Storyboard

Click to enlarge images

A main part of our planning was to complete a storyboard with detailed notes about camera shots, angles and editing techniques. We are starting our film with a top-down, extreme close-up of the female victim that zooms out slowly and to reveal the dead victim and her surroundings. However, we will edit and cut in a series of flashbacks showing the short time period immediately before her death. The first flashback will show her entering the kitchen and walking over the the sink to collect a glass. We will film this shot from outside the kitchen window and start with a medium close-up as the victim walks through the door, then zoom out to long shot showing the window-frame . This gives gives the impression that the victim is being watched from outside and the sense of security that the home usually represents is broken. We then cut back to the dead victim- by this point the zoom will have reached a medium close-up showing the victim from shoulder height down. Next we cut to a medium shot from inside the kitchen which pans following the victim walking from the right of the kitchen to left. The shot from the inside gives the impression that the killer is approaching and getting closer, heightening the tension. Cut back to zoom out again.

Then we see the victim opening the fridge, we cut to a close-up to show the victim taking something out of the fridge. During this shot the killer, walks into the room and stands behind the fridge door. During this shot you will see a black flash through the crack between the fridge and the fridge door. This gives the audience a hint as to what will happen, but the victim is still unaware of ant danger.
Next we will show the victim closing the fridge, revealing the killer. To do this we will use a two shot for the moment before the killing takes place. This promptly cuts to a close-up of a glass and an egg smashing on the floor- we will frame the shot with the victims and killers feet on either side of the shot. This tells the audience that it is the shock of seeing the killer that has made the victim drop whatever she was holding.

This then cuts the the zoom out which by this point is starting to reveal most of the victims body. Another close up on the floor is used and blood is shown dripping onto the floor. This is meant to be the killer stabbing the victim. We chose to do this as we thought it would be far less realistic to try and shown the victim being stabbed. Then we cut to the victim lying on the ground, before being dragged out of the shot. The title of the film will be shown on top of the blood streaks left behind on the floor when the killer drags the victim away.
Then we hear and alarm sound and cut to a close up of an alarm clock, the time shown on the alarm will be an early time in the morning e.g. 2.30am, this is to notify the audience that the killer is getting up especiually early to prepare for and undertake his killing. This gives an indication the the killer might be physcologically unstable. Next we see the killers legs comin into view at the side of the bed as he sits up and step out of bed. The frame stays still as the killer walks out of the shot. Following this we have a low angle close up of a shower head and we see the water begin to run. At this stage the audience is aware that he is going through an everyday daily routine, but at an unusual time of the morning.

Next we see more close-up shots of the killer but we do not see his face. We see him fastening his belt, putting on a black tie. Even though we have already seen the killers face earlier in the scene due to the films non-linear timeline the fact that we don't see this persons face confuses the audience as to whether it is the same person and why we aren't showing his face. Next we see a close-up of a bulletin board with a newspaper clipping and photos of a girl pinned to it. The heading of the newspaper article reads "Girl, 16, abused by murderers" this is when the audience is meant to start to think that the girl was some kind of close friend or relative of the killer and he is getting revenge on her murderers. This close-up turns into a pan of the bulletin board following the killer's hand as he gently strokes the pictures. Next we see a nedium shot of the bullettin board covered in more pictures of his victims. Then we see the victim packing a bag with items like a knife, and gloves and the newspaper article with pictures of his sister. Next we see shots at ground level of the killer's feet walking out of a door. and a normal medium-long the door closing behind him, leaving a black screen to put the credits on.

Costumes - Victim

By chose of our costumes we wanted to show the personalities of both characters, and create the contrast between them. We wanted to show how hopeless is the situation of the victim. She is a young vulnerable girl, not ready, surprised by grow up, ruthless psychopathic murderer with massive knife firmly held in his hand. He does not say anything, does not explain why just continues his revenge plan.

Overall
Victim, unlikely to the killer does not expect anything to happen, does her daily activities. As victim is quite young her pyjama will portray some pink and bright colours in order to highlight her age.

Shirt
White or any other bright colour in order
to make blood more visible and also to
present her as a pure, clean child that
is unlikely to contribute to someone's death.

Trousers
Any type of pyjama trousers, best if matches to the shirt or include things that are usually on child accessories e.g. : colourful images, animals, flowers..etc. This would focus our attention on her age and arouse questions why is she killed?

Socks
We deliberately didn't use any socks as naked feet connotate the coldness and add to her image as defenceless and vulnerable.

Slippers

Crucial factor while trying to make her look vulnerable, especially when they are intended to look like some animal therefore made with a soft material.

Costumes - Villain

Overall
Dressed in black plain suit
with black tie and white shirt.
Very firmly looking, seriously,
professionalism, self confidence.
Increases testosterone and make feel
powerful, professional killer and dominating
Examples: Hitman (Hitman), Joker (Batman), Sloan (Wanted)

Tie
Contrast to the shirt, black, plain and modest, perfectly done up. Last button of the shirt is done up, even during the killing. Stays calm and does not panic, ruthless.

Shoes

Matching to the suit, add to the overall style, very solid, still new shine, wears only for special occasion.

Props

While working with our project we used the range of different props and objects in order to make our movie be more professional and realistic.
When we look on all items, tools that the killer uses, we can infer that he uses the everyday accessories to kill, things that are normally used or household works however when it comes to clothing, he takes it seriously and professionally.

BLOOD
As we know, the most popular blood substitute is a ketchup
or a cherry juice. However we reached to more professional
solution, we therefore purchased a 'fake blood' and used in
our movie creating very realistic crime scene. Fake blood is
mouth free and easily washable unlike to ketchup or cherry juice.

KNIFE
As knifes in most thriller movies:

big, sharp and dangerous. When is shown,
symbolises death straight away.
The knife is only shown once in our movie,
however it is not while the killing scene but
when killer prepares. We dont know that
he is a killer until he reaches for the knife

BAG
Used by killer to transport all his 'equipment'.
In the movie we show the bag by the close up,
therefore when the killer closes it, whole screen goes
black, This gives us perfect place for inserting
the subtitles. The bag itself is traditional sport
bag, we previously planned to use business bag
but we did not have one.

GLASS
We used the broken glass in order to present the feelings

of the victim. Crashing glass connotates destruction,
something unavoidable and irreversible, like death.

NEWSPAPER AND PHOTOGRAPHS

Our killer's motive is death of his girlfriend, he decides to take revenge upon all people contributed in her death. His obsession is shown by the newspaper extract pinned to his wall informing about his girlfriend being killed. The extract is attached to the same wall as the photographs of them together which creates contrast and makes him even more motivated.
In order to create the real-looking newspaper extract we used the website which lets people to add the custom title and article and print off later.

GLOVES

traditional, gardening gloves, can be found in every

household. Used to cover all signs of the killer,
by the way he puts them in the bag we can see
that this is nothing new for him, just another
person to be killed, another trace to be hidden.

In our project we sometimes had to improvise. E.g. when the victim was dragged out on the blood we tried to avoid her clothes and hair being spoiled with that therefore we placed her on the plastic bag and hide it under her body so she could move on the spoiled surface without damaging her hair or clothes.

Setting

According to our questionnaire feedback and audience opinions we decided to film indoor. Buildings are always good place to set the horror/thriller movies because of many elements, objects that someone could hide behind and strike the fear-paralyzed victim.
Very often exploited scene used to present the killer is his appearance in the mirror or behind the door. This is the best way to scary the viewers as killer appear unexpected and gains advantage with it. We also planned to use such technique and only way we could only accomplish that in the kitchen when victim will be preparing her dish. While killer appearance, shocked victim drops everything she held in her hand (glass and egg) spoiling it on the floor. We firstly wanted to place this scene in the living room however it has a carpet on the floor, while in the kitchen glass would crash easier because of tiles and more open space. Moreover, the kitchen was better place because it's position allowed us to obtain the better camera shots and angles like view through the window.

Title of film

In the second half of our opening scene we are going to focus on the killer preparing to leave his house to kill his first victim. The first shot that we see of this section is going to be an alarm clock. Since we want to focus on the clock to show he is getting up at an unsocially early time in the morning to catch the victim off-gaurd as soon as she gets up. So we wanted to link the film title to the time shown on the clock, to further emphasise the killers mental instability. The film names we came up with were:

• 2:34
• Half Past Death
• The Time Has Come
• Death Time

Our first idea was tojust call the film 2:34 and have that as the time on the clock. However we finally decided to use Half Past Death as none of the other titles didn't flow proplerly and didn't really tell us anything about what the film could entail.

Chosen film title: Half Past Death