Planning: Our Storyboarding Process

Planning: Storyboarding The Concept

Our group built this concept around a simple but unsettling question: what happens when someone decides to take justice into their own hands? The killer we developed doesn't distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. Anyone who has ever stood trial for murder becomes a target, whether they were acquitted, wrongfully convicted, or actually committed the crime. Our group felt this was essential because it forces the audience to recognize that despite any twisted logic behind his actions, he is undeniably wrong.

Designing the Killer

Our group wanted every aspect of the killer's appearance to feel like a corrupted version of the legal system. We settled on a sharp black suit, an unsettling mask, and a peruke to reference the judicial tradition. His weapons, a gavel, a length of rope, and the scales of justice, were all pulled from courtroom imagery. The detail our group was most committed to was the briefcase. After every kill, he opens it and writes the word "guilty" inside, serving as his signature throughout the film.

Visual Storytelling in the Opening

Our group designed the opening to communicate as much as possible without dialogue. The garage scene establishes the serial killer through his environment alone, tools, a body bag, news clippings, all visible within the first thirty seconds. A wide shot captures the moment the vigilante steps from the shadows, making the space feel large and isolating. For the main character's introduction, our group chose a radio broadcast to deliver backstory naturally, while visual details like an ankle monitor or court documents quietly establish his situation.

Production Planning

Our group focused the production design around atmosphere. The garage would be heavily shadowed with minimal light sources, forcing the audience to feel the threat before they see it. For the kill, we referenced the practical effects in the Terrifier films as a starting point but planned to scale the intensity back considerably to match our film's tone. Sound design was equally deliberate. Near silence throughout the garage sequence, broken only at the moment of the kill when the music hits hard and carries straight into the title card.

What Would Come Next

If we were to go into a full production, the story would follow a wrongfully convicted man or woman out on bail and his defense attorney, whose own father died in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Each previous kill was planned to represent a different failure of the justice system, leaving the audience questioning whether they understand the killer's logic even as they recognize it as wrong.

What We Learned

This process reinforced for our group that every filmmaking decision needs a clear purpose behind it. The garage scene works because it surprises the audience while immediately establishing tone, and connecting it to the main character proves the concept can sustain a full film. Our goal was always to deliver a genuine slasher experience while leaving the audience with real questions about guilt, justice, and whether any system built by humans can ever truly get it right.