GOALS: to learn how to storyboard the opening of a movie; to learn how to learn from other movie techniques; to learn some tricks from old movies.
TASK: Watch the beginning of the Naked Kiss:
What makes this an effective opening? What could be improved?
Now storyboard the opening sequence of a movie in which the main character, who seems stereotypically weak and vulnerable, hits another character, robs them, reveals something about their identity; in order to do this sketch out a scenario for the whole movie, using the “hamburger” model and considering the film’s genre, then work on the beginning. Use ‘The Naked Kiss’ as a model but improve it by using more interesting camera angles (e.g. overhead shots), changing the mis-en-scene, the characters (e.g. a small person and a big person).
So on your blog do a post which includes these things:
- My outline of the whole film:
Genre: - Location:
- Casting:
- Equipment needed for shoot:
- Lighting:
- Shooting script:
Main characters: - What I hope to achieve with the opening:
- Mis-en-scene:
- Camera angles:
Sound: diegetic and non-diegetic.
Storyboard: take a picture of your storyboard. It should be detailed, including length of shots, sound, camera angles etc.
Gilbert's Media Studies blog 