My Title

Since the beginning, I have known that I want to call my film Close Encounter. The name of the film opening gives a sort of false sense of security. When watching the opening, I want the audience to think the girl will get away, but she doesn't, so it makes the watchers want to keep on watching, as the suspense has been built up. The title also sounds very fast paced and on edge, as the film will be.

Previous Films

Today I spent the day with Mariana to watch some previous films from the past year AICE students just to really get a feel of how much story I have to fit in two minutes. A lot of the films were really eye opening, it was really great how they fit so much story into only two minutes. I know I can do it. I am going to start my movie with a close up of Mariana watching the television, but it will seem eerie due to her only watching a white screen with white noise. She will receive a call from a man who tells her to hide a case because, he's coming (the antagonist). She places the case in a secure location and hides herself as the door slowly opens. The man immediately knows where the briefcase is before supposedly leaving and shutting the door. The girl steps out of her hiding place and tries to call her father before we see her being taken.

Thats the synopsis I have only for right now, I know I will be behind on filming due to next week being Spring break and I will be going up north, so I will work on outfits for Mariana and the script. 

The Main Lady

Alright so I found the actress to play my protagonist! This is Mariana Aguilar, a junior at my school. She has never really done anything like this but I believe in her and know that she will do the part justice. I've told her the premise of the film and we have agreed that it should go great (hah I hope!). We are planning to meet later this week and watch some other film openings to see how they go.

Group Discussions

In class today, all the students connected to groups to help each other and really find out where they wanted to go with their project, whether it be a film opening or a magazine layout. when discussing my project, I found that I am going to completely shift gears with the direction of my film opening. Rather than have my protagonist unaware, and scared, she will now be ready for what is happening, and understand the implications of her actions. She will be attentive to everything that is happening until the last moments when she is taken.

So that is all I have for now, I am calling a little behind on my timeline  but hopefully I will be able to catch up!

Storyboard 2

Alright so I finished my second half of the storyboarding and I am ready to share it with everyone!

In the fourth frame (following last post), we find the intruder going up the steps to search the house upstairs.  I want to show some extreme close ups of the male antagonist without showing who he is, maybe his eyes, his feet shuffling up the stairs, his hands on the handrails. I really want to keep him hidden from view the entire film opening.

The fifth frame shows the man running around the house, looking through closets and rooms trying to find the protagonist. I want to do this in a POV shot mixed with close ups to show his perspective running around the house in order to build suspense (obviously there will be creepy music and stings for sound).

The sixth frame takes place in the girls bedroom where the girl is hiding (she will be under the bed). we see now through her eyes the man walking around in her room. She closes her eyes in relief after she think he walks out. the shot I want to end the film with will be her being dragged from under the bed.

Storyboard 1

I found a really great website that is super helpful with storyboarding. The website allows you to choose a setting and then add characters in whatever way you want, with so many options, it was very simple and friendly for me to make a storyboard for my own film opening. I did not have a lot of time so I could only make half of my slides for my storyboard.

 

In the first frame, the main protagonist will be at home during the night alone either watching TV or on her computer doing schoolwork. Through editing and filming techniques, an emphasis will be placed on the fact that she is all alone in that house, and she feels to a certain extent, vulnerable.

The second frame revolves around the intruder invading her home, In the film, his full body will never be shown, the viewers will see how he enters the house with ease, indicating that he is a family friend or someone the girl trusts. 

In the third frame, we see that the protagonist is aware of an intruder, but she does not know who it is. She is shown running upstairs to go hide from the man, full of fear as to what will happen next. 

Hopefully my next half of the storyboard will be up in the next day or two!