In a World of My Own

A little update...

Ok, so now that I have an idea of what I want to do, it's time to fully develop it. My teacher mentioned that it would be best to think about the entire story, so that is what I'll do. I'll outline the whole story, not just the opening. This way, I'll have a better understanding of the characters, the conflict, and how it should all begin.

How it starts:

Opens with interrogations of multiple suspects (maybe three: one male (younger brother) and two female (cousin and friend)). The detective (female), Detective Alessa Alred, asks questions and takes notes on the answers (What's your relation to the victim? Where were you around the time of the murder? Do you know who would want to hurt her?) Each suspect responds, confessing that they killed the victim, prompting more questions (Why did you kill her? How did you do it? Were you working with anyone else?). They all give detailed explanations of what happened and how they killed her (differing, but similar stories); however, they all say that they worked alone. The evidence at the crime scene suggests that there was indeed only one killer. So who is it?

Victim (Victoria Vaughn) : college student, female
What happened: She was found dead in her apartment. There was no sign of forced entry, so she knew her killer enough to let them in. She had a wound on the back of her head and had been stabbed multiple times (a crime of passion).
When: On a Saturday night. It was the weekend of their family reunion.

Brother (Victor Vaughn): younger than Victoria by two years, high school student (senior)
Motive: He was tired of his sister always being the favorite. Their parents always compared them and insisted that he had to be more like her. They went to a small school, so they had the same teachers. The teachers always compared them too, and told him how much they expected from him since his sister was so smart. Finally fed up with being compared to Victoria all of the time, he killed her.
How: He claims that they returned to her apartment after having dinner together (they had seafood). He then hit her on the back of the head with a golf club and stabbed her with his hunting knife.

Cousin (Kira Kessler): a year younger, college student (different college), visiting for the weekend
Motive: She thought that her cousin wasn't as perfect as everyone thought her to be. She was tired of Victoria getting all of the attention and praise. She wanted to get rid of Victoria, so she killed she.
How: She claims that she was staying with the victim, and waited for her to get back after having gone out to dinner. She hit her with a decorative figurine and then stabbed her with a kitchen knife.

Friend (Gia Greggory): same age, college student (same college)
Motive: She was tired of always being in Victoria's shadow and annoyed when Victoria acted like she didn't like the popularity. She was jealous at how well liked her friend was and how good her life was; she wanted to be the one who was popular and didn't want to have to worry about certain things (like money). She didn't like being second best. So, she killed Victoria to take her place.
How: She claims that she waited outside the apartment for Victoria to return home from dinner. She went inside with her and then hit her with a paperweight on the back of the head before stabbing her with a pair of scissors.

After the interviews, the detective goes back to her desk to try and put some of the pieces together and find similarities in the three stories.

The middle:

Detective Alred orders an autopsy of the victim, so she can determine the cause of death and see if that matches with the stories of those who confessed. While that's being done, Detective Alred goes out to the crime scene  (Viola's apartment) to take another look around. She notices that the golf bag in the apartment is missing a club. She finds the missing club in the building's dumpster; it has blood stains on it. The blood on it is confirmed to be the victim's; however, the only fingerprints on it belong to the victim.

Detective Alred interviews more witnesses, trying to see what kind of person Victoria was and if she had any enemies. Most people claim that she was nice to everyone, really smart, and could do no wrong, except for one. She also asks about the suspects, trying to see what kind of people they were and if they evil showed any ill will towards the victim.

DNA is discovered under Victoria's nails; it belongs to a woman, so Victor is ruled out as a suspect. The DNA is run through the CODIS database (Combined DNA Index System) to see if they can find a match. Also, some threads were caught in the Victoria's bracelet. They are determined to be wool, the kind which is typically found in sweaters.

While looking deeper into Victoria and her background, it's discovered that she wasn't as innocent as everybody seemed to believe.

The autopsy results are back; the indent on the back of Victoria's skull was indeed made the golf club and her stomach contents reveal that she did have seafood before she was killed (fitting with Victor's story, but he's no longer a suspect). However, Victoria was killed with a blade similar to a kitchen knife (fitting with Kira's story).

The DNA comes back. It's a 52% match for Gia.

How it ends:

Detective Alred is perplexed by how the evidence could point to each suspect yet also rule them out as suspects at the same time. Each suspect had a piece of truth in their story, but no one had the complete answer. With help from a colleague, the detective concludes that they must have been covering for someone, which would explain why they all confessed and why no one had the whole truth. She begins looking to see if they have any common friends and finally figures out who killed the victim.

It was Gia's sister (Gwen), who was also the girlfriend of Victor, and the best friend of Kira. She was the only one during the interviews who hadn't liked Victoria, and the sleeve of her (wool) sweater had been ripped (which the detective had deemed unimportant at the time). It explains why the three suspects had stepped forward (to protect her), why the DNA was a 52% match for Gia (they’re sisters), and also why Victoria was comfortable enough to invite her inside.

Gwen claimed that she had done it to make the others happy (their reasoning for wanting to kill the victim had been true) and because she always knew that Victoria wasn't the angel everyone thought she was.

Now that I have a better sense of the story, I have a better idea of how I want the opening to go. I created a storyboard for the opening and mapped it out, getting more into depth of what I want to happen.

The tentative title for the film is "Three's A Crowd" since three people confessed to killing the victim, when there could only be one killer.

Page 1

Page 2

For the opening, I want to be of the detective interviewing the suspects, but I don't want there to be separate scenes of interviews. I wanted it to cut back and forth. So, every time the suspect is shown it'll be a different on of the three. I think this will make it more interesting to the viewer and enforce how, at this point, we don't really know who did it.

When the camera is on the suspects, there is a slight tilt. I wanted it to have a different look and also give the idea that there's something different or not quite right about it.