Planning and research: Storyboards for my soap trailer

Once I had decided on things such as characters and settings, I set about creating a storyboard. This was so that I could get a more detailed idea of what I was definitely going to include in my trailer, and in what order. It also allowed me to decide what types of camera shots and angles that I wanted to use, what music and dialogue I wanted to include and where, and how long each frame should last.

This is the first page of the storyboard. It shows the group of characters sitting in the pub, just sitting down and having a good time. I thought of this idea because the location of a pub is a conventional setting of most soap operas. (For example, 'The Queen Vic in 'Eastenders') This is because it is a normal setting that normal people would go to, and it allows other characters to meet eachother and storylines develop. The storyboard then moves onto the 'peer pressure' storyline, which is set in a park. I wanted to include some dialogue in this storyline so I've written that the bully says 'Oi! Have some!' when trying to get the vitcim to drink the alcohol. I've also decided to have a music track playing throughout the trailer because this is a common convention of soap opera trailers.

This is storyboard 2, which carries on from storyboard 1 with the low-angle shot of the alcohol bottle hitting the floor. The next 4 frames are from the 'affairs' storyline. I have used an over the shoulder shot, a mid shot, a close up and a tracking shot to show the storyline. The over the shoulder shot is so that the audience can see what the female character sees, and so that they can see the male's face clearly. The close up shows the female locking the door, which is important because she is ensuring that her husband can't get back in. The mid shot is of the female so that you can see her character clearly, and then I want a tracking shot to follow her down the coridoor away from the front door, to greet her lover at the back door. I have included the dialogue 'Bye!' which is what the female says to her husband. Again, I want to have music playing throughout this sequence.

This is the 3rd part of my storyboard. The first two frames continue on from storyboard 2 and show a midshot of the 'other man' coming through the back door, and then a slight zoom of the other man and the female embracing. It then cuts to the 'poisoning' storyline. I have used a close up to show the elderly lady putting tablets into a cup of tea. The close up will emphasise this and make it clear to the audience. I then use a long shot of the elderly lady walking towards the camera carrying the cup of tea to her husband. This will cause suspense because the shot lasts 4 seconds, and the audience will wonder what she's going to do with the poisoned tea. It then cuts to a mid shot of an elderly man sitting at a table, and on the right hand side the elderly female comes in and places the tea in front of him. The use of a midshot is clear enough for the audience to see what is happening, and also allows me to have both the male and the female in the shot at the same time. There will be no dialogue in this sequence, simply because the elderly lady is secretly poisoning her husband, and so I think that by having no dialogue it will make it more obvious that she is doing wrong and her husband doesn't know about it. However, there will be music played throughout.

This is the fourth part of the storyboard. This is just the last shot of the poisoning storyline. It is a midshot of the elderly male drinking the poisoned tea. The use of the midshot allows the audience to see clearly what he is doing, but the shot only lasts 3 seconds so the suspense will make the audience want to watch the soap to find out what happens. Like the rest of the storyline, there will be no dialogue but there will be music played throughout, because this is a common convention of soap opera trailers.