Group storyboard (Miss Miller)

1. What is the purpose of a group storyboard?
The purpose of a story board is to create a more realistic feel for your narrative. It helps the narrative come to life and highlights if theres any errors in your story's plot and if any shots are unrealistic. It also allows you to create a time frame onto each shot so we you can have a better understanding as to whether you need to edit or lengthen your storyboard and scene. The story board I created consisted of 12 frames overall and came to a running total of 1minute 52seconds. This is good as the guidelines put in place were set out to make a clip lasting 2minutes long so I now know I have more time available to add extra detail into my clip.   

Each of the frames contain information of how i want my want my shots to come out of and included camera shots, location, iconography, lighting, lighting, actors, sound, editing and narrative information. After giving out this description I then drew a picture which links with the description I have written and gives an idea of what the scene will hopefully look like.  

2. Why have you created a storyboard?
I found creating a story board very useful as it help me visualise my ideas and help them come to life. This gives me an overall idea of where I would want the actor to be positioned and what mise-en-scene I would want to be present in each clip. This will help when creating a group story board as our ideas will be easier to explain and demonstrate to the group, meaning decisions can be made quickly as to whether or not we would want to take the idea any further and incorporate it into our final story board.

3. What elements did you include from each others individual storyboards? State inspirations.

Ghost (unknown death) from sixth sense
As a group, we found planning the final part of our clip the hardest as during the build up we all agreed on ideas however the ending was harder to decide on as we all had different ideas yet they all came with a lot of negatives as all seemed difficult to film and therefore would make our clip seem unprofessional. In the end we decided that the girl would die, however both herself and the audience wouldn't realise that she had to the very end. We took this idea from the film 'the sixth sense' where the man lives his life as he normally would as communicator to the dead however the twist is revealed that he is dead. By adding a twist to our film it will add the surprise and shock element to our film which is very desired in a thriller. By then tricking our audience it will engage them more as to understand the twist they will have to think back to the films plot to understand which makes them more involved with the clip and make it more effective. As well as this by the audience and the main actress not knowing that the actress has died together it will make them create a bond when the twist is revealed as the surprise element is revealed to them together at the same time so they will share a mutual reaction which helps the audience relate closer to the actresses situation and show empathy towards her. 

House from insidious and paranormal activity
To add to these ideas I also liked the idea of using a house to base my film at. This idea as a setting can be seen in both the films 'insidious' and 'paranormal activity'. By basing the story in a real life setting it relates to the audience as they all come from a home to be there and so can image being trapped and teased within their own homes. Through featuring a realistic scene the audience then can relate to the film more and allow themselves to put themselves in the position of the central characters as they can all relate to the scenes as well as the iconography used throughout. As well as this the use of a home or house is also very affective as after watching the film the audience typically go straight home where they can then imagine the scenes taking part in their house putting them on edge even after the screening of the scene which is a positive sign that the effects of your thriller have been as intended.

Female Victim
As well as this I also included a female victim and even more importantly a blonde female victim as they are more stereotypical and help portray the idea of innocence more which is important as for a thriller to be effective a good relationship has to be created between victim and audience as to create maximum suspense the audience has to feel empathy towards the main victim.This is conventional to a thriller as a female is typically seen as the weaker sex and so by trapping a female it makes the audience members feel more empathy towards them creating a bond built of fear for the victim as the villain is usually a man suggesting he is bigger and stronger than the victim suggesting to the victim that they are defenceless. However more typically a blonde female is used as they manage to portray more innocence to the audience emphasising their position as the victim. 

4. How did you include each others ideas successfully to make one group storyboard? Did you make any compromises?
When my group of Ravinder, James and myself next meet we will each take a turn to explain our ideas. After we all have stated our overall story we will then create our group story board first by asking each person who's first clip they preferred and adding that as a first scene and continuing this before creating our overall story board. However as we begin to build the story up we will keep reading back to ensure that the story still makes sense and has a clear narrative set in place. 

5. What do you think of your final storyboard? 
I am very happy with my final storyboard as it includes a good amount of detail and so now I feel comfortable now about beginning to film my opening sequence. 

6. How has this step helped you in preparation for filming?
Through including a lot of detail the story board has been a big help as all the decisions about which shots to choose and the mise-en-scene necessary with in each section has been made meaning that the time spent filming will be more productive as no time will be wasted trying out different shots and settings when not necessary.