… ist der Titel einer erfundenen Geschichte, zu der meine LK Schülerin Branka Vukobrad in ihrer großartigen Facharbeit ein Storyboard (Wikipedia) geschaffen hat. Ausgangspunkt für ihre Geschichte war eine meiner Six Word Stories, nämlich “It can’t be, I’m a virgin.” Aus diesen sechs Wörtern hat Branka eine kleine Geschichte entwickelt und aus dieser wiederum ein Storyboard für die drei entscheidenden Szenen.
Im ersten Teil ihrer Arbeit hat sich Branka mit Storyboards allgemein beschäftigt: Welche Arten von Storyboards gibt es? Wie verhalten sich Storyboard und Drehbuch zueinander? Wie unterscheiden sich Storyboard und Comic? usw.
Hier der zweite Teil ihrer Arbeit:
4. Prejudice – the Child of Ignorance
Every storyboard needs a story that is why the first step was inventing one and deciding how to realize it later on. The title states the main message of the story. A young girl’s surrounding doesn’t listen to her and has prejudice against her. That is why they start ignoring her and therefore destroying her.
The basis of the story was the idea to invent a short story out of six words. The original sentence for the six-word-story was: „It can’t be, I’m a virgin.“ What came out is the tragic story of a young girl, whose life is governed by her conservative surrounding. As long as she did everything the others expected of her, her life was fabulous and she had love and support, but in that one decisive moment, where she needs true love and support, the truth comes out: Appearances are deceiving. At the end she abandons herself to despair.
4.1. Plot
Hannah D. lives the ideal life. She lives in a small town, where everybody knows her. She is going to marry her fiancé Lewis – her big love. Before their wedding they plan their stag party.
Hannah and her friends go out in a club near the town. After her friends and her danced, she goes to the bar to get something to drink. There, a guy starts talking to her. She tells him that this is her stag party, so he wants to drink on it. She brings her friends the drinks and comes back. In the meantime he put in some liquid ecstasy. She drinks it and talks for a while. When she starts losing her consciousness, he takes her with him. He rapes her and leaves her in one of the toilet cabins.
After some time Hannah’s friends start wondering where she is. Mandy, her best friend, goes into the toilets and finds her, lying on the ground. She thinks it is because she drank too much alcohol. They decide to go home.
Because of abdominal pain, Hannah wants to go to her doctor – two weeks later. After the checkup, the gynecologist tells her, that she is pregnant. She can’t believe this and says: „It can’t be I’m a virgin.“ But she cannot remember what happened two weeks ago. After she talked to her best friend, she goes to her fiancé, some days before her wedding, and tells him everything. He thinks she cheated on him and calls of the wedding. This is when her nightmare begins. The people in town start talking about her and ignoring her and her family doesn’t support her and what hurts her the most – she lost her big love Lewis.
After a while she starts remembering, what happened to her in that night. She writes it down in a letter for her best friend, but nevertheless kills herself, because she can’t stand this situation of contempt of her family and her fiancé. Furthermore she is sure, that nobody would believe her. A few hours later Mandy comes to her house and finds her and the letter. In the letter it says, just to tell her fiancé the truth about what happened. At the funeral Mandy talks to Lewis.
4.2. Screenplay
[Im Original ist das Drehbuch natürlich korrekt formatiert, aber diese Formatierungen sind zum Teil durch den Import in WordPress verloren gegangen.]
Scene 1/Introduction
Slide-show of old pictures of Lewis and Hannah (Slow, sad, silent music in background; change to funeral)
Funeral/Outside/Day (many people; all dressed in black; Murmur and sobbing; somewhere in between Mandy)
Mandy (crying, whispering): Why… why you…
(People leaving, talking; first Mandy alone, suddenly Lewis coming from behind)
Mandy (crying, silent): You shouldn’t have left her, you were wrong.
Lewis (angry, sobbing): Do you want to say it was my fault? I loved her, but I didn’t know that she could do something like that to me…
Mandy (crying more): It was not like youthink. She wanted you to know the truth… I read it in the letter she left in her room. Here… (Giving the letter to Hedrick)I have to go… (leaving)
Bench on graveyard/Outside/Day
Lewis (reading): Dear Lewis…
Change from now to past (Lewis‘ voice becomes Hannah’s voice; the story of Hannah’s last weeks begins)
Hannah’s voice: First of all I want to tell you, that I always loved you and that I would never have done something wrong to you… you will probably not understand why I did all this, but I was too afraid and desperate, I had lost everything that was important in my life… you and my family, love and support… after my stag party I couldn’t remember anything from that evening, but a few weeks later it all came back… it was not my fault… I love you, that is why I want you to know the truth…
Scene 2/Consultation
Gynaecologist/Inside/Day (Hannah alone in the room; no sound except the ticking of the clock, which becomes heart palpitating; then suddenly the doctor comes in)
Doctor: I’m sorry you had to wait so long Miss D., but now I have the diagnosis. After we checked your stomach and couldn’t find anything I made a pregnancy test…
Hannah: But… how…
Doctor: And it is positive. Congratulations Miss D., you are pregnant.
Silence (again only ticking of the clock; again becomes heart palpitation)
Hannah (absent look; whispering): It can’t be I’m a virgin.
Doctor: Miss D. …
(Voice of the doctor slowly disappears and becomes subjective sound of Hannah: breathing)
Street/Outside/Day (Hannah alone in front of the doctor’s surgery; drenched with rain; loud car noise slowly fades away and raindrops become louder)
Scene 3/End
Hannah’s bathroom/Inside/Night (Hannah alone in front of her mirror; crying but nevertheless apathetic look; many voices in her head; holds a razor blade in her hand; after some time she slits her wrists; she crushes down and groans in pain; she lies there for a while and finally dies; end of Hannah’s retold story)
Change from past to now (Lewis standing at her grave with the letter in his hands; no sound except leaves rustling in the wind; Lewis crying, feeling guilty; after some moments he leaves; one single leave flies over Hannah’s grave; the same sad music as in the beginning starts)
4.3. Basic Ideas
In every film the beginning has to arouse the viewer’s attention, the end has to fulfil his expectations and there has to be a key scene to make it interesting. That is the reason why these three scenes were chosen in the self-made storyboard, because they are essential for the development of the rest of the story. The most important devices, to make these three scenes interesting are two basic ideas – the flashback and the transitions.
One of the most decisive facts of this self-made storyboard is that the whole film is built on a flashback. The idea was to create a kind of closure we know from articles or compositions, which, at the end, refer to the beginning. To convey this feeling of a completed short story two things can be mentioned. On the one hand there is the sad and slow melody when the slide-show is shown (scene 1/page 1), which is repeated at the end, when Lewis leaves the graveyard, the camera focuses on the leave above Hannah’s grave and the film ends (scene 3/page 8). On the other hand we have the same setting. At the beginning of the film Lewis, visiting the funeral, introduces the flashback with the help of the letter (scene 1/page 6–7) and the story ends with him still standing at her grave. With these two factors the viewer gets the impression of a story in a story. The film is set at Hannah’s funeral, which is the first story and the letter symbolizes the flashback, which represents the second story.
To make the transitions between introduction and story, and, present and past as fluent as possible, there are no simple cuts in between. The first transition was made with the help of the zoom effect. Several pictures are shown in the slide-show in black and white, except the last one (scene 1/page 1–2). The red rose combined with the black and white pictures creates a rather sad atmosphere and can be interpreted as foreshadowing. Because of this dark beginning, the viewer expects something dramatic. By zooming in the red rose, the background is left out and the camera can zoom out in a completely different place. In this storyboard the camera switches from photographs to Mandy holding the red rose at the funeral (scene 1/page 3).
The change from present to past is made with the help of the letter (scene 1/page 6–7), which Lewis reads, but the transition between flashback and now, at the end, is not that obvious. When Hannah dies (scene 3/page 5), the camera zooms out and flies over the houses towards the graveyard (scene 3/page 6). It is like flying through the time. Lewis still stands there, like in the beginning, and has finished reading the letter, that is why the camera comes back to him and switches from past to present (scene 3/page 6–7). Together with sound and setting it helps the viewer to understand the transition and therefore the closure.
4.4. Camera and Scene Analysis
To create suspense, compassion or other emotions within the viewers all camera settings have to be thought about. The idyllic black and white pictures in the slide-show (scene 1/page 1) are a strong contrast to the funeral, which is in colours (scene 1/page 3). The same can be said about the rose (scene 1/page 2). It has an emphasizing effect and in this combination reminds us of blood and death.
Another striking shot is the extreme close-up, when the doctor tells Hannah that she is pregnant (scene 2/page 4–6). After the reaction shot on page four, nothing but the tear is shown. On the one hand it is rather untypical not to show the whole face, so that the viewer can see the reaction all the time, but only the tear. On the other hand it supports the dramatic effect of the tear rolling down the face. It serves as a kind of transition to the mouth. The camera stops here and focuses on the mouth, when she says that she is a virgin and this underlines the importance of this scene, because it represents the climax.
Afterwards Hannah stands outside in front of the doctor’s surgery. At the end of this page (scene 2/page 8 ) the camera films her from the high angle shot. The camera zooms out more and more and Hannah becomes smaller and smaller. This position and the rain emphasize her loneliness and desperateness she feels because of the results. The weather is a typical device used in almost every film. It is used to support the feelings of the character in certain situations.
In the killing scene the viewer can see the shot from Hannah’s perspective (scene 3/page 2–3). For the viewer it feels like he is right there in the scenery and can here what is going on in her mind, because of the subjective sound. This creates a feeling of immediacy for the viewers. After the Point-of-view shot the razor blade falls down in slow-motion. While it is falling down Hannah’s memories are shown parallel. The slow-motion symbolizes the last moments in life for Hannah, which feel like ages, when she looks back on what happened and finally is free.
All in all many changing perspectives arouse the viewer’s interest, because a feeling of monotony is avoided.
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