Project storyboard

 Hey, my gorgeous readers! The planning is getting real... we have finally moved on to drawing our storyboard for the film opener, and I wanted to share a peek at it with you guys. This storyboard is essentially our whole vision, shot by shot, of our ideas. 

In box 1, it all starts on the beach at sunset. The first drawing is a wide shot of us (the three friends) from behind. We are holding hands, looking out at the horizon and the sea. It is just our backs and the vast ocean. Then, in box 2, we drew an arrow to represent an arc shot. The camera arcs around us. The sketch shows our faces from the front just as we release the ashes in the urn. You can now also see our expressions and the raw emotions we are all individually feeling. The city skyline and the tops of the buildings are visible in the background of this shot. 

In box 3, however, there is a flashback to us being in our friend's bedroom, specifically the friend who is dying or about to die (Jahzara). In this box, it is a medium full shot of the bedroom. You can see our dying friend in bed, her mom sitting beside her, and the three of us gathered around. The drawing shows two light sources, one of them being the soft, warm natural light from the window. The other being the harsh, cold lines of the ceiling fluorescent light above the bed. This clash represents the moment of natural warmth in love and memory vs the artificial cold reality of sickness and illness. In boxes 4 and 5, we drew the same bedroom scene or setting to show a time-lapse montage. This montage is a fade out of the characters as they leave the room. In box 4, the 'party' friend gives a final goodbye and leaves with the mom first. Then, in box 5, the mediator leaves more slowly and looks back, but eventually leaves as well. In the 6th box, however, the depressed friend is left alone in the room for a final intimate moment of sadness. In this box, there is a close-up of the depressed friend's face. It shows a tear drop streaming down her face. In addition, this box shows dimmer lighting to represent the sadness of the atmosphere. 

Then, in box 7, there is a harsh smash cut from the quiet bedroom to the first day of school. The sound of a loud school bell punches us into the scene. In other words, we used the sound of the bell ringing as a transition from the flashback to the future or present day. Box 7 is a scene of students walking up their staircase to their class. Likewise, in box 8, it cuts to a point-of-view shot from Ngoc's perspective (the mediator) in her 5th-period class. Class has just started, and everyone is settling in and choosing their seats. Then, in box 9, from Ngoc's POV still, the camera pans across the classroom. In this sketch, it lands on the party friend. She is already sitting down, laughing and giggling loudly with a whole new group of people. She is fully immersed in her own thing, acting like it is just any other day, as if her best friend had not just died. In box 10, without cutting, the camera pans further. It is a drawing that shows the depressed friend. She is sitting alone at a desk by the window, just staring blankly, and has shut off from the noise. Box 11 shows Ngoc walking over and sitting down next to her depressed friend. She asks the depressed friend what is wrong, but the friend doesn't even look up. She is simply staring off into space, too lost in her own sadness to even hear the question. Last but not least is box 12, which exits from Ngoc's POV and enters into a close-up of her face instead as she sits at the desk. She is not looking at either friend anymore, rather, she is staring straight ahead to the front of the class. Her expression is a mix of sadness and exhaustion. She is starting to realize that the friend group is crumbling and broken, and has no idea how to fix it. 

That is where our movie opener plans to end. This ending is similar to a cliffhanger that opens the chapter at the beginning of a story.