Day 3: Lens based Media

Task 1: Finish and refine storyboard
Task 2: present to group and find any flaws

Over the day I changed my storyboard quite a few times, it started with the photographs that I took the day before:

 First Draft

1) the character needs to cross the keyboard but there is no safe way across. This is the challenge that my character must overcome before the end of the story.

2) the character spots something that she can use to get across the keyboard.

3) the character meets it first problem that it needs to overcome to complete the challenge. To improve this shot I could have shot the photograph at a lower angle and from the other side so that it makes the challenge look more menacing to over come.

4) The character overcomes the first problem but is then faced with another problem immediately after. I had a few problems myself when creating this storyboard, this one being that I found I didn't have enough boards.

5) The character is placed in a situation where it looks almost impossible for them to escape from, this encourages the audience to get on side with the character and start rooting for them.

6) In the last frame the character is shown completing her goal, all of the problems that she overcame lay in the foreground where her challenge began.

I found many flaws in my original storyboard, one being that I initially only had 4 instead of 6 frames. However I do feel that my story board does show the basic structure of what happens in a story and I just need to add more meat (story) to the bones.

Second Draft

1) The chacter is introduced as a frail old woman, I have kept her the same as the original character (apart from her age) for continuity. the scene is set, showing the old woman heading for the hospital, her house is shown in the background as a small cottage, this is to help the audience to understand her character

2) The woman is walking across the bridge towards the hospital, this makes it clear to the audience what the woman's goal is for this story. It also gives the audience time to think about why she might be going to the hospital.

3) The first challenge appears. The woman is confronted with some rowdy looking people. This shot could be taken from a low angle to make them look more menacing and an even bigger challenge to surpass.

4) The audience are put into the position of wondering how she could overcome this problem to get to her goal. The old woman in this shot is could be made more vulnerable by having a close up of her eyes or looking down on her, these are two kinds of shots used in filming to convey fear or weakness.

5) This is the shot where the twist happens. It turns out that the woman is not as frail and weak as she seems. The audience are left wondering what she is going to do and how she became like this.

6) It turns out that she was never destined for a hospital but a mental hospital/ institute. It makes the viewers question what they had just watched and if it was ever clear that she was going to visit a loved one or not

I used an old woman as my character for this story as I felt that the audience might emphasise with her more as they may think that she is just visiting a sick friend or husband etc. Also the twist would strike them more as they feel that an older woman would not be capable of being a killer. This story strikes parallels with films with the killers being slightly older such as 'Keeping Mum' and 'Hannibal'. 

Final Idea

1) The old woman is shown in her house, I changed this from my second draft as here I was able to show a photograph of some family members (relatives/ friends) that could convince the viewer that she is going to the hospital to visit a relative.

2) The bridge scene is the same, this gives the audience time to consider why she is going to the hospital.

3) I have used this over the shoulder angle as I feel it gives an interesting aspect to the scene. What I had planned to do was take the shot from a low angle which would make the challenge more menacing however I found that all the shots I took from low angles made them not look scary at all. Also I feel that taking the shot from a slightly higher angle has put the scene on its head, giving possible foreshadowing to what is to come.

 These shots do not look that menacing, I have not used them for that purpose.

4) This is an over the shoulder shot from the opposition which is completely the opposite shot from the last one, which gives foreshadowing to what will happen next. 

5)  This scene I shot from in-between the two opposition which puts the woman in perspective, also having her in the centre of the frame draws the eye to her.   

   Other angles I experimented with.

6) The ending scene is the same as the second draft

My time management for this task was very good as for each task I finished on time or just before. I have enjoyed doing this task better than what we did for the beginning of the week as this is more what I am interested in. The part of the task that I did not enjoy was having to tell people what my story was about as I felt that I may give away something, by accident, to early which may lead them to my audience having biased views toward the end, or if I lead them into thinking in a certain way about something, such as suggesting that maybe she is visiting someone at the hospital.