STORY-TELLING UNIT: SCRIPT BREAKDOWN AND SHOT LIST

After completing my script and organising my actors I began planning out how I wanted my opening 2 minutes to work (shot wise). To decide on this I took my opening two minutes and broke it down, shot by shot. This way I could use this to put together a shot list. I had originally thought about doing a storyboard but I never really use them and don't find them helpful, I work better with a list of shots and then I can also work around them and see what looks best on the day. 

I made up 3 separate shot lists, one for each scene, so I could keep a track on all and do scene by scene.


Scene 1
The most complicated and detailed shot is the first one. I want to show that the car is broken down but not just show the car, slowly reveal whats happening and then straight into the action with Lily's opening dialogue. Rather than a few different shots, I remembered Simon's lecture about detail with shots but also giving examples of storytelling with one shot. I decided to make this opening scene a steadicam shot and show the entire car nice and steady. After this I went on to get the dialogue, on the list I wrote 'Lily dialogue 2-4 (over the shoulder from James)', here I'm referring to the script breakdown, I broke the dialogue up into sections and numbered them and that way I could easily decide what shots would be with each piece of dialogue.
I also had Lily running away twice, once as a wide with her final piece of dialogue and then a back shot of her running just to show the audience the seriousness of the situation. Finally, I wanted detail on the wedding ring, this is a key object in the story and James always goes to it for comfort and in some ways, guidance. I decided on a mid shot of him looking up and down to bring some focus and then a close up on the ring and a upwards tilt to him kissing it so we get the focus on this and the audience can begin to question what it is. Final piece of dialogue would be with a mid shot to show the expression on his face but not too close since this is the end of the scene and we don't need that much attention.

These shots would really help the scene and after breaking down the script and writing up the shots I'm starting to see this come together in my head. I'm going to test the opening shot though since I'm unsure how it will look.

Scene 2
The next scene is a very short scene and doesn't require a huge amount of shots. I decided to get the main shots first which is the dialogue. I started with Jason and did the same with the dialogue as I did in scene 1, chose to have over the shoulder shot since this works well and we can slightly see the reaction from the other character with it as well. I also chose to have a close up on Jame's hand knocking to open the scene with. Finally, I chose to have a steadicam following James over to the car, my idea is to get his emotions from Lily storming past him and seeing the sadness on his face.

Scene 3
Finally, it came to planning out scene 3. My idea for filming the car with green screen is either going to be a success or a failure, depending how I film the shots. Since we'll be in a car and I'll need to have the shot as tight as possible for the green screen to work effectively, I chose to go with a Medium shot, the idea is to have this from each window for the 180˚ rule to work. As well I wanted focus on the inside of the car when James starts singing badly as this is a slight comical moment. Finally, I focused on the close ups, to which I had 3, one of the text Lily sends which shows her feelings towards her dad and another 2 of James, one of his hands so we get focus on the ring and another of him kissing the ring so we can begin to see the pattern of him always kissing this ring and uncover the story behind it.

Script breakdown

When breaking down my script, I broke it down and decided on the types of shots that I wanted to use to best show and tell my story.
When deciding on the scenes I'll use, I realised that my opening two pages would have to go to 2 and a half so that the story can make sense, although it could end up shorter than 2:30.

Below you can see my breakdowns for each scene.





















With my dialogue, I divide it up when breaking down my script as it helps me decide what to film with what shot and helps me deciding if I need to film any differently. Breaking this down not only helped me plan out the shot list but has also helped me think about what order I'm going to film in and what shots to get done first.