Storyboard

Scene 1

In this scene, Gary is taking Mina and her sister Christine to a friend's party, here we find that the happy occasion is almost spoiled by Gary's outburst on Mina's invite to the party, he does not believe that she ever was invited to the party as Bea is Christine's best friend. In this scene, I want to focus on the emotions felt from the characters, due to this there will be a lot of close ups where the audience is able to clearly view the character's expressions.

 Scene 2

In this scene, Mina first shows her passion for diving, as she practices in her bathtub where she submerges herself in the water. We then hear the loud arguments coming from her parents and see how the happiness from her new diving record, suddenly disappears when she hears the argument, I want to focus on this and so that is why I am doing a medium shot at the end of this scene as she sits on the top of the stairs, this will highlight her body language and facial expression.

Scene 3

In this scene, Mina has just come back home from college, she hears her parents arguing and then sees her brother at the top of the stairs and so she goes to comfort her. When the argument settles, Mina and her siblings join their parents at the dinner table. The atmosphere is quiet awkward and silent, no one knows what to say. One by one, Mina, Ben and Christine says thank you to her mother and then as Tina says "you're welcome", the scene slowly fades. In this scene, there are mainly medium shots as I want to mainly capture everyone's body language, showing whether they are scared, upset, awkward and so on.


Scene 4

In this scene, I want to create a deep connection from the characters to the audience. To do this, I will doing mainly close up shots to show the emotion the character have for one and other. The shot where Gary looks at the kettle, I will start the shot out of focus and then focus it, I plan on doing this so that it is as if it were Gary focussing on his own reflection, as a drunk person seeing things unclear.


Scene 5

In this scene, we meet Mina's friends at college and quickly learn the personalities of her friends. I am mainly doing close ups and medium shots as I feel that this will emphasise the characters feelings and body language. During this scene, the most challenging shot will be of a rain drop hitting Mina's face, this will be captured as an extreme close up, it will be tricky as I need to find a way where I am able to get above my actor and neatly focus on the rain/water droplet.


Scene 6

In this scene, Tina and Gary have another big fight which leaves Tina crying on the floor. The lighting will be darker than the rest, to almost foreshadow that the something dark will happen soon. As Mina walks to the kitchen door, I want to create that long duration feeling as that's where all the arguments happen, this will also happen as she walks away from it as well, indicating that the kitchen is like a void where bad things happen. As she walks away from the kitchen door, I want to highlight gliding her fingers over the family pictures, almost indicating that she's saying "goodbye". The steps to the bathroom will be very slow as she's taking her time, Mina will be emotionless as she does this.  

Case Study

Black boy 'tied to lamppost and whipped' at school as "mock slave auction" which was ran by white teenagers

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/black-boy-tied-lamppost-whipped-12180662
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/white-pupils-at-bath-school-tied-up-black-boy-for-mock-slave-sale-drhdlzm2x
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5496951/Seven-white-teenagers-whipped-black-pupil-mock-slave-auction.html

In this case study I will be analysing a recent story on a tragic bullying event that happened in an all boys’ school in Bath Somerset. Unfortunately, I am unable to mention the name of the school due to legal reasons and to also protect the identity of the victim of bullying.

This recent act of bullying that was reported not long ago in the Bath Chronicles, involved a group of teenage boys, who has allegedly tied up a fellow black student to a lamppost and then whipped him in a 'mock slave auction'. This story is such a disappointing and tragic story to come across, it is so sad that somehow after all the proud historic moments we celebrate such as Women's Rights, The Vote for Women, Declaration of Independence, etc. but regardless of all this effort for trying to move forwards, somehow we are also moving backwards. Why is it so difficult for many people to accept others different from themselves? Is asking for respect, asking for too much?

The key problems of this story is that seven young, well educated boys, racially abused a young black male student in a lunch break, and after being expelled by the headmaster, the school board rejected the expulsion and the punishment that was faced for the seven boys was instead, a two week exclusion. It is always disheartening to hear about stories like this where society shows that hatred for other races still exist.

Imagine coming into school one morning, thinking the day was going to be like any other day. Questioning whether you’ve done the homework done for today, thinking what you’d do for lunch? Normal, everyday things flow through your head. Little did a student know, it was not going to be like every other lunch today. This student whom I cannot name to protect his identity, was ganged up by seven of his peers, chaining him to a lamppost, whipping him with sticks and shouting racist comments at him, all to create a ‘mock slave auction’. We have little information of what happened after, but police are investigating the incident, trying to discover why those seven boys have done such a thing, and why the school governors rejected the expulsion.

After the incident, the victim’s parents did not wish to comment on what had happened to their son, but many other parents from the school and those reading the news were alarmed and outraged by the abuse committed on school grounds, during school hours. Here are a few things that some of the parents had to say:

A father of a mixed race child at the school told the Bath Chronicle that allowing the pupils to return to the school sent the wrong message. “I’ve got a mixed-race son. He’s thinking ‘they’re going to stick up for the white kids but we get in trouble if we do something wrong’,” he said.

His partner agreed, saying that she is still shocked over the message the school is showing to the other students about racism and the impact of it on the already traumatised victim. “The boy it happened to is just the sweetest little thing ever,” she said. “He’s so sweet and kind and gentle. It just makes it even worse.” She said she did not blame the perpetrators, who were “just children”, but that responsibility lay with their parents, the school and the governors. “The boys are stupid,” she said. “What they did was really, really stupid and silly. But I’m not sure if they realise what they were doing was so terrible, but it is the parents duty to ensure that their children understand the meaning of acceptance and we cannot be punished for things we cannot control.” “As a parent, my moral compass at the moment is screaming. Someone has to be held accountable for it. Someone has to say sorry.”

What is probably most disheartening to this story is that the students that were racially abusing their peer did not receive any more charges, but a few weeks exclusion, this is outrageous and shows corruption in what we thought was a peaceful and respectful community, it is up to our teachers, as the student’s leader to guide them, to show them that exception of other races is key in life, life that we aim to have. Instead, in this case, the students who racially abused their peer will be able to return and continue with what they were doing, with only having a couple of weeks of ‘exclusion’, more known as a ‘holiday’. What is stopping them from doing it again, the incidents were not taken seriously enough in my eyes, and due to this, it represents a tear in our society and shows the younger generation that it is okay to punish someone for something they cannot control.

Solutions to help this case include things like weekly of even monthly assembly’s about acceptance and its importance, in these assemblies the students could participate in different exercises where they take part in different controlled scenarios, this will allow the students to feel like the victim, thus giving them ways to prevent that kind of situation to happen to other students. The advantage to this solution is that it allows the students to understand the feeling of hurtful words and then making them more aware of their actions, physical and verbal. The only disadvantage to this is the access to space, it may not be ideal to hold whole school assemblies as this will mean that less people will get involved, ways to help this could include doing separate assemblies for each year groups in the school and timing them so that all years are given the chance to participate in this practise. It is important for the school that they are trying to rectify the situation and I feel that this is the best way in doing so. What the school needs to aim in doing is to rebuild the safe environment feeling for all cultures. The boys that were involved must also understand what they did wrong and so could receive counselling every so often to establish that connection, it also allows the teachers to monitor the students’ thoughts on the topic of racism.

To conclude this case, I believe this situation was not taken seriously enough and through the research I did from previous articles on this story shows this. We must ensure that to create a peaceful and accepting environment where our children aren’t scared to go into school due to the fear of being beaten up for being different, we must aim to create an environment where are children are encouraged to embrace their differences and thought to accept others for theirs. All and all, the solutions that I have given are definitely options in which the school should consider in order to increase their reputation for being a safe learning environment for children and young adults.

Practical/Technical Areas or Skills That I Will Be Experiment In

In this project, I will be mainly showing a combination of what I have learnt this year. But, I also want to progress from that and also experiment a little more with different styles of writing and camera shots, also with editing.

The main shots I have been thinking of doing are zoom ins and zoom outs and over the shoulder, I feel that I need to work on the control on handling the camera and the types of angle I will have them at. For example, there is a bathtub scene where I start with a  the younger version of my main character, as she submerges, I will add a dissolving transition and the older version of my main character will be seen in the bath. The aim of this is to get the transition from the two clips, as crisp as possible.

Another shot I will be experimenting with is a close up of a reflection. In the scene I'm considering to use this for is when Tina walks into the kitchen and finds that after the argument with Gary about his out of control drinking habit, she finds him still drinking. I will get this shot when Gary turns to the microwave and stares at his reflection. I will start the shot blurred and then focus it till the shot is crisp. In this shot, I want to create the illusion of the audience in Gary's head, when drunk, it rakes time for yourself to focus on something as simple as your own reflection, this will show a deeper emotion to the character due to the close up, showing Gary's detailed emotions.

The final shot I will be experimenting in is a close up birds eye view.  This shot is used in a scene where we meet Mina's friends, Jessica and Sammy. Where this shot will be used is when the girls start walking to Costa/Starbucks from school/college, Mina then feels a drop of water on her face, I want to at least get a close up of where she looks up at the sky and stops in her tracks. I feel like if I were to get a shot like this, it will create dispense and really make my film look a little more professional, and definitely show off my skills. To execute this shot, I will need to find something such as a ladder to climb onto so that I can get that birds eye view shot. I will need to ensure that whatever I am planning to use to prompt me will not be in the shot.

Another effective shot I want to experiment with is the pass by effect. I will use this in the scene where Mina gets out the bath as her brother is knocking loudly at the door for his turn. I will use the shot when Mina walks to her room as she looks pleased with herself. With this transition, it will make the change smooth and crisp.