Ideas for First 2 Minutes

Storyboard Ideas for Just a Girl

Starts off with a split screen, of two girls waking up in bed. The fact that they’re really different is going to be highlighted obviously by the scenery, with one girl’s bedroom being covered in pink, really girly, whereas the other girls will be tomboyish and full with darker tones.
 

Camera is going to follow the girls through their morning routines, continuing with the split screen, with the two girls in their own bathrooms, and then the camera will switch, as if the camera is the mirror that the girls are looking at, and even more contrast will be created here because we’ll show the girly girl putting on loads of makeup and grooming herself extensively, whereas the tomboy will just wash her face, poke at it a bit, huff and then walk out of the room. (We’ll show the two girls walking out of their bathrooms so they’ll exit on opposite sites of the screens.) Before the girls walk out, when they’re brushing their teeth, and spit into the sink, in the whirlpool that’s created by the water paired with the suds we’re going to write our names and the casting members. I think that we need to make it obvious to the audience that these two girls are complete opposites right from the start, as this’ll give an indication of how the film is going to go, and it’s going to help the audience identify that these two girls are the main characters. I think that showing their routine in the morning will help the audience familiarise themselves with the characters and connect with them.

We’ll show them eating breakfast, and leaving the house, making their way to school. The split screen will stop there, and we’ll change to a POV shot, from the tomboy girls perspective. She’ll be nearly at school, and see her crush. She’ll get caught up in the moment watching him, and then freeze as he makes his way towards her grinning. I think that at this point we should edit this scene so her crush is walking in slow motion, with ‘Take My Breath Away’ by Berlin playing in the background to add humour. She’ll start grinning and smiling and blushing, and then her crush will brush past her and head towards the girly girl and will put his arm around her.

The tomboy, still in a daze, will get shoved/jostled by a crowd of passing yr 7’s and fall into a huge puddle of mud.

Ideas for Film Outline

Film Outline for Just A Girl

-Girls of two different types wake up and carry out their daily routine

-Tomboy girl sees crush at school and starts blushing etc.

-He brushes past her and goes over to the girly girl

-It becomes apparent that the tomboy is quite unlucky and unpopular

- Girly girl is mean to the tomboy, her and her friends make fun of her, but her crush feels bad for her

-They end up being seated together in a class (maybe English, reading Romeo and Juliet)

-Boy starts to like her, girly girl sees and acts even meaner to the tomboy

-An embarrassing picture of the girly girl picking gum off of lampposts and barriers gets spread around the school and she runs off in mortification, never to be seen again.

Overall Film Plot Ideas

A)     Personal outline of the plot:

·         Two girls waking up in rooms – different Mise-En-Scene. Both doing daily routine before leaving for school. But very different showing juxtaposition of both characters.

·         Arriving at school establishing a location. The ‘popular’ girl Charlie Blair (perhaps) has all her group of friends. Full make-up, nice bag and in fashionable clothes.

·         Other girl arriving at school. Completely invisible pushed around by younger years. No effort made and dated clothes. (Perhaps named Lauren Ring).

·         Enters new character: SETH SCOTT. The ‘jock’ popular boy with good looks, good grades, single and from a very prosperous, wealthy and famous family in the area. A rather disliked family because of there over wealth and snobbery towards society.

·         The problem of the story starts when both girls want him. But only one can have him. The favoured girl to win him over is evidently Charlie Blair rather than the ‘lonely girl’.

·         Charlie sets Lauren up when Charlie leads her on to record a short journal about the Scott’s (Seth’s family) which was ultimately the truth about what people perceive when thinking of the Scott’s but was never said out loud especially not by a high school student who is supposedly in lover with the privileged son of the Scott family. This was written by Charlie as a set up. However, no one would believe Lauren when she denies that she wrote it when blaming Charlie Blair.

·         They battle him over at a party when Charlie reveals the untrue journal that Lauren Ring was set up to do Charlie has set her up and turned Seth against Lauren Ring. Leading him to think she is the villain rather than the real villain: Charlie Blair.

·         Charlie and Seth start a ‘happy’ relationship and Lauren Ring is feeling sorry for herself more than ever. Respect is lost from her by everyone and Seth and Lauren are not on good terms. Charlie pretends to be her kind and sweet self.

·         Lauren tries to change herself to be noticed and possible win over Seth. This only leads to laughter and a ‘changed’ Lauren which Seth lost respect for.

·         Graduation ball approaches and here the problem is solved. The tape is revealed being filmed a year before of Charlie reading it out to a local journalist.

·         Seth realises that Lauren was always the victim and he was mistake.

·         The film ends on a happy note of Lauren going back to her normal/real self and her and Seth being reunited together. 

·         Charlie continues her hate towards Lauren but remains the same.

·         The film is ended on a happy note where the villain gets what she deserves.

Ideas for First Two Minutes

B) Personal storyboard:

(First 60 seconds) Presented as a split screen. Two different actions and locations portrayed at the same time.

1.       Long shot in two bedrooms of two girls in bed turning alarm off.

2.       Fade in to new location in Point Of View shot (POV) of mirrors perspective looking at two girls brushing teeth – Mid shot.

3.       Close up – of water and tooth paste falling down the drain with the cast names falling down as well.

4.       Medium-close-up of two girls doing make-up and hair. (Shows juxtaposition of the two girls’ routines).

5.       Close up of shoes put on.

6.       Cross-fade into normal camera view of just on shot on screen. Split screen OVER.

7.       Long shot of journey of both girls. The transportation mode is in the shot. One in a BMW and other riding her bike.

8.       Low angle shot of car wheels of BMW. Series of different shots including POV shot, low angle and high angle used for other girls journey on her bike.

(Quick fade in into different locations on camera).

9.       BLACK OUT – Music ends and dialogue begins. Ambient sound and diegetic sounds present because in high school.

10.   Long-shot of both girls on either side of the camera (edge of the frame shot). Walking towards the camera and camera also moves backwards as if camera moves with them.

11.   SETH walks as if he was walking towards Lauren and walks straight passed her to Charlie. This is done as a POV shot of Lauren’s Point of View of the scene. It portrays how she perceives Seth and how she handles situations like these.

12.   This scene finishes with Lauren walking in a door as she is still day dreaming of Seth. This is still done as POV and the door slams straight into her face and metaphorically ‘closes the first scene of the film’ and turns to a fade to black showing the audience this first chapter introducing the main characters is over.

 

During the first 6 bullet points during the split screen shooting non-diegetic music of a girly soundtrack will be present whilst the two girls are getting ready. Diegetic sounds of their alarm and the utensils used to get ready will be present to add more realism. From 7 to 10 bullet points the music will stop and dialogue will start. Lots of diegetic sounds of cars, rain and children’s voices will be present. Perhaps small glimpses of music will be used when certain characters are on camera to show their significance. Synchronous sound will be used to show this and link a character with a specific song that may describe their character well just by using a certain type of music.

 

Ideas for First Two Minutes of Film

Just a Girl – Storyboard

1.       Split screen- close up of two alarm clocks either side of the screen-one pink and fluffy, other formal- both bleeping showing the same time.

2.       Close up of two alarms on split screen being turned off by two different girls-close up of the hands.

3.       Mid-shot of both girls climbing out of bed and as girls are walking to the bathroom tracking shot will be used to follow them.

4.       As girls are over the sink – close up of their faces

5.       POV shot- what girls see in the mirror

6.       Close up of girl's faces when brushing teeth

7.       Close up and POV shot into sink when girls spit toothpaste-in the sink a credit will appear then spin and disappear into plughole.

8.       Low angle shot when both girls are walking down the stairs

9.      Tracking shot is used when both girls walk into the kitchen, close up on the toast the pick up

10.  Tracking shot as girls walk out of the front door

11.  Split screen is stopped here- Girly girl meets one of her friends –walk and talk scene is used here – Graphic match is used when geeky girl is walking to school but she is alone

12.  Establishing shot of school

13.  Mid- shot of geeky girl walking into school and walk and talk scene of girly girl and her friends

14.  Pov shot from geeky girl's point of view showing boy walking towards her

15.  Close up if geeky girl's face

16.  Close up of boys face

17.  Pov shot as boy walks past geeky girl to girly girl as this happens Arc shot is used

18.  Two shot as boy and girly girl hug

19.   Close up of geeky girl's face to show disappointment

Ideas for Film Outline

Just a Girl- film plot

·         The film begins with both main characters, shown on a split screen, waking up and getting ready for school. As they wake up both girls will reach for their alarm clocks at the same time, these alarm clock will show what the girls characteristics are as one will have a fluffy, pink, girly alarm and the other will have a plain, formal alarm clock. They will both be doing things like washing their face and brushing their teeth, but the ‘girly- girl’ will also be putting on makeup, while the ‘geeky-girl’ will be just be putting on her glasses. All these things are used to highlight the fact that these girls are significantly different.

·          While this is happening no dialogue will take place and non-diegetic music will play, because our film is a chic-flick, we are using pop music to help the audience relate to a teenagers world.

·         The next part will show both girls walking in to school, and this will be the first moment we see the love interest of both girls. The boy will look like he’s walking towards the ‘geeky-girl’ when really he is walking towards the ‘girly, popular, girl’ because the ‘geeky girl’ is watching the boy she cannot see that she is about to walk into a younger student, who she knocks into and falls over, in front of the ‘girly-girl’ and the boy.

·         During school there are several classroom scenes and a lunchtime scene where it shows that the ‘girly-girl’ and the ‘geeky-girl’ do not get on.

·         During the school scenes we also see that the ‘geeky-girl’ likes the boy. The relationship between the two of them grows when the boy is seated next to the girl in English.

·         As the relationship between both of them develops the ‘girly-girl’ starts to notice and begins to become jealous and angry. She decides to get revenge and to make the ‘geeky-girls’ life hell. She goes to confront the ‘geeky-girl’ outside school with a group of her friends. During the argument the ‘girly-girl’ pushes the ‘geeky-girl’ in the road at the same time as a car is speeding along. The car hits the geeky- girls and she gets knocked to the floor. The girly-girl is in shock and runs away. The man in the car gets out helping the girl and is very distressed.

·         The next scene is the ‘geeky-girl’ waking up in a hospital bed; she is severely injured, can’t remember anything from the accident, and needs to learn how to walk again. Suddenly, when it is visitor’s hour, the boy turns up and wants to help her with her recovery. He comes to the hospital, talking to her, and helping her through the steps of walking again.

·         When finally the girl comes out of hospital, the boys asks the girl if he could take her on dates and spend more time with her, she says yes, and their relationship begins.

·         When they both go back to school they discover that the ‘girly- girl’ has been having a really hard time, she has fallen out with all of her friends due to her pushing the ‘geeky-girl’ in the road. It is clear that she has changed and is very apologetic to the ‘geeky-girl’, she hopes that they can be friends as she now realises what it was like for the ‘geeky-girl’. Being so nice, the ‘geeky-girl accepts the girls apology and says that they can start over

·         The last scene shows both girls waking up again like they did in the first scene, although they are still different as the ‘geeky-girl’ opens her door to go to school, the ‘girly-girl’ is there waiting to walk to school with her.

Value of Research So Far

Research for Film

When watching the first two minutes of films, we found that many film use non-diegetic music playing in the background to help set the scene, the pace and give the audience an idea of what the film is going to be like. In ‘Little miss Sunshine’ and ‘Friends with Benefits’ non- diegetic music is used. In ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ emotional, inspirational music is played showing that the film will be emotional. With ‘Friends with Benefits’, fast paced music is played in the first two minutes to show that the characters are rushing about, and that this film  Due to this being effective, we are hoping to use non-diegetic in our devised film. As the film is going to be a chic-flick, we are going to use music in the pop genre, to show that it is a film about teenagers. At the beginning of ‘Friends with Benefits’ it is showing two different characters stories and two different conversations. It switches from character to character to show both stories. We want our film to involve two different stories so we are going to have two different stories from two girls, getting ready for school, and this is going to emphasise how different the girls are. This is going to be slightly different from ‘Friends with Benefits’ because instead of switching the scene to character to character, the screen is going to be split to show both girls at the same time, this will fully show the difference between the girls.

Most of the opening sequence for ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ is a close up of the main character to show her features, how she’s not particularly the skinniest, prettiest little girl, and highlighting the fact that she is quite geeky by showing her glasses. When our two main characters are getting ready for school, we will use close ups to show the girls features so the audience can understand what the characters will be like and to familiarise the audience with the characters.

The Others had clever opening credits, having the credits appear in front of illustrated images. We have decided to use credits in the first two minutes of our film. These credits will go on when both girls are getting ready for school and when there is no dialogue and non-diegetic music is playing. The credits will be used cleverly like the ones in The Others, for example one idea for the credits will be when the girls spit their toothpaste into the sink this will turn into a credit will spin round the sink and go down the plughole.