Storyboard Description

1 - Opens with a still of a family photo, with a voice over by main character. ‘It’s funny the way life turns out. I was the eldest, and now I’m the last one left. It is funny isn’t it?’, in a sad, slightly monotonous voice, attempting to make light of something most obviously not. The picture then fades out to black as she says the last line. Behind the speaking their will be a dull droning of background voices, which are not distinguishable.

2 - As photo fades, the image of a slightly cluttered, lived in dinning room fades in behind. The camera is positioned at eye-level, looking over the room, tracking through it slowly. The distant murmuring grows louder, with the introduction of music and voices coming over it. The voice continues in the same manner, ‘Oh, I’m not saying I’ve had a hard life, far from it; two children, a loving family’ at this point a voice shouts out off camera ‘Mum you’re ruining my life!’, ‘I’m not complaining at all’.

3 - The camera continues to track through the room into a corridor, looking into side rooms, ‘I’ve lived in this house all my life, and I’ve never wanted to live anywhere else’ the voice continues, another voice shouts out once more ‘Why do you have to be so stubborn Mum, a (Nursing) home will be much easier on the whole family!’ A figure then fades in to the shot, running down the corridor, before freezing and then fading out.

4 - The camera pans to look up the stairs, and as it begins the ascent the same figure appears, the voice returns once more, this time intentionally NOT talking to the viewer, instead to the voice shouting, ‘This is OUR home, for me and your father’ a childish giggle comes as the figure climbs the stairs, followed by the camera. The figure disappears as it reaches the top of the stairs. ‘Dad’s dead Mum, and you need someone to look after you properly!’

5 - The camera then climbs the stairs, moving to an open door, the figure has now completely disappeared. The murmuring intensifies to a fever-pitch as the camera reaches the door. Below the tangle of voices comes a faint beating, to be reminiscent of a heart beat.

6 - The camera moves through the open door, the heart beat growing louder, now louder the murmurs. The camera moves towards a shape on the bed, the room shadowy, but not dark. The heart beat grows and then the camera freezes.

7 - The camera then retraces itself at high speed, murmuring and ‘heart beat’ now gone. The camera returns to where it began and a white frame replaces the view.

8 - The frame fades out, with the camera filming a cup falling to the floor and smashing in slow motion, a new female voice calls out ‘Grace’ shocked, and the cup smashes. The scene ends with the cup smashed on the floor.