The BIG Picture - Storyboard with Me!

Welcome back! It has been a hectic week in my personal and academic life but I’ve managed to string together a working storyboard. Now, they don’t look as nice as when Janiah was my project partner but I tried my best. Take a look at my plans below! 

The Breakdown (by scenes): 

• Scene 1 - Introduction

• To introduce the genre I am going to display a black screen that has writing saying “A true crime documentary” followed by a title (according to Hollywood’s title order). This will fade out into the next scene. 

• Scene 2 - Busy Intersection

• Next, a wide, eye-level, establishing shot will be used to introduce the scene/area of the crime in the grand scheme of things. Essentially, the story is in a metropolitan area. 

• Scene 3 - Street Sign 

• A static, slightly low-angle shot of a street sign, presumably on the same set of roads, to better establish the setting. 

• Scene 4 - Government Building 

• A steadicam of the sign of a governmental building will be shown. It will be slightly blurry but then focus in on the image at hand. 

• Scene 5 - Waiting Room

• A static shot of a barren waiting room of some unspecified governmental building will be shown. 

• Scene 6 - Getting Ready 

• An eye line match taken from behind the detective but in front of the mirror to still show the detective's face will be taken. This is a B-roll segment in which a character is being introduced 

• Scene 7 - Detective Introduction 

• This is the official introduction of the character into being the detective. It will be a static, medium close-up. 

• Scene 8 - Interview 

• The interview will be taken from a straight one to be an eyeliner match. It will be composed as a medium close-up and will be completely static. 

• Scene 9 - Globe 

• The detective will spin the globe and explain the movement of the subject (via a voiceover).  

• Scene 10 - Reading/Working 

• A series of B-roll clips will display Detective Kandola “working on the case”. This includes reading which will be taken from a long shot in a pan and in an over-the-shoulder shot. Along with working on a computer which will be taken in the same spot, the interview was filmed but from an alternative angle. It will be an over-the-shoulder pan. 

• Scene 11 - Interview 

• Same as the previous Interview scene. 

• Scene 12 - Tracking 

• This will be of the detective walking down a hall, rushing to the scene of a crime. It will be taking in a tracking medium full shot.  

• Scene 13 - Car 

• This is when the car is driving to the scene of the crime from the detective's office so it will be taken like a hand-held shot. 

• Scene 14 - Crime Scene 

• The crime scene will be displayed but a close-up of the murder weapon (a bloody knife) is being moved in a steadicam way. Along with pictures of the crime scene including caution tape. This will be used as a graphic match to a voiceover. 

• Scene 15 - Case Files

• Photos from the crime scene will “pile up” onto the screen as if the screen was the surface of a desk and was taking an aerial ellipsis shot of the case file building over time. 

• Scene 16 - Working (Wide)

• A wide and over-the-shoulder high-angle shot will be combined to be a shot-reverse shot later in editing. This clip will display the detective trying to sort out the case files in the detective's office.  

• Scene 17 - Bagged Weapon 

• The weapon will be bagged and transported this will be a Steadicam tracking shot of the movement of the bagged weapon into police custody. 

• Scene 18 - 9-1-1

• A graphically designed page will display the voice of a 9-1-1 call from the suspect's house. 

• Scene 19 - Crime Board

• A steadicam close-up of each part of the crime board will be shown before zooming out to show the crime board in its entirety. This will fade out. 

• Scene 20 - Outro 

• The same stagnant black screen from the beginning will be displayed and show the working title of the feature film. 

Other Remarks:

Firstly, there are a lot of ways to classify each of these desired scenes. For the sake of simplicity I will refer to them as they have been named. 

Next, the sound is not concrete yet but it is sure to feature some sort of music. Along with the interview segment acting as a voiceover and narrator for a large majority of the film’s opening sequence. Notably, the interview segment is a direct address to the audience. 

There is some ambient sound from the cars passing by and getting ready for the scene that will be implemented. Thus it is bound there will be sound mixing. 

For the bits of the film that have a voiceover a graphic match of B-roll will be displayed. Importantly, most of the B-roll is an ellipsis. 

Most of the film is set to be filmed at eye level since that is the convention of the genre. 

Editing is mapped out but bound to change. One thing for sure is that it will be edited according to a non-continuity system. 

When looking at the storyboard you may see segments with a block of color, this is where titles would be placed. Areas with yellow arrows indicate movement in that direction.

Lastly, the backup plan. Everything is bound to change as that is how life goes. Nonetheless, the beauty of a documentary is that it can be manipulated in any way with the given b-roll and a-roll and will still create a well-working film. Therefore I am not worried about any mishaps. The more mishaps and spontaneous nature that the clips I film bring, the more authenticity to the genre. 

 

As you can tell this is far less in-depth than I did for the music video project. The reason being that I feel like the reason I had to navigate away from the story aboard in that project was the emphasis on time constraints and creativity was bound to what was on the paper. This time around I am taking a less structured approach will more fluidity. I have set general guidelines but I am open to changing this storyboard as I need to. I am hoping my newfound approach will improve my production process. Hope you enjoyed hearing about my plans!