BEFORE CRITIQUE
This is the storyboard I have came up with:
For this assignment, we had to craft a storyboard and then execute it utilising photos to communicate a clear storyline. I decided upon this storyboard about dance as I am a dancer in Eusoff Hall, and my friends inspired me to come up with this storyline.
This storyboard is a sketch that I hand drawn and showcases what photographs I intend to take, and I titled it ‘It Take Two to Tango’.
The story is about how a determined dancer tries her best to practice, however as she was practicing a certain move, she loses her balances and falls. She feels demoralised after failing to complete the move, and sits in the corner of the dance studio, upset. Her friend spots her demoralised and was very concerned. He then decided to talk to her. After talking to her, he takes her hand to pull her up and they practices the dance together. The female lead, dancer learns how dancing is a journey, that is definitely easier and more fun when done together with a friend.
FIRST SHOT: My first shot taken is a mid shot, showing the dancer in preparation of the dance move she is going to be attempting to do. I chose to take this photo slightly to the side of her, as it displays her upright posture and also clearly, her face of determination to do well in her dance.
SECOND SHOT: This is shot 2, where I took at a canted angle to show dynamism of the main character and show her movement as a dancer. There is also a ”blurry’ effect to showcase movement as she executes the dance move, which is to pirouette. She has a shocked face as she is about to lose her balance while executing this dance move.
THIRD SHOT: For Shot 3, I shot from a top angle to show how vulnerable and weak she is as she falls to the ground from her imbalance. This angle shows contrast from the previous photo, as Shot 2 was shot mostly from the bottom-up canted angle. The female lead looks down as she tries to break her fall.
FOURTH SHOT: For Shot 4, the main character is disappointed with herself and sits in a corner, upset. The second lead peeks through the door and spots her. I used the golden ratio of a photograph and positioned her at the 1/3 of the photo, and I also utilised the mirror in the background to show the second lead looking at her to establish a relationship between them in this scene. I also utilised the reflection in the mirror to give more dynamics to the photo, as there is multiple perspectives of her at the corner of the dance studio, looking demoralised.
FIFTH SHOT: For Shot 5, this is when the second lead is concerned about her and approaches the main character, worried. They engage in conversation and I took this over-the-shoulder shot to establish the communication between the 2 leads, and I wanted to emphasise on the second lead’s expression which is feeling worried and concerned about the female lead.
SIXTH SHOT: For Shot 6, this is a close up shot from a bottom angle, showing the second lead reaching out his hand with a smile to the main character, offering to pull her up from the ground. This close up shot is done to show the male lead’s expression clearly, and from a bottom angle to show him being powerful, and is reaching out to help the female lead.
SEVENTH SHOT: This is Shot 7. This is a close up shot showing that the main lead takes his hand, and it emphasises on the relationship formed between the 2 leads in this photo. This implicitly shows that the female lead is willing to let the second lead help her up, after the talk and get back on her feet.
EIGHTH SHOT: For Shot 8, I took a long shot at eye level angle to show them dancing together in a dance studio and show them staring at each other smiling as they dance together, and succeeding. This further emphasises how the male lead was able to help the female lead regain back her confidence and figure out the dance move together.
NINTH SHOT: For Shot 9, I took a close up shot to show the happy expression on the main lead’s face. This shows the main character happy, a change in her emotions from demoralised to happy and satisfied, as she is glad that she managed to be able to do the dance with the second lead.
FURTHER DETAILS:
In order to make the shots more vibrant, I requested my friends who were nice enough to help me to wear bright, outstanding colours, which are yellow and red.
The female lead is wearing red as I wanted her to symbolise the fierce passion and determination required for dance, and as the main lead, draw attention to her immediately. As for the male lead, yellow symbolises positivism, hope and happiness. This is clear from how he helps her up and gives her motivation to carry on working on her dance.
I created this storyline as its meaning is very significant to me, as there are many a times, we feel alone when we are working hard, and we may feel that we work hard, yet do not reap results. However, with a community that helps and encourage you, working towards a goal may be easier than taking on the burden alone. Dance is an expression of self and it is very freeing, and I hope that as a dancer, I am able to improve, both by myself and also with my community.
UNUSED SHOTS
The following shots were taken but were not used in the final 9.
Here are the short descriptions of the photos (from left to right):
1. female lead turning on the music of the loudspeaker
2. different angle of taking her preparing to do the dance move
3. facing the mirrors to show her practicing diligently and checking her posture as she executes the dance move
4. mid-spin spot of female lead
5. long shot of female lead executing the dance move (without movement)
6. top shot that shows female lead on the floor
7. male lead half squatting instead of sitting down
8. a different hand holding (i realised that the hand stretched out in shot 6 was different from the one held in this shot, so i had to retake this shot)
COMPILED STORYBOARD WITH PHOTOS
CRITIQUE COMMENTS
- I received a pleasant comment from Sarah about how there were different close up and zoomed-out shots that adds dynamic to the storyboard! 🙂
- A possible way to improve would be to have more movement blur (since it is dance). However I do not own a DSLR, and there were some ‘movement’ on the second shot
- There should be the male protagonist in the last shot in the background (perhaps have a motive to get ‘her’) to make the storyline more interesting
AFTER CRITIQUE
I arranged with my friends to help me reshoot the parts that had feedback on. However, due to the COVID situation, the Hall Office has locked the Dance Studio when they typically do not do so, and my friends were unavailable on the other days to film except for that particular evening. Thus I was met with the limitations of not utilising the same location and my friends’ unavailability.
I have notified Mr Kai En about this issue and he is aware of this situation.
Hence, in the following blogpost I will do my best to describe the two different shots that I would take differently. I have also added in the captions for what form of shots I envisioned to take eg. high angle, close up shot for both storyboards.
The following storyboard below is the first one with annotated captions.
Here is the edited storyboard, with frame 3 and frame 9 being altered.
CHANGES I WANT TO IMPLEMENT TO THE SHOTS
For Frame 3, I wanted to add more dynamics to the series of photographs, and give more variation of angles. Hence, I wanted to try out the all-encompassing, surveillance angle, which is the bird’s eye view from top down (different from the previous one which was just at a higher angle). The effect I would like to bring out would be to show the top view of the dance studio and the female lead being alone and small in the studio, making the contrast between the 3rd and 4th shot bigger, as there are two people involved in the 4th shot compared to one. It also gives the same understanding that the female lead is weak and demoralised on the ground, without anyone to help her.
As for Frame 9, according to the suggestions to bring in the male protagonist, I decided to utilise the mirror aspect of the dance studio again.
Instead of just a plain close up shot of the female lead alone, I will take a medium close up shot of both male and female lead with the female lead smiling and being situated closer to the scene shot.
The male lead will scratch his hand and sheepishly smile, but what is not seen by the female is that he crosses finger behind his back (as seen in the reflection of the mirror behind him that shows his back frame. The gesture of crossing of fingers indicates the desire for good luck – mark a concentration of good spirits and served to anchor a wish until it could come true. I wanted to hint at the fact that the male lead had another motive behind cheering the female lead up, which is to also ‘chase’ her as he sees her as a potential dating candidate. The crossing of fingers indicate how he is hoping that his actions worked and he is able to get into her good books, leaving this scene open ended as we are not entirely sure about how the female lead actually feels about it – is it plainly platonic, or perhaps there’s a possibility for romance?
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