Importance of Storyboarding

Why is storyboarding so important?

1. It gives you an overview of what it will look like.
2. It gives you a plan to follow when you are filming.
3. Helps separate different scenes, and shots.
4. Helps you to keep track of the pace, and timings of shots.
5. It links the planning and filming processes together.
6. Pitching an idea.
7. Helps you to visualise your ideas.
8. Gives you a chance to go back and make changes.
9. It links between the shots.

The use of arrows:

• It is cost effective.
• You are showing what happens.
• Effectively drawing the shot type.

What do you need to include in your storyboards?

• Camera angles.
• Direction of movement.
• Sound.
• Mise En Scene.
• Shot lengths.
• Transitions. 

Based on what you have learnt, in what way is a storyboard important to a director?

• The storyboard allows the director to visualise what the scene is going to look like. 
• It is cost affective.
• It allows them to overcome a lot of problems that may occur during filming.
• It gives the director a plan to follow when the filming process begins.

The Re-Creation Task

During class the other day our teacher set us the task to re-create a shot extract from its original files. So basically what we had to do was watch the video and then re make it using only the raw footage and Adobe Premier Pro. We were put in pairs and told to do this task together. I found this task really useful as I was not very good at using the editing software so it forced me to learn how to use it, and I had my team mate Melissa to help me and work together with. We had a time limit of an hour and forty minutes to edit it the best we could to match the original clip that we had watched. This exercise was very useful and I found it quite fun and interesting to do. I strongly feel that the clip we had created was as near to the original as possible. We both worked hard as a team and I am very pleased with the outcome.

Further planning

The plot:

• The title of our production will appear, and over the top there will be diegetic sound of the interviewer asking the Prime Minister why he had decided to visit the Chalfonts Community College. The picture then fades out. 
• Mid shot of the Prime Minister, a second pause and then he begins to speak with blood dripping down his face (not reacting to it).
• Jump cut to an extreme close up of the teacher with a sly smile on his face, although in the background the Prime Minister is still talking.
• Jump cut back to the news frame, there is nothing wrong with him (shows the teacher was imagining it). The interview comes to an end. 
• Zooms out to the teachers room, shows the mess in his room. Then cuts to the title sequence.
• Montage sequence will be made to go behind or included in the title sequence.

Characters and costumes:

• The Prime Minister- Smart suit and tie, white shirt and a blue tie. (Professional, smart attire)
• The teacher- Tired looking, wearing a suit, messy hair. Possibly wearing glasses. 
• Interviewer- Smart/ casual, well groomed hair. 
• The voice in the background- wont need a costume as they are not visible. 

Props:

• Tablet packets. 
• Newspaper cuttings.
• Pictures.
• Pin-board. 
• Television.
• Desk. 
• Picture frame. 
• Lamp.
• Empty bottles of alcohol.

This new and improved planning is more detailed and we have changed a lot of things. We want to make the opening sequence as tense and for it to be very thrilling, and enjoyable to watch. It is possible that our new and improved plans could be altered in the future stages of making the thriller if needs be.

Development of Ideas

Original Idea

• Starts off with an establishing shot of the houses of parliament and a silhouette staring at it
• Cuts to an extreme close up shot of the mans glasses and in the reflection we can see big ben
• Cuts to a black screen. The credits come up.. *directed by ...* etc.
• The ambient diegetic sound of a whirring of a video tape, and then cuts to a VCR recording of the man speaking into the camera, saying things such as "By the time you have all watched this, I would have killed the prime minister."
• Cuts to the man drinking vodka in his bathroom and a close-up of a box of pills indicates he is on medication, not mentally stable etc.
• Bright lighting juxtaposing with his gloomy, miserable expression.
• Establishing shot of the school and it quickly cuts to the staff room, you hear the diegetic sound of the chatter of the other teachers whilst you see a teacher assemble a gun together and clean it, which foreshadows what is to come.
• Long shot of him walking down the corridor with the sound of his heavy breathing.
• Applause heard in the background, inferring the prime minister has just been welcomed to the stage.
• Over the shoulder shot of the man entering the assembly.
• Quick close up of prime minister and the screen blacks out as the title comes up.

We all liked this idea very much, however we thought that it was a very demanding task to fit all of this into a time space of around two minutes, and that it revealed far to much and would spoil the plot for the whole audience. As a result we decided to come up with a new idea; on the same story line, but as a group we have made improvements on it.

Second Idea

• Begins with TV interview with interviewer and the prime minister, the prime minister is saying why he's going to schools to give talks about government.
• Zooms out, slightly. Tv turns off.
• Close up of assasinator, angry facial expression, dark lighting, dressed in a suit or shirt and tie
• Cuts, to over the shoulder shot of him walking down the hallway
• Sound of heavy breathing and sound of shoes.
• Diagetic sound of audience's applause and welcoming prime minister
• Assasinator opens doors of where the speech is being held
• Cuts to black screen, titles come up
• Non diegetic slow music and diegetic sound of a gun being loaded.

I personally think that the second idea is much better as a whole, it does not reveal to much to the viewer but still informes them that the film is indeed a thriller. This idea also has far more tension which is a key element in a thriller film.

Group Discussion

This is our group's discussion on the possible genres that we could use to base our own thriller on, since this video has been filmed we have decided to do a political thriller for our coursework assignment. In this video we have decided that we do not want anything too cliche, and that we didn't want to venture into hybrid genres. however we now think this was not the best idea seeing as it is very early in our decision making.

I think that recording our discussion was a good idea because it allows us to go back over and recall the situation and evolve our ideas even further.

First Idea

First Idea

• Long shot of a middle aged caucasian male silhouette, starring at the Houses of Parliament.
• Cut to men's glasses (intense close-up) >reflection of Big Ben in his glasses.
• Cut to black screen and titleof the film.
• Cut to the a VCR recording of the man speaking directly to the camera. Fuzzy video quality draped over background.
• Cut to shady camera shot of a man entering a bathroom. (Bright lighting) juxtaposes with sad, dark expression holding a bottle of Vodka, and taking large dosages of prescription medicine. staring intensely.
• Establishing long shot of the front of the school, then cuts to the staff room (non diegetic sound playing over the top)
• In the background you can hear the sound of the news reporter talking about the Prime Minister, then a cut to a teacher assembly.
• Long shot of the protagonist walking down the corridor, with his hand always on the gun. (applause can be heard in the distance) all of this will be done with an over the shoulder shot to make the viewer feel more connected. 
• The protagonist enters the room and and looks up at the back to the Prime Minister.
• the background cuts to back.

This was the first idea that we had planned as a group, however we all agreed that it was revealing far to much of the storyline, we though as it is an opening extract we want to feed the audience little bits of information, so that we don't ruin the whole story yet we still manage to hold their attention and keep them hooked. After coming to a conclusion on what to do we thought best to cut it down in areas and work on our ideas to improve the title sequence. The idea is to create a more intense, yet realistic piece of media. We have agreed that we are still keeping it a political thriller, as it is a rather unique idea that few people have tried before. We all plan to keep working on our ideas and will use team work to create the best thriller opening sequence that we can.

Essay Writing

Essay Writing

In one of my Media Studies lessons the teachers showed us how an essay should be written. From this I have learnt that I need to use a lot more technical language in order to progress with my essay writing. I have found this very useful and have applied it to the latest essay that we have had to write, which was about "How is social status represented in the extract of Merlin"- Hopefully I have boosted my grade from my previous attempts at essay writing. 

Media Studies so far...

Media Studies Review

What have I learned from media studies?

-Media studies has tough me many new skills in order to break down a piece media (i.e. video clip etc) and examine different ways that the producers, director, costume people have used lighting and camera, sound, colour and outfit to enhance/ add to the scene.

For example, in the Titanic clip that we viewed in one of our lessons, rose wears white clothes and gloves; indicating that she is pure and better that the lower classes, she is also shown in the light which again is another indication of her importance and purity, wealth etc.

My strengths:

This has been my first school term studying media studies; I have found media to be very challenging and demanding at times however I have managed to get my work due in on time and I also have tried to stay on top of my work.

I would say that my strongest point in media would be the analysation of video clip and deciphering the hidden messages (what certain things mean/ the context that they are presented) I have some very strong ideas when analysing a piece of media, and I would most definitely say this is what I am strongest at!

My weakness's:

As I am new to studying media, I have found it difficult at times to understand important key terms i.e. iconography, semiotics, iconic signs, indexical signs etc. I have also found it quite difficult to grasp the task of essay writing, when writing my essays I have found it rather difficult to include how the key terms effect the overall product in a piece of media, this is because I was struggling to understand all of the different terminology that we are required to learn in order to progress further in my media work. Blogging is another thing that I really need to improve on as I am not blogging regularly, which is making more work for myself that is unnecessary.

Targets to improve?

Things that I am going to try extremely hard to improve on is my essay writing, to do this I am going to make a great effort to do as many practice essays and hand them to the teacher to get them marked and then read their feedback and learn from the things that I perhaps have done wrong and things that I did not include. Another thing I am going to do is revise my key terminology, this will very much come in handy to help to improve my essay writing. I am also going to try and blog more regularly instead of doing it in big chunks because I think it will lift a big weight off of my shoulders.