Movies and Screenplays that Influenced My Work on My Own Storyboard

My chosen brief was to establish and develop a single character. The protagonist I used was female and I decided to develop this character. The screenplay and storyboard I created called ‘Apart’ is about the loss of a relationship and the reminiscent aspect people go through during break ups. It parallels the realistic struggle people go through when looking back on memories; they cannot separate the idea of missing the memories or missing the actual person.

A recital of ‘Roads Go Ever On’ by J.R.R Tolkien plays on top of all the clips. This is a poem about letting go of a person in your life and understanding that everything still carries on, no matter what happens. My work also has a closed resolution and the audience understand that Liza has finally moved past everything and is on her way to better things and adventures. My work is made in Liza’s point of view and my main aim was to create a sense of nostalgia for the audience and have them relate to what she goes through as a young adult. I also wanted to create an aesthetic similar to ‘High Maintenance’ by Philip Van and ‘I Miss You’ by The Beyond Project.

I was heavily inspired a few short films. The first being ‘High Maintenance’ by Philip Van. I particularly enjoyed and was inspired by the vintage aesthetic of the film, the heavy focus on the artistic aspect of it and how it was shot. There was also a lot stifled dialogue which added a lot of meaning. In it, there is a clear separation between the two characters who are in a relationship; they are both formal and tense with each other and Phillip Van entertains the idea that women are much more emotionally invested in relationships with men.

Another short film I was very much influenced by was ‘I Miss You’ by The Beyond Project. I was inspired more so by this short film rather than the first in the sense of artistic choice. I liked the use of a voiceover, rather than a typical film full of dialogue. ‘I Miss You’ mirrors my work in the sense that both are purely and only from one character’s perspective, which helps everything flow more easily. Something that heavily impacted my work from both shorts was that they were shot very creatively which encourages an emotional response from the audience, while it is passively watched. This inspiration can be seen in my work as in my storyboard, some of the shots are pans, close ups, ground level shots and medium shots. There is also a lot of handheld camerawork to convey a sense of heightened nostalgic emotion, for example, in shot fifteen and twenty. It is just like a home-made film, where friends are messing around together during their coming of age. This can be seen through some of the shots being slightly blurry showing it is an amateur video a friend had shot.

‘Curfew’ by Shawn Christensen impacted my work as, in the dynamic of two people in the film, one is less emotional in the situation and has almost completely cut off feeling anything towards the other. My work clearly parallels this as one character is more emotionally invested than the other. Also, similar to the child and adult in Curfew, my characters articulate their thoughts in a similar way; Liza saying anything that comes to her mind (like the child) and Sarah carefully choosing what she says (like the adult). ‘La Jetee’ by Chris Marker inspired my idea of doing a montage sequence, however instead of a photo montage, I chose to do a video montage. I loved the intensity of emotion in this short film and wanted to try to emulate this. The binary opposition of past and future helped me come up with adding the binary opposition of past and present in my screenplay and storyboard. All of these shorts play around with the theme of surrealism and this can also be seen in my storyboard when using the same actor to portray three versions of herself.

My screenplay sets out an initial premise through the first black screen which has ‘according to a study by David McCandless, one of the times breakups most frequently happen is during the summer holidays. Students are the highest demographic that tend to break up around this time as their summers symbolise and are the start of new chapters in their lives’ written on it. This establishes it will be about a breakup between two people. Rather than a typical way of telling a story through a series of dramatised incidents, I chose to tell a story through a voiceover and short scenes put together as it makes it more atypical and individualistic. The flashbacks and voiceover are thematically and narratively relevant and add to the premise set at the beginning of the screenplay. The linear storytelling contradicts the playing around with temporal duration through flashbacks; the voice over is in present, however the scenes are in the past. Both characters serve strong and clear roles and feeds the passive audience. The dialogue at the beginning of the screenplay is deliberately not stylised to add to the realism I tried to establish.

The descriptions of characters, stage directions and what is happening are clear and evocative so there is no confusion and it can be understood clearly. The screenplay mainly being from Liza’s point of view and the personified inner dialogue at the beginning creates a heightened sense of identification with this character and the audience can be seen as a mirror to her as everyone knows and understands the feeling of loss, whether it be romantic or not. It is assumed the audience have gone through a similar conflict within themselves. The dialogue is somewhat idiosyncratic through the second and third Liza at the start of the screenplay which adds to an atypical aspect of the screenplay.

I was inspired by a few particular screenplays also. The ‘Boyhood’ screenplay by Richard Linklater was inspirational in terms of the dialogue. “I figured out where wasps come from/Oh yeah, where?” It is very natural and conversational and so I decided to go along with the theme of being naturalistic in dialogue. ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ screenplay by Steve Conrad also helped me with the dialogue I wrote. In each scene, there is always one character talking much more than the other and so I decided to portray this through Liza. “I'm Chris Gardner. I met my father for the first time when I was 28 years old.

And I made up my mind as a young kid...that when I had children...my children were gonna know who their father was. This is part of my life story.” Damien Chazelle’s ‘Whiplash’ screenplay is very descriptive in terms of characters and establishing setting. “A cavernous space. Sound-proofed walls. And in the center, a DRUM SET. Seated at it, in a sweat-marked white T, eyes zeroed on his single-stroke roll, is ANDREW NEIMAN.” In my screenplay, there is always a heavy description of the setting in a new scene and it tends to mirror the mood, atmosphere and the Liza’s emotions.

I purposefully made all of the shots that were in the past warm toned. This created a sense of love, trust and safety. All of the shots taken while the different versions of the same actor talk, have a blue hue and are cool toned, connoting a sense of separation, disparity and isolation. The storyboard and screenplay have a linear time frame which encourages a passive audience as most things have a surface level value and can be taken in directly and as it is shown; there is no need to critique and interpret. An aesthetic binary opposition is the clothes Liza and Sarah wear. The dynamic between these two characters and their relationship with each other can be seen through how they dress themselves around each other. Liza wears much more comfortable, lounging clothes, whereas Sarah cares much more about what she is wearing; Liza is much more comfortable and settled in the relationship, whereas Sarah is more cautious and still is somewhat more formal than Liza.

This can also be portrayed through the dialogue in the screenplay in the beginning. Sarah has some type of guard up and is much less emotional than Liza. Phillip Van’s intention in ‘High Maintenance’ was to do a take on some of the robotic and mechanic relationships that sometimes can happen, where nothing is particularly wrong but either one or both lose interest in each other. It was also a take on the power dynamic that happens in romantic relationships. My work mirrors this narrative aspect as Sarah has a clear superiority to an extent as she has a hold over Liza’s emotions; Sarah is much more mundane and objective towards the situation at the beginning.

My targeted audience would be young adults; around the age of 16 and above. I believe this is the perfect audience for my work as they are more likely to relate to the meaning and depth and can feel nostalgic towards similar things that have happened in their lives. The two main spectatorship theories my work follows is the ‘Hypodermic Syringe Model’ and the ‘Idealised Mirror Self.’ The Hypodermic Syringe Model imagines the film audience as passive. In this theory, the messages and meaning of the film are direct. The Idealised Mirror Self theory is about how a cinema screen acts as a ‘mirror’ to the spectator. We are focused entirely on the action on the screen, we create an idealised character on the screen. Both theories encourage a passive audience who enjoy everything directly shown to them.

To conclude, I believe I met my aims most successfully through dialogue, mise-en-scene and aesthetics. These help with subliminal tellings to the audience and create shifts in tones and moods. I also believe I met my brief of establishing and developing a single character as the character changes and grows. However, I would like to improve on the cinematography as I believe the lighting could have been used in a much better way, for example using chiaroscuro in the opening scene to really showcase what was happening with Liza and her thoughts.

The composition of some of the shots in my storyboard could also be much better. For example, in shot nine and ten, I could have used a grid so I could angle and frame the shots in a more professional manner. If I had been more daring in my choices, I believe it would make my work must more stylised and individualistic.