Storyboard: Planning and Concept

In order to produce a successful and professional looking teaser trailer, it was imperative that as a group, we brainstormed ideas for narrative concept and created a storyboard. Each clip would be detailed on the storyboard, explaining the basic concept of said clip, possible camera angles to use, approximate timings, possible sound and possible editing ideas. This completed storyboard would then be brought along to all shooting sessions to enable us to record all required shots, using the angles detailed. 

Narrative Concept:

The idea behind our Slasher Horror teaser trailer was a young teenage male who records himself torturing his victims for an online blog. We chose this approach to coincide with the social context of the modernisation in terms of technology in today's generations, with many young adults and teenagers having access to a mobile phone or computer. Although we subverted common representations in terms of the choice of killer by opting for a teenager, we still chose to use a male actor.. As is the case in many Slasher horrors, the film (trailer) is set in an old abandoned house to conform to common conventions of isolated locations; to contradict this, however, we also chose to use another location, whereby the killer stalks the victim at her place of work, which will be shot in Wickes, a DIY & Home Improvements store.

Storyboard:

Attached below are images taken of each side of the story board. 

This screenshot shows the first 20 seconds (approximately) of the trailer. As the storyboard depicts, the narrative begins with a mid-shot of the lower proportion of the killer walking along a shop aisle and arriving at the checkout, whereby we meet the victim. There are then a series of close-ups of various horror/gore related objects, such as a heart in a jar which is a common convention of slasher horror. Box number 7 then shows the beginning of the horror aspect in the trailer, showing a point of view shot of the victim waking up and seeing the killer.

In this section of the storyboard, various different torture scenes to be included in the trailer are detailed in the form of a montage; examples include many close-ups of the victim, such as being gagged and burnt. In order to ensure that we had enough sufficient footage when it came to editing, we planned to film an abundance of these clips, which we would then be able to select between.

The image above shows continued shots of the torture scenes, emphasising how over-prepared we were when filming. The next few scenes detail a chase scene between victim and killer, potentially using a hand-held camera, along with a long shot of the victim being dragged into the darkness. We chose to include a chase scenes as they are common conventions in many Slasher horror films. 

The first part of these clips shows the ending to the trailer, whereby the camera returns to a point of view shot from the killer at the checkout in Wickes. However, once the storyboard had been drafted, we decided to include a few additional shots in order to extend on the torture and slasher aspect of the film; these were detailed at the end of the storyboard, with directions for us to understand the order when filming and editing. 

Editing & Sound:

During the storyboard process, we began to plan for possible non-diegetic and diegetic sound in addition to ideal effects and editing techniques to be used. For example, on the checkout scene, we detailed the diegetic dialogue desired so that upon filming, the actress would know exactly what to say. In terms of editing, we also included the sections where we would include the black screens for suspense and possible positioning of titles. This process will make it much easier and allow us to use our time more efficiently when editing the final footage. 

Evaluation:

The overall storyboarding process proved to be very useful and allowed us to plan our time more efficiently when filming and editing the trailer. By including additional shots to be filmed in case of an error with other clips showed how we over-prepared when planning, meaning that we will have a greater variety of shots to choose from when editing to ensure that the trailer is of the desired standard.