… 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.