At the beginning we looked at “Sandy Hook Promise: Gun violence warning signs”. We both liked the idea of how there is a character that is often overlooked as an antagonist. We also planned to include a moment when the child ultimately draws a gun; however, in our movie, it will be a knife. This film served as another source of inspiration for our library scene.
inspiration -> https://youtu.be/9qyD7vjVfLI
I wrote the first draft of the script:
EXT. DRONE SHOT OVER LAKE - DAY
A drone “chases” over a lake, 北京大杨山国家森林公园 (the picture of the location)
BEGIN OPENING CREDITS.
FADE TO BLACK.
BELL (V. O.)
2 INT. SCHOOL LIBRARY - DAY
Students walk around the library, revealing Elise, who is sitting at a desk, looking disturbed. The camera moves closer to Elise. (insert shot on the her tapping her finger )
She stands up and starts walking, bumping into a school prefect. (her head is pointed downwards and constantly looking behind her, the prefect has a notebook and a pen in her hand. Throws away the Pen dramatically)
ELISE
I’m sorry, please don’t hurt me!
PREFECT
How dare you. I’m reporting, right now!
Elise’s face changes as gets more scared. As the prefect opens their blazer and take out their pen, the tension rises and a glimpse is caught of a knife handle. Elise is shocked.
Elise walking back home (Parking space for the buses) tracking shot from the side pillar blocking the vision, transition cut to her walking inside up the stairs still tracking from beside. Static shot of the room focus on the lamp, she walks pass the camera and puts the bag on the bed and lies down. Manually blur the focus and zoom in onto the lamp. After two seconds turn the lamp of.
3. INT. ELISE’S BEDROOM - NIGHT
In a very dark room, a light suddenly shines. She lights a candle.
WHISPERED VOICES (V.O.)
Indistinct whispers
Elise walks out of the room with the candle, searching for the voices. She walks down the creaky wooden staircase, and opens the door. She is barefoot.
4. EXT. OUTSIDE ELISE’S HOUSE - NIGHT
The wind rustles the trees. Nighttime sounds. Elise walks towards the lake. Tension builds.
WHISPERED VOICES (V.O.)
Indistinct whispers
5. EXT. AT THE LAKE - DAWN
Elise is being chased. She thinks it is by the student prefect, but they are nowhere to be seen. As she flees, branches catch in her hair. She is terrified.
6. INT. AT SCHOOL - MORNING
Elise is sat in her classroom, in a lesson. She is tired, with bags under her eyes. Her hair is disheveled. Some scratches on her arms.
TEACHER
Alright, next question, please.
Elise, how about you?
ELISE
I’m… I’m sorry, which page are we on?
The class giggles and Elise hides her head ashamedly. She feels victimised. She looks over to an empty chair, where the prefect usually sat.
TEACHER
Has anyone seen Thomas today?
Student 1
No, miss, he didn’t come to any classes this week.
The class continues, with Elise looking distracted.
7. INT. SCHOOL CORRIDOR ON WAY TO LIBRARY
As Elise enters the library, she notices a newly put-up poster on the wall. It says MISSING - THOMAS MATTHEW. REWARD FOR ANY HELP. Rips off the poster and hides it in her pocket (insert shot of her putting the poster away)
Dream shot - (verisimilitude very low) replication of ‘the ring’ a girl moving towards the camera white dress hair in front of her face. Quick cuts of her walking towards, fast montage, and breaking the chronological order of the girl moving forwards. Sudden quick cut, shaking the fence and then back to walking towards the camera fast forward, fast cut.
Truck shot from left to right slight pedestal upwards with a tilt downwards. (Main focus on the bed and the girl in bed). Cut from above pedestal going from the bottom of the bed to the top. Quick zoom in into the face, cut black screen and then the voices.
SCENE 7
Start with a gimbal shot of Elise’s back then
Diana: Hey! Elise, I’m talking to you! (Hits Elise with the bear)
You must think you’re special huh? Snitching on me in class?
Elise: What do you mean? I didn’t do anything.
Diana: Bullshit, don’t try and save face now. This little act isn’t fooling anyone. See this is the issue with people like you loners and outcasts in school, who wants every bit of praise from teachers because you don’t get it anywhere else.
You’re a loner and will always be one. Snitch on me again and I’ll make you wish you were never born.
A lot of the initial ideas became unachievable as covid started again. The area we wanted to make the drone shot was quarantined, so I adapted the beginning slightly.
Among these 4 films, Carrie and Black Swan were the most similar. For Carrie, it is similar because it's set in a Highschool and I think the quote "If they knew she had the power" was very relatable to the concept of the character Myryl and I wanted to have. As for Black Swan, we had a similarity because of the psychological theme of the film, Myryl and I also want to incorporate mental disorders. This interest was mutual because we are both psychology students and we both noticed how in a lot of films, the representation of mental illnesses is not very accurate, or sometimes the distinction of a specific mental disorder is not clearly represented in a film which leads to misinformation or stereotyping by the general public.
Theatre scene storyboard
Staircase scene
Myryl and I struggled with making our storyboard because both of us lacked the talent for drawing. Although Mr. Wunker said stickmen illustrations are fine, I believe that the stickman illustrations are too vague and not really understandable. For some of our scenes, we tried using Previs Pro, this is an app introduced to us by one of our classmates (Arina L.). I think this digital way of making our storyboard is really cool and helpful, especially for people (like Myryl and me) who are not the most talented when it comes to drawing. However, the major challenge with using this application is that you only have limited app features if you only have the free version. Although buying a subscription is possible, I think it is not the wisest decision because it's not worth it for the short time period that we'll be using it. Myryl helped with the digital visualisation of the scenes and I provided the hand drawn pictures
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