My initial story board

We were set the initial task of designing a story board for an opening sequence  that we would later go on to create or use elements of in our group work. Firstly i selected the type of film that i wanted to base my storyboard around -I chose to design our for a gritty thriller/horror type film, as I wanted to make a sequence that was frightening but in a scarily realistic way, giving an audience the feel that this could actually happen. Predominately I chose this style because I personally feel this style is most effective in shocking and frightening an audience, and achieving the proper conventions of this genre. My sequence was of a child's start and finish of a day, where things are out of the ordinary, hence the concept of having morning an evening to be able to clearly decipher a contrast for my audience. it started with establishing shots of her house, and then her bedroom, walking down stairs for breakfast and leaving for school. I wanted to make it feel as if it were a daily morning routine but also that the morning activities were ones which i could repeat for the after school shots. Eg: making food, and being in an established kitchen, with obvious props for my audience to notice the later alteration of. When she returns in the evening, menacing words are spelt out on her plate of alphabetti spagetti and on her fridge with the magnets, the stairs have stains of blood on them, and the picture frames around her room are blank. I wanted to end my story board with ellipsis, leaving the audience asking, what will happen next? 

horror stills

 

We had to practice working with different types of lighting and their effects, the camera equipment, and planning a shot and then shooting something we had actually drawn out and organized. I wanted to use quite dark, low key lighting to create an eerie effect, but also play around with brighter, harsher lighting to juxtapose the girls face with the atmosphere I had created.