying parts of their daughters body have been found scattered in the woods, showing an x on her chest.  The camera shows a picture, of the girl who was just seen being killed, on the fire place of the family's house. The detective is introduced into the film whilst on the phone to the now distraught family, the mothers cries are heard through the phone and the detective hangs up abruptly.

The film continues to follow the detective at work as he tries to solve the murder. As his boss enters, a conversation takes place between the two men, they discuss the massacre of young females that has recently taken place in the town. Following this the detective calls Martin (the father) into the police station and informs him that he is considered a suspect of the series of murders. When the character arrives at the police station he is told this is because on the night of his daughters murder the last person she rang was him. Martin reacts outrageously to this and the detective unfairly sentences him to a night in jail.

A snippet of the hooded figure killing another victim in a brutal manner is then shown briefly, with the x prominently shown on the chest- similar images to this repeat throughout the film.

Towards the end of the film we see the hooded figure stalking another victim, the hooded character turns back to check for witnesses revealing the killer to be the detective! The killer/detective places his mask over his face and murders the young female brutally with a knife, engraving an x into the chest of the female. To end the film the detective/killer crosses off the most recent victim, showing a page full of crossed out faces.

Influences

Before we begin filming our opening sequence it is important that we find a variety of influences and inspirations. We have found influences through different medias such as film, music and pictures. This has been helpful as it has directed us to what we could include in our opening sequence.

Film & TV Programmes

These are a few films and TV programmes that have influenced our decisions:

THE LOVELY BONES

Our first image is a gif which we made of a scene from The Lovely Bones. It shows the stalker staring out the window at his target. We are interested in incorporating a similar scenario in our opening sequence, therefore the shot is an effective influence. We also liked the use of the point of view shot from the camera as it adds some mystery to the film because the stalker stays unknown.

We are interested in using a shot of the criminals location as in the second screen grab, as it will inform the viewers of the creepy tendencies of the stalker.   

SHERLOCK

This screen grab shows a wall of mind maps which we could take inspiration from and use in our opening. The generic portrayal of a stalker is for them to have planned out the production of the murder or kidnapping. We also found the use of the wide shot interesting as it enables the viewer to see the intentions of the stalker. The shot also adds an overwhelming effect as it shows how much effort and detail has been put into creating the mind map. We would like to use shots in our opening sequence that  generates a response from the viewers. 

SINISTER

This is a screen grab from the trailer Sinister. This inspired us as it follows a theme of targeting a specific person. It also struck as an act a stalker would carry out- circling the face of their target. We would like to in some way incorporate a shot showing a similar idea as shown in this image. This shot shows a zoomed in image, by showing the whole family it highlights that a specific person is being targeted. This shot has influenced us because it shows that we can use different shots to send a message to the audience.

Setting

In order to choose a setting of our opening sequence we watched trailers and found pictures that we could recreate. 

THE STRANGERS

These are images from the movie 'The Strangers' of locations that they used in the film. We have taken inspiration from these as we would like to use similar locations in our opening sequence; a dark forest and a creepy looking house. These locations are not too ambitious and therefore also something we can easily recreate by using a local park with woods and filming houses, but will still have the same effect on the audience to make it successfully scary. 

After watching trailers to find inspiring settings we then researched using the internet to find more specific pictures. These two we particularly thought were chilling but additionally easy to reinvent. 

Costume 

These 2 screen grabs have been taken from 'Pretty Little Liars' and 'Now You See Me' showing 2 hooded characters. We feel the use of the dark hoodies adds mystery and a spook factor to the character. This influences us as we would like to have an element of mystery in our opening sequence. 

We were influenced by this mask as it follows a theme of a hidden mystery and is sinister at the same time. A film that we found inspiring was 'The Strangers' which used similar masks leading us to want to use that inspiration. 

Title Sequence

In our opening sequence we have to include a title sequence incorporating a company logo created by ourselves. In order to find influence to  create our own we chose to watch a variety of opening sequences including: The strangers, The Lovely Bones, Now you see me and Jeepers Creepers. Out of these choices we especially liked 'Now you see me' and 'Jeepers Creepers' - 

NOW YOU SEE ME

These are two images taken from the opening sequence of 'Now You See Me'. We were influenced by this particular opening as we liked the use of dark lighting which meant we can only see hands on the screen, from the company name and the first scene of the film. 

JEEPERS CREEPERS

This opening sequence is slightly different to the one from Now You See Me as there are no images behind the titles. We liked the use of the white writing on the dark background, and the use of the colours also sets what genre the film is straight away.