Storyboarding

Reasons why a storyboard is an essential part of the film-making process

• It allows the director to visualise all the shots and scenes they want to appear on the screen in the movie.
• It makes it easier to see whether the director's ideas will work on screen when the script is broken down into parts and put on the storyboard.
• It helps the director to make important decisions like how the shots are sequenced, the movement of the actors, and the lighting and camera directions.
• It illustrates how the story will flow between shots when the audience watches the finished film.
• It is a basis for discussion between the film director and the director of photography to decide how each shot will be acted, lit and shot.
• Storyboards on the whole make it much easier to show visual and dramatic ideas.

P is for ‘Psycho’

a) What is happening in the opening sequence of the film?

In the opening sequence, firstly we see a toilet door with low key lighting, then the shot mixes into a low angle of a man’s legs indoors somewhere. The camera then tilts upwards to show the man’s top half at a low angle, and he is bent over a sink. It then cuts to a high angle close-up shot of various objects, including a watch, a wallet and a photograph, and the camera very slowly pans from left to right across these objects. We then see a close-up of a plug hole with blood flowing round and down into the sink, then it cuts to show another close-up, making the scene seem very tense and claustrophobic, this time of the man’s hand wrapping a bandage around his other hand. We assume that it is his blood running down the sink. It then cuts to a close-up mirror image of his clenched fist, wrapped in bandage, then the camera tilts up to finally reveal the man’s face, adding to the tension and mystery of the scene. The man’s head turns quickly and the shot blurs, then we hear the sound of a door opening, suggesting that there is someone entering the bathroom who will soon come face to face with this wounded man. We then see a mid-shot of a boy entering the room, then cut to the man tucking a gun into his belt, making us even more suspicious and frightened of this man. There is then a shadowy ECU of the man’s eyes, making him seem very creepy and menacing, and then he says, “Bad move, kid.” The scene then fades to black before a pause, then we hear two loud ‘BANG!’ noises, leaving the audience to guess that the man has shot this poor, innocent boy.

b) How is the narrative flow established?

The scene uses a large variety of close-ups and mid-shots to make it seem diverse and to keep it snappy and interesting. There are a lot of close-ups, and one extreme close-up, to create intensity and to make the viewer seem right in the middle of the action, and to add mystery as we often can’t see the whole picture of what’s going on. There are quite a lot of simple cuts to keep the sequence fast-paced and exciting, plus some slower tilts that create suspense as we wait for the camera to reveal whatever it is revealing. The shots are all in chronological order and happening in real time, so there is no jumping between different times or places. We are deliberately not shown what has happened to the man before he enters the bathroom, so the audience is left guessing.

c) If you were directing this sequence, what aspects of the storyboard would you like to change?

I think that I would change the ‘very slow’ pan across the objects into a quick flash of each object, as that would keep up with the fast pace of the sequence and waste less screen time. I don’t really see any reason to show all of his belongings so slowly, and I think it would create more confusion to the viewers if each object were just to be shown separately and very quickly, which is what I would what them to feel. At the end, I think it would be more effective if, instead of just fading to black, the camera showed the outside toilet door again, similar to the very first shot, and then we heard the ‘BANG’ noises from out there, as it would nicely link to the beginning of the sequence and would be more effective from the viewer’s point of view than just a black screen. I think maybe the main man should look a little more shifty and suspicious in his actions, as he seems a bit too calm in the sequence, so personally I would make his actions more urgent and purposeful. This would also speed up the pace and make it seem more action-packed and tense.