Shot and Storyboard 1st and Final Draft Analysis

In hindsight I can see where we went wrong with our first draft of the storyboard, which is why I’m glad we got a chance to do a second draft, using the first as a kind of jump-off point.

Shot 1 - The first shot of the 2^nd draft is a long panning shot around Ashley’s dimly lit bedroom, the only sound being the beeping of his alarm clock. We chose to make this our first shot – rather than the long shot of him simply walking down the street that we used in the 1^st draft – after getting feedback from our teacher that it is important for the audience to get an idea of the character’s everyday life and surroundings in the opening scene, especially in establishing shots. Considering one of the central ideas of our opening scene is that of Ashley’s loneliness, we decided the first setting we needed to establish was a place where he truly was alone, which is his bedroom.

Shot 2 – The second shot is a close up of the alarm clock and then a hand reaching over and pressing the snooze button to stop it ringing. We added this after watching other movie openings and found that focusing on small details with close ups and cut-aways like this just make the overall scene more effective than if everything was shot in the same long and medium shots.

Shot 3 - This is going to be a medium shot from a bird’s eye view of Ashley lying on his bed for a few seconds, then getting up and off. We are using this because it feels like a good way to introduce the character

Shot 4 –This is a long shot from the side of Ashley walking towards the mirror

Shot 5 – This is going to be a long shot of Ashley looking blankly at himself in a full-length mirror. The reason we chose to use this was because we felt it was a good way to show how detached he feels from his own emotions, that he can look at a reflection of himself the way he would look at a total stranger because he only sees emptiness reflected back at him

Shot 6 - What was originally the second shot in the 1st draft eventually became the 5^th shot of the 2^nd, although we did adapt it a bit. Originally, the shot was just a tracking over the shoulder of him walking through the school gates. However, after watching the opening from The Way of The Gun (where the first shot pans down from the building to the crowd) I felt that panning down from the top of the school first could be a good way of establishing his surroundings without having to use the more commonly used horizontal panning shot.

Shot 7 – This is another shot of him staring at himself in the mirror, except this time it is a medium long shot. By zooming in slightly every time we cut back to this sequence, as well as placing the different shots sporadically in between the different shots of him in school, kind of represents how the magnitude of his emotions starts to become clearer to him as he looks back on his behaviour throughout the day.

Shot 8 – This is an extreme long shot of him standing in the middle of a crowded hallway. We chose to use this shot because it will show how big the crowd is, and so accentuate how clearly disconnected he is from them all.

Shot 9 – Here we will use a medium shot of him in the mirror, getting closer as he thinks

Shot 10 – This will be a close up of the clock on a classroom wall. This is to add to the typical classroom atmosphere, as well as for the audience to get an idea of how long he has been in this state (if they think back to the time on his alarm clock in shot 2).         

Shot 11 – This is going to be a long shot of Ashley sat down at a desk in a classroom, while everyone else around and behind him talk animatedly. This shot is basically to show the contrast between the emotions and actions of his peers (examples of what would be expected at that age) and the way he looks and behaves, but in a way that keeps the main character in the foreground.

Shot 12 – This will be a medium tracking shot of 180 degrees around the front of Ashley’s face.  We chose to include this because we feel it is a more creative way of showing the characters current facial expression than, for example, repeatedly using close-ups.

Shot 13 – This is a close up over the shoulder shot from the front of Ashley standing in another halfway, showing the people milling around and past him as the amount of people left dwindle down until just a few can be seen in the background. This again just goes to show the way everyone around him seems to just go about their everyday lives, while he is just alone.

Shot 14 – This will be a long shot, showing that he is the last one left in the hallway. He stands there are few seconds, then begins to walk down the hallway towards the camera.

Shot 15 – Ashley stops and stares out of a window, with a close up taken from the side. We chose this because it is a way of showing his reaction, while not revealing what he has seen, which would make the audience ask questions. Also, we are going to take this shot from the side because it is slightly less conventional than if we took it from the front.

Shot 16 – This will a long shot from in front of him walking down the hallway and then walking out of shot.

Shot 17 – The final shot of him in the mirror is an extreme close up, which then zooms out to an over the shoulder so we see he has a phone in his hand in the reflection, which he puts down on a table next to the mirror, then walks off shot. The effect of the extreme close up is that because it is the closest shot we could have of his face where his expression can still be seen, its like he is looking as deep into his own mind and feelings as he can. Then, by zooming out to the OTS so the phone can be seen,

Shot 18 – This will be a long shot taken from behind him, showing him crossing the room and getting into the bed. By going from a much tighter shot (the extreme close up to OTS) to this much wider shot, it represents that he is trying to ignore those deep-rooted issues that he has now unearthed in himself and tries to go back to the numb feeling he was at when he first woke up that morning in the first shot of him in the mirror, which had been a long shot, so using another long shot forms some kind of symmetry.

Shot 19 - This is going to be a medium shot from a bird’s eye view of Ashley lying on his bed, reaching over to the lamp. This shot yet again serves as symmetry (of shot 3) with his day ending the way it began, which reflects the monotony of his daily routine.

Shot 20 – This is a cut-away of him turning the lamp off. As with the other close-ups and cut-aways this was used to add interest and variety into the scene.

Shot 21 – In the dim lighting, we’ll have a long panning shot across the room, from the bed to the phone on the table. This is again a kind of symmetry, but one that’s different from the other uses. Whilst the others will be very close in appearance, this one will be in darkness rather than in light, like how the original panning shot in shot 1 is, because it will reflect how his outlook has changed from the beginning of his day to the end.

Shot 22 – This final shot is a close up of his phone on the table, displaying the text on the screen. We chose to have this close-up as the final shot of the scene because it is the thing that makes ever other parts of the opening come together and make sense.