Shot Inspirations for our Storyboard

There were numerous shots while I was storyboarding that were inspired by films I've watched. One shot in particular was the shot where James has pushed aside the chess board, and is leaning on the wall facing away from Johanne. Recently I have watched Elia Kazan's 1955 film East of Eden, which starred James Dean. This was James Dean's first feature film major role, and he captured the pent up angst of his character brilliantly. One shot in particular he is talking with a judge, and is acting unhelpful and short with the judge whom is questioning him. He is hugging a telephone unit, and mumbling. My shot has the characters in the same positions, but from a different angle. You can see James' facial expression in close up, and see Johanne's reaction through her body language.

Another shot which I took inspiration from was Fight Club. The shot sequence in particular is when narrator is going to his support groups for illnesses he doesn't have. During one part, there are shots of coffee, doughnuts, papers and other items associated with these groups. I took inspiration from this and made up the first few shots. They are of the beans, from different shot lengths. It's designed to show the scale of the beans, that they have a lot of them.

For the voiceover of Lucy, I decided on having a slow zoom in to her face, to show it's her thoughts. I took inspiration from the David Lean classic Brief Encounter, where the audience can hear Laura's thoughts, while she occupies the screen. The whole voiceover is spread over 2 shots, the first one being of Lucy, and the second one being of James and Johanne. This means the audience is not confused about the source of the voiceover, and is also not puzzled about who she is talking about.

For the shot where James goes to the store room, he is lit from behind, and as he is shot from the front, he is swathed in shadows. I took inspiration from this shot from the graphic novel Watchmen, where Rorsasch has found the badge with blood on it, the streetlights create a murky, noirish atmosphere.

A further shot I took inspiration from was Equilibrium. During an interrogation scene, there is an overhead shot of Christian Bale's character and Emily Watson's character. Although in ours the characters are in different situations, the overall situation is the same. I feel it works well with James with his head on the desk and Johanne's arms outstretched, comforting him.

Posted by Michael McGroarty