Storyboard Todorov's theory (PICTURE PLEASE)

When creating our story board we took in to consideration Todorov’s theory of narrative. His theory states that each narrative follows the same order through five simple stages.

•  The first being the equilibrium, this is the section in the narrative that everything is calm and there are no problems. We conveyed this through our trailer with having the victim working behind the counter unaware of what will happen to her.
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• The disruption of the equilibrium would be shown through the over the shoulder shot of the antagonist looking down at the victim before the torture scenes. During this time the victim is still unaware of what is going to happen to her in the not so distant future.
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• The third step in the theory is the recognition of the disruption. During this scene we had a point of view shot from the victim’s perspective looking up towards the villain as he prepares. During this sequence we will use heavy breathing sounds and have the eyes of the victim open and close through the use of effects.
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• The fourth section is what we kept hidden from the audience as we did not want to provide the entire narrative and ultimately informing the audience the entire plot to the film. We did this in order to create an enigma and to entertain the audience into wanting to see what happens to the victim in her situation creating questions like, does she live? How did she escape?

• For the new equilibrium we returned back to the beginning of the story with the victim unaware giving the price of the objects he wishes to buy. This also creates a form of dramatic irony with the audience knowing what is going to happen while the victim is still oblivious to her surroundings and the danger that is present. We do not give a 'new' equilibrium as it could give away the narrative, removing the curiosity about her survival or death at the end of the film.

[PICTURE]

Planning: Storyboard Update

Before the filming stage commenced, I produced storyboards in order to aid our group in terms of knowing what shots to take, the camera angles chosen and any required props for mise-en-scene; this storyboard served as a rough guide for what the final shots when in chronological order should look like. However, when it came to filming, as a group, we collectively decided against using certain shots and adding in others as well; this was to ensure that not only was the trailer creative and adhered to the genre and audience, but also to allow for a more enigmatic and restrictive narrative. For this reason, I decided to re-draft our storyboard to show the changes that we decided to make when filming.

Amended Storyboard:

This first part of the storyboard shows the initial start to the trailer; the narrative for this first sequence did not change from the original storyboard, aside from a few of the images. We kept the photograph of the victim's face being circled to emphasise that she was the target, however we adapted the other two images (meat and maggots, heart in a jar) so that they were more suited to the Slasher genre. As shown above, we replaced these images with a picture of a knife, or weapon, to relate to the Slasher aspect. We also changed the third image to a sign saying 'CCTV in Operation' in order to coincide with the video camera aspect of the narrative. The remainder of shots remained the same.

This next section of the storyboard also remained quite similar to the original, whereby we only decided to change a few of the torture scenes. During the initial planning stages, we had over planned for these torture scenes so that we would have a greater variety to choose from; the final chosen ones are as indicated above. The gagging scene indicated in frame 1 and the finger breaking scene indicated in frame 7 were kept constant, the other scenes were additions or replacements.

We included the teeth removal clip shown in frame 4 in replacement of the nail ripping shot as during production, we could not edit the clip to look realistic using the resources that we had. 

Additionally, we added the blood spitting scene in frame 6 to adhere to common conventions of Slashers by incorporating more blood and gore; following on from this, we also included the bloody face clip of the victim to coincide with the slasher and gore aspect of the plot.

Finally, frame 7 shows the victims bloody hands being tied behind the chair; this was incorporated to further convey the idea that the victim had been 'captured' (hence the film title) and to also create the idea that she was helpless and weak, as commonly depicted in slasher horrors. 





The other torture scenes originally drawn on the first storyboard, such as the cigarette burning scene, were scrapped due to insufficient materials and resources meaning that we could not make the effect look authentic and thus, would have made the entire trailer more amateur looking. 

This final part of the storyboard details the last few shots of the ending of the trailer and also, details of the different titles that will be placed during editing. Whilst the clips themselves remained the same as planned on the original storyboard, we decided to remove a hallway scene which consisted of the victim running down a hallway, assumed to be chased by the killer. Although chase scenes are common in Slasher horrors, we decided to leave this out in order to leave the narrative more restricted and to create more enigma for the audience. 

Evaluation:

Overall, I feel that as a group, we managed to stick to our storyboard remarkably well despite the few changes that were made. However, once production is carried out and the final trailer is constructed in Final Cut, I feel that the improved and additional shots will make for a more innovative and successful Slasher horror trailer.

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.