Script and Storyboard

SHOOTING SCRIPT

TRACKING SHOT into bedroom. WIDE SHOT of room, Beth is pictured far right, crying on her bed.

MIDSHOT of Beth crying. Camera pans downward to the photo in her hands.

MIDSHOT and LOW ANGLE of past (Beth receives gift and share a kiss followed by a hug).

CLOSE UP and POINT OF VIEW SHOT of photo being ripped in half.

WIDE SHOT of Beth’s room. An argument takes place.

Back to POINT OF VIEW SHOT of ripped photo falling onto the ground.

LOW ANGLE and MIDSHOT of conversation held between Beth and her boyfriend.

Blurry CLOSE UP of phone on bed.

EXTREME CLOSE UP of photo on wall. Slow zoom out to reveal more photos.

OVER THE SHOULER SHOT, Beth’s arm reaching to a photo on the wall.

Slow zoom in.

Various close ups and point of view shots of photos on wall whereby they are quickly snatched off; right, left, low angle.

POINT OF VIEW SHOT, pan of camera following hand, LOW ANGLE two photos are ripped off, camera pans left and focuses on the scribbling of the photo on the wall.

MIDSHOT of pen dropping onto bed.

CLOSE UP of table, the bottle and the uncrushed pills.

SLOW ZOOM into the tablets until it is out of focus.

MIDSHOT of bottle being opened and substance being poured into bottle.

SLOW ZOOM follows until out of focus yet again.

MIDSHOT of room, Beth grabbing bottle and slamming door shut.

Blackout. Title follows “Behind Closed Doors”

SCRIPT – DIALOGUE

SOUND OVERLAY – non-diagetic SOUNDTRACK IS PLAYED.

0:06 – pleonastic sound of crying is heard followed by heavy breathing.

0:34 -    BETH (looking at her boyfriend)
 “Thank you”

0:37 - *tearing of photo*

0:53 -     GEORGE (sitting on the bed)
“Things have just gotten complicated. Your right, it’s over” *handclap*

0:58 Vibration of phone is heard and a blurry image of a blackberry is seen.
Pleonastic sound of heartbeat is played.

1:01 a one-sided phone conversation is heard from a FRIEND“Hey, I just got your text
you sounded serious, are you okay?
Don’t do anything stupid...
Beth, Beth..Beth..Beth?”

Photos’ being ripped off the wall violently is heard.

1:37 Beth takes pen and scribbles harshly on photo.

2:01 *heartbeat stops*

2:05 Bedroom door is slammed shut and soundtrack begins to fade out.

Storyboard

1.      Soundtrack begins (Nitruzz - Strangers) and plays throughout opening.  Dark hallway outside of bedroom, midshot of the door being ajar.  Sound of crying coming from within.  Slow zoom towards door which opens slightly until we see Beth sitting on the bed.  Credits appear every several seconds.

2.      Midshot of Beth crying whilst looking at a photo of her recent relationship, sniffing.  Close up of her face then a pan down to photo.

3.      Black and white past, memory of George giving Beth a present.  Beth says “thank you” and they embrace.

4.      Back to coloured present, close up and point of view shot of Beth holding same photo.  Tear falls on it.

5.      Black and white past, memory of Beth and George arguing.  We do not hear what they are saying.  Large arm gestures by George demonstrates anger, but Beth mainly stands still.  She throws something at him.

6.      Back to coloured present, close up of Beth ripping the photo vertically halfway.

7.      Black and white past, memory of both sitting on Beth’s bed.  George says “it’s over” and walks out.

8.      Back to present with a Sepia tint.  Slow zoom out from centre of a picture to a wall full of pictures, Beth’s hand appears in the frame to rip one off quickly.  A one-way phone call is heard, Licia says something along the lines of “Beth I just got your text, you sounded serious, don’t do anything stupid. Beth. Beth! Beth? Oh no.”  Heartbeat begins.  Various sped up shots of Beth snatching pictures.

9.      Over the shoulder shot or point of view shot of Beth scribbling over a picture.  Low angle shot of the pen falling on the bed.

10.  Close up of a bottle with an unknown substance and a sheet of paper will pills.  Beth crushes the pills with a hammer-like object.

11.  Extreme close up of the paper being used to pour the crushed pills into the bottle.

12.     Tracking shot of Beth grabbing the bottle off the table until there is a wide shot of her slamming her door, instant blackout then title appears.

Planning / Brainstorming

‘Behind Closed Doors’

Prepared by

Anika Rahman, Bethenay Longley, Licia Johnson, (and initially Daniel Andrews).
For
Harris Crystal Palace, Media AS

Address

 Harris City Academy Crystal Palace  

Maberley Road, London, SE19 2JH

It is proposed that the film opening will be of two minutes duration.  

Finance:

The only finances we need to consider is cab travel expenses from Beth's house to Harris, which is £5 that will be shared between the three of us each time.  Cab travel is needed to carry the camera back to Harris, but to lower costs we may just walk to Beth's and back.  However, it takes half an hour to get there via walking and five minutes via cab, so taking a cab would allow us more filming time.  All of these will be taken into consideration.

Possible limitations and constraints:

- Not being able to keep the cameras overnight means we will have to figure out ideal dates and times which will suit all of us.  If one of us cannot make it, then filming would most likely be cancelled which would hold us back.

- The majority of the opening will be in Beth's room, so three people maneouvering around may be difficult.

- We are most likely not going to be using a tri-pod as there is not much space and we have not contemplated on tracking shots, so we will have to hold the camera steadily ourselves.


Initially, our idea of the film was:
Daniel is Beth's ex-boyfriend who is now with Anika.  Beth is distraught and her deep emotions are shown in the opening to the point where she would seem insane.

















(3)  A door shuts, Beth is seen in her bedroom, crying and angry, surrounded by ripped/scratched photos. She rings her best friend Licia for comfort and support.
(4) Licia is angered by Daniel's betrayal, but can she sit back and ignore it?


Initially, our summary of the plot was:
Beth split up with Daniel, and he is now with Anika.  Beth has become obsessed with Daniel and the opening shows the extent of her mentality and jealousy.  Beth phones Licia for consolation (there is a split screen of the phonecall), and Licia tries to calm her down.  Licia, Beth and Anika used to be best friends, so Licia is furious at Anika's actions.  In her temper, Licia murders Anika in her home, but everyone believes that it was Beth due to her insanity and the fact that Beth's bracelet which Licia burrowed was left at the scene.  Beth is imprisoned, but only she knows that Licia did it as she remembered the loaned bracelet.


Initial first ideas:
Credits include pics of each couple.
After credits, there is a split screen of a phonecall between Beth and Licia.
Beth burns a picture of her and Daniel which fades into a flashback of a happy moment before the break-up.
Rapid cut back to ECU of Beth's face with mascara running.
Flashback of Beth and Daniel arguing.
Cut back to Beth.
Flashback of Beth watching Anika and Daniel.
Cut back to Beth.  She's getting ready to go out and something tells the audience she's going to do something bad.  At the front door she turns around and throws something at the camera and the screen shatters.


Initial Shot List

• Tracking shot into the room
• Close up of Beth’s eyes
• Close up of mouth (heavy breathing) 
• Close up of pictures on wall
• Black and white shots of past
• Coloured shots of the present
• Birdseye view of beth falling on bed
• She releases her inner anger out by dashing objects off the surface of a side drawer
• Point of view of object being thrown towards camera or wide shot of room and a slammed door is left to end the scene (and end our film)

(1) Credits roll with pictures in black and white of Daniel and Beth in happier times, then fade into pictures of Anika and Daniel in colour, where black and white represents the past and colour the present.

(2) Beth bumps into Anika on the road and they seem to be friendly. Anika has recently started dating Beth's ex-boyfriend and is asking her how she feels about it. Beth seems to be fine and understanding.

Unfortunately... 
Daniel left due to personal reasons so he was replaced by Beth's real boyfriend George Tasker and we had to drastically adapt our idea to ...
(1) We see Beth crying in her room.  There are photos of her and her ex in her room.
(3) There are flashbacks of her and George in a happy relationship.
(4) She rips down the photos angrily, makes a 'potion' and runs out with it.  What is she planning?


New shot List

• Tracking shot into the room
• Close up of Beth crying
• Alternating black and white scenes of the past with coloured scenes of present.  First scene of past is them as a happy couple, the second is them arguing, the third is George declaring the split-up
• Close up of a phone ringing.  A phonecall/ one-way conversation can be heard.
• Zoom out of pictures on wall
• Rapid cuts and blurred scenes of Beth ripping them down
• Close ups of a potion which Beth is making
• Beth snatches the potion and opening ends with a wide shot of Beth slamming her door.

Naming the Film:

The first thing you can do before even starting to film or make a continutity sequence, is an idea. Any imagination or inspiration thoughts that came to us, we listed down as follows:

Names:

Psychopath

Retribution

Fatal obsession

Obsessed

Memoirs 

P.S ... It's Not Over

P.S ... I hate you

Decided Name:

Behind Closed Doors

Music

For the track we will use Nitruzz - Strangers (R&B Instrumental), which is copyright free.





Treatment

The main character, Beth, has been dumped by her boyfriend.  Her emotions spiral out of control, to the point of obsession.  Now, she is out for revenge.  George is her target.. but she does not care who she has to harm along the way!

Location

Originally we thought of doing something drastic and brainstormed ideas about going to places such as Central London and Crystal Palace park to film. However due to limitations and contraints, this prevented us from taking the cameras out after school hours and keeping them overnight. Also this would have been more time consuming due to extra travel, which could have possibly led onto more expenses.  Finally, we decided the best place would be at Beths house, specifically her bedroom as it conforms to our changed storyline and she lives closer which would save us a lot of time.

Permission

Since the opening will be fully shot in Beth’s room we only needed permission from her mother, who approved.




Personnel organisation
George will need to agree with us on a day to shoot his scene.  The rest of us three need to agree on days on which to meet and film, we have decided on Mondays if it is outside of media lessons.

Equipment / Props

Main equipment we will need are; 

> a camera to film, 

> a phone for the shots where Licia calls Beth, 

> a hammer-like object for when Beth is bashing the pills to make a ‘potion’.

Costumes 

The clothing will be up to the personal decision of the actor and actress as we want a portrayal of realism in the film opening., we do not want it to look too set up and fake.

Audience feedback so far on our pre-production ideas

Some quotes are;

“It sounds like it will be really good, can’t wait to see it”

“If I saw a trailer or heard about an insane girl wanting to kill her ex I would definitely want to watch it”

“The name ‘Behind Closed Doors’ is simple but still ambiguous and kind of threatening.  It’s nice, I like it”

“You won’t be able to do much in just one room, maybe consider more than one location. But if you have really good ideas then go for it, it might turn out to be effective.”

These comments make our opening sound very promising, so we are sticking to our idea.  We considered using more locations, as the last comment suggests, but the way we have planned and imagined our opening to be we think that we can make it work using a single location.  It would also provide less hassle for us.

Moodboard

I used these images to gather inspiration for our film, Behind Closed Doors.  I created this moodboard on prezi.com because I have used it before so am rather familiar with it and it is a change from the usual format of a slideshow or A3 sheet of paper with pictures that you may see as a moodboard.

The pictures pertain to what our film may be about, i.e.

- the door being ajar symbolises the name 'Behind Closed Doors';

- the images of arguing is when Beth and George argue;

- the broken hearts represents how Beth would feel afterwards, broken hearted;

- the crying represents Beth crying over her ex-boyfriend.

http://prezi.com/3sflhbenblx5/moodboard/