Script and Storyboard

Here is the progress of our script and storyboard for the documentary project.

Script:

Here is the screenplay and script that my team and I worked together to make. 

Reflection:

I think that for our first time making a script, this was a pretty solid attempt. There was a lot of unprofessional sounding words since we made this in quite a hurry trying to finish it to quickly start the recording process. For some parts especially the interview, we chose to write "improvise" because we recognized that the scene would flow much more naturally and better if we just let the actor improvise. If we set a detailed script for the interview, there was a chance that the acting would be stiff due to having to say the lines word for word. I think that this worked out very well as the acting came out naturally. Our biggest problem was writers block because at some point, we got stuck because we didn't know which idea we should commit to. In the end, we finished the script in the middle of the recording process, deciding to just follow the flow instead. This was a great idea because in the end, we gained the inspiration we needed and we finally finished the script!

Storyboard:

The storyboard for this project was made by both me and Rachelle. I had the task to draw the storyboard for the scenes 2, 3, and half of scene 5. Rachelle drew scene 1, 4, and the other half of scene 5. In addition to that, Rachelle helped to annotate the storyboard.

Here is the first draft storyboard that I made for scene 2. I made this sketch very quickly in just a few minutes after arriving at Jocelyn's house and reviewing the script. Since the script wasn't too clear, I decided to draw this draft storyboard so we could try acting it out with test shots before Rachelle has to do the final recreation shot with her as Harper's actor.

After testing out the shots, we realized that there were a couple flaws to the storyboard draft I made. Firstly, in the draft storyboard I drew the bag being thrown onto the couch immediately as Harper's actor walks into the room. While trying to act out this scene, we actually found that it was impossible to place the bag down like this. Instead, we revised it and made it so that Harper's actor would place the bag down with both hands slowly while sighing in order to give a more realistic effect of her being tired after coming home from school. Other than that, the scene with the opening of the laptop was also something we had to modify. Me and Jocelyn felt that if we decided to film it from a POV camera angle, it would seem to be disconnected. To make the scene feel more cohesive, we decided to just shoot from a medium close-up angle from behind, showing Harper's actor entering the scene to open the laptop to make it seem like it didn't come from nowhere. I think that these changes were actually really good and it will make it much more easier for Rachelle to understand when the time comes for her to act out this scene.

The fixed and final version of this part of the storyboard and the scenes I changed accordingly can be seen in scenes 2.2 to 2.5.

Storyboard:

Here is the final version of the entire storyboard compiled into one with annotations. 

Reflection:

As seen in the storyboard, the parts I drew are the ones in blue while the ones Rachelle did are in black. The process for the storyboard was quite fun because it involved me taking the script and observations of the environment for the shooting (Jocelyn's house) and making visual representations of how it could work in real life through illustrating it. I also got to experiment by trying the scenes out in real life to make sure that they would work realistically. I really liked having the chance to do trial and error because it helped me see what parts of the storyboard I had to revise and why. I also got to discuss with my teammates about this and they helped me film the ideas that I drew and had in mind. It was fun to see that my storyboard could actually translate into something similar in the real attempts at recording the scenes. Since the time frame was quite limited though, we unfortunately were unable to add to much detail into our storyboard such as having proper clean lines, colors and a lot of annotations but we did try to make the storyboard as clear as possible so that it could be understood by the actors and cameramen.

One limitation was that since I had to work with Rachelle, I had to wait until she was done with her storyboard to be able to annotate my parts for the storyboard. However, to just make it more consistent we both decided that Rachelle should just compile all the pieces of the storyboard and also annotate some of the clips just to make it easier and just to get it done all together. I think that in the end even though we finished the storyboard really close to the deadline, it still came out just like we envisioned, so I am satisfied with the end product.