R+P Post 11: Our Timeline

Our next step in pre-production was to create a detailed timeline of our opening, which included all the shots, what would actually happen in them, their framing, duration and all of the accompanying sounds - soundtrack, sound effects and voiceover - as well as the credits.

Our Timeline

The technician produced a template for us to use for the timeline and from there it was a collaborative process within the group as we discussed exactly what we wanted the audience to see in our opening. All throughout this, we referred back to our inspirational openings to ensure that we were following conventions and that our opening would look professional. We watched the beginning of Se7en, for example, to check whether the timings we had for our credits were appropriate. 

3 Second Title credit which we based our own timing on

Examples of how we split our timeline and the level of detail we went into can be seen below.

This is the beginning section of our timeline which details the shots in the bedroom and the 'getting ready' sequence as well as the institutional information and film title.

This is the middle section of our opening, which includes the kitchen sequence, introducing the lawyer element, and the stalker's POV shots. As this section includes the radio announcement on the stalker's release, we had to time it very carefully to ensure that we could actually fit in all of the necessary information.

The end section of our opening can be seen to the left and describes the 'red herring' sequence, which we included to build tension and fear. This atmosphere is an integral part of the genre and is something that the TA has come to expect and want in these types of films.








The timeline was very helpful because it ensured not only that we stuck to the timing the brief specified for the film opening, but it also helped us to organise which shots we wanted when and whether there was not enough, or too much, content to fit into the opening. It also highlighted for us how strict we needed to be whilst shooting and editing to ensure that didn't go over the specified 2 minutes for the opening. In addition, the timeline was especially helpful for when we scripted the radio announcement because we scripted around the timings we knew we had and therefore everything should fit.

The timeline was also very useful for the next step where we created a storyboard, because it meant that we had already planned out all of our shots and just had to draw them out whilst finalising the tiny details such as exactly where the camera would be paced in the set.