Here are 4 images of parts of our storyboard:
The first shot isn't an actual shot, it's just an edited in title of our production company name.
In the second shot, we were inspired by an invisible wipe using a van that we saw in the popular tv series Skins, which is in the genre of social realism. Although it's a tv series rather than film, we thought the idea would be effective for our opening and would help us to create an element of social realism.
To go completely the other way and affirm our main genre of thriller, in shot three, we will have half the shot hidden behind a bush (we've already checked out our setting, and have found an appropriate bush to use). This wasn't inspired by anything else, I thought of this idea myself, but thought the fact that half the shot was hidden and it appears that someone is watching the girl from the bushes would create an action code and suspense.
We wanted to use extreme close ups like in the opening for the film Se7en, because we felt it allowed the audience to see certain details but not others, which makes them question the details they can see and want to know the details they can't. We thought we should use this for when the girl in our opening receives and replies to text messages, because the audience will be just as confused by the messages as the girl will.
We're also using a shot that will hopefully be a little disorientating for the audience. We plan to start with a close up of the phone, and slowly zoom out and over the girl's shoulder. Although we haven't taken this shot from any particular opening, we liked the use of other disorientating shots created by special effects like in Fight Club where it is highly zoomed in on a characters skin and zooms out to reveal what the image actually is.
We liked the idea of using an arc at a mid shot because it allows the audience to see more of the surroundings (but not too much), and also makes them see how panicked the girl is by her body language. This was used in the film Reservoir Dogs, and personally, I thought it was effective for the reasons stated. Also, it's a fairly unusual camera movement to use, which is exactly the kind of thing we want in our thriller film.
Contrasting from the earlier mid shot, we wanted a close up of the girl's facial expressions so the audience could clearly see the panic on her face. This was used in the opening to the thriller film Taxi Driver, where it allowed you to see the expression on the driver's face more clearly, and is also something I've seen in other thriller films. If a character, particularly one who, at this point in a film, seems to be a victim, we tend to empathise with them more, and this facial expression will make the audience also feel panicky and worried for the girl.
