Scrapped storyborads

Beginning my planning I do not have a dominant idea of what I want to create in terms of narrative and plot. I have theorised many scenarios through storyboarding scenes with the hopes of building inspiration for my end product.

Here are a few of the storyboards I have created:

With this first storyboard I have created test shots which I have not yet been able to film due to people not being available. However I think the idea of having a character waiting for a car to take part in a drug deal/job is something that I could include in my thriller.

This negotiation scene around a table is greatly inspired by Lee Van Clef's first scene in the Good the Bad and the Ugly. I would love to revive some conventions from the Spaghetti Western genre and think that I will look further into this in later storyboards.

Again, a storyboard inspired by 60's/70's Westerns. A possible follow up to my first storyboard.

I have considered featuring each of these scenes in 3 acts: job brief, capture, job. However I am unsure if fitting 3 scenes would be possible with the limited 5 minute runtime.

Full storyboard (draft 1)

Establishing shot featuring both Jamie and Jimmy standing in the middle of a road

Medium shot of both Jamie and Jimmy (dialogue starts)

Continuous shot, quick pans between medium shots of each character

Continuous shot ends

Cut in shot, closeup pov shot of gun

Medium shot of Jamie and Jimmy

Winston opens door and walks towards Jamie and Jimmy

Wide shot encompassing all characters in scene

Shot-reverse-shots between dialogue

Cut in shot

Tracking shot of Jamie pulling out gun

Tracking over-the-shoulder shot

Over-the-shoulder shot

Straight cuts between short closeups of each character, building tension

Jimmy pulls knife

Pan in on face

Fade out

Storyboard 1st sequence

For my opening scene I took inspiration from establishing shots from 'Topboy' and a dialogue scene from 'Pulp Fiction' as I lacked initial ideas. Each shot uses low-key-lighting and is used to establish a location/character(s). I hoped that by combining multiple filming styles I could be inspired to create something new, furthering my understanding of what I wanted to make.

After drawing each frame and adding some labels I had a classmate review my storyboard and advise me on what improvements to make. He noted that I should add more labels to give more specific detail to each individual shot and their transitions. However I have not yet included shot times due to the fact I don't know how long my short films will be, and need to think of pace once I know the plot and begin sequencing.

After drawing out this first scene I decided to ask Ashley, a friend in my media class, what he thought of it. He responded by complimenting the visual representation, but said that in order to improve I must add more notes about editing and shot types. I may change the location of this sequence once I have location scouted, but I would like to keep most shots the same.

Poster concept

As part of my research I analysed various movie posters from the crime thriller genre. Therefore I was able to create a template which would set me up for a poster including some of the conventions featured in thriller posters. Unfortunately I am still lacking in a move title and photographs of my actors, so I can not yet finish this poster. This poster will be completed once the headshots are taken and title is chosen.

Main influences

I have decided to take aspects from various filming styles and genres to create my short film. Respectively, the two most significant genres being crime and western, as I find those most thrilling.



The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Sergio Leone)
Snatch is a Spaghetti Western that is highly regarded as one of the best westerns of all time. Having grown up watching Sergio Leone's films, a lot of my knowledge of building tension has come from his films. The most significant scene being the Mexican standoff towards the end of 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'.

Snatch (Guy Ritchie)
I consider Guy Ritchie the king of British crime-thrillers, iconically combining both humour and action to create unexpectedly thoroughly enjoyable scenarios.

Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)
I personally find that this 1995 thriller features aspects from both the western and crime-thriller genre very heavily. Shots and dialogue both build the tone in scenes to create a suspense as well as entertainment.
I wish to use similar shots for pure dialogue scenes in order to make them more eventful than a typical dialogue scene in Hollywood drama's.