Night Market Chase Storyboard — Closing Bell, Sc. 41

A winter night market chase in eight frames, wide to close: shot list, scene as written, lighting notes, palette, call sheet and recce alternates.

Updated

This board was built for one scene: a chase of about fifty seconds through a covered night market in January, as the stalls close around the runner. It opens with the frames, eight of them in shot order, because that is what the camera, stunt and art teams check first on the night. Each frame is captioned with its number, shot size and action, and the shot list beside the grid uses the same numbers, so anyone can say frame 5 and mean one thing. The frames run from two wides through four mids to a close and an extreme close, the camera getting nearer as the runner runs out of room. The palette sits next to the frames rather than in a separate mood section, because its colours come from the practical light in the market: tungsten bulbs, green fluorescent tubes over the fish stalls, blue tarps, wok fire and wet ground. A short note on shutter angle and frame rate sits beside them with an arrow to the grid, since those choices change from frame to frame. The second section keeps the scene as written next to a one-page doc on the look and a single film reference, with a note saying exactly what to borrow from it and what to leave behind. One reference with a clear instruction does more work than a wall of stills from many films. The stalls section holds location and texture photos with notes that point at the image they describe, so the gaffer's rules on light and the art department's rules on the wet floor sit next to the evidence. Motion and sound get their own small column: steam and swinging bulbs as footage, and a market recording to cut against, because the chase plays without score. Last comes prep for the shoot night: a checklist of what is still open, the call sheet, and a sub-board of recce alternates that did not make the main frames. If you are making your own chase scene storyboard, the habit worth copying here is the numbering: one set of frame numbers shared by the grid, the shot list, the notes and the call sheet, so nothing gets lost between departments at two in the morning. Photos by Tito Zzzz, NenQ, Christian V, Raditya Amoret, Eray Karataş, Alex Quezada, Alexander Popadin, lalesh aldarwish, Muhammed Şahin, Samarpith Rao, María Merlin, Lukas Kosc, bilal findikci, Tima Miroshnichenko, ravencrow BI and HONG SON on Pexels. Sound: "Carbon Market Night soundscapes" by Bim24 (CC BY 4.0) on Wikimedia Commons.

A × visual grid — Frames 1–8 (8 images and 8 notes) — view it on the board above.

  • 1 · WIDE — market at close
  • 2 · WIDE — fish stall lane
  • 3 · MID — past the wok fire
  • 4 · MID — over the crates
  • 5 · TRACK — under the bulbs
  • 6 · MID — shutter drops
  • 7 · CLOSE — boots hit water
  • 8 · ECU — light in the gap
Dark urban alley at night illuminated by dim streetlights creating a mysterious mood.
Street vendor selling books at night surrounded by red stools outdoors.

Canal Street recce, 9 Jan. Alternates for frames 2 and 4, the covered hall at the north end, the back alley we lost to the bins contractor, and the stool seating by the noodle stalls. Jonah likes the alley for the end of Sc. 42 if we get the time.

Sc. 41 — The bell

EXT. CANAL STREET NIGHT MARKET - NIGHT

Eleven o'clock, January. The handbell at the gate goes. Down the lanes, stallholders drag tarps, kill bulbs, hose the tiles. Steam hangs where the woks were.

At the fish stall, TAM (17, apron, rubber boots) counts notes into a biscuit tin under a green tube light.

A MAN IN A GREY PARKA leans on the ice tray.

GREY PARKA

Your mother said Friday.

TAM

She said she'd try.

The man reaches for the tin. Tam is quicker. He's gone, the tin under his arm.

He cuts thro

The look, in a page

The idea

The market is closing around Tam while he runs. Every frame has something being shut, killed or packed away: a tarp dragged down, a bulb switched off, a hose across the tiles. By frame 8 the only light he has left is the gap under one shutter.

Light

Everything we see by hangs in the market. Warm bulbs over the cooked food, cold green tubes over the fish, blue where the tarps are lit from the next lane, and one flare of wok fire in frame 3. Tam runs from warm into cold into blue and ends

Fruit stall bulbs
Fruit stall bulbs

Light: practicals only

Three sources, all hanging in the market:
- Tungsten bulbs on cords over the cooked food and fruit, dimmers at 60%
- Fluorescent tubes over the fish stalls, left green, no correction
- Blue tarps lit from behind by the next lane's bulbs
Nothing rigged above the tarp line. Any fill is a bounce off the floor, and the wet tiles do most of that.

Skewer grill smoke
Skewer grill smoke
Auntie Lo's stall
Auntie Lo's stall
Chungking Express

Take from Chungking Express

The opening chase. Copy on the drive: REF/chungking_open.mov.
Take:
- The smear: low shutter, handheld, the crowd going past soft in the foreground
- Camera at the runner's shoulder, never ahead of him
- Cuts on changes of direction
Leave: the neon, the voiceover, the pace of the cutting. Ours is 8 setups and about 50 seconds, not a montage.

Wet ground at close
Wet ground at close

Floor: wet every take

The market hoses its tiles at 23:00; we hose before every take so continuity never dries out. Crushed ice from the fish stall goes down after frame 4 only. Lane C tiles are cracked white 15cm squares; match any patching and the frame 4 landing mat to those. Grip soles for crew off camera.

Shot list

  • #
  • Size / move
  • Action
  • Lens / shutter
  • 1
  • WS, crane down off footbridge
  • Bell goes; stalls start to close
  • 24mm · 180°
  • 2
  • WS, locked off
  • Grey Parka at the ice tray; Tam runs
  • 32mm · 180°
  • 3
  • MS, handheld follow
  • Tam past the wok fire, into steam
  • 40mm · 45°
  • 4
  • MS, low and side-on
  • Vault over fish crates, ice skids
  • 32mm · 48fps
  • 5
  • MS, dolly back down lane C
  • Tarp lane; cord clipped, bulbs swing
  • 40mm · 45°
  • 6
  • MS, over Auntie Lo's shoulder
  • Shutter comes down; Tam slides under
  • 50mm · 180°
  • 7
  • CU, on the floor
  • Boots hit the wet, slide under steel
  • 65mm · 48fps
  • 8
  • ECU, top shot inside stall
  • Tam on his back, breath in the gap
  • 75mm · 180°

Closing time

  • Market black — #0d0c0b
  • Bulb tungsten — #e39a45
  • Fish-stall green — #a9cdb4
  • Tarp blue — #2c5a86
  • Wet tile — #3b403e
  • Steam — #d8d3c9

Speed + shutter

- 1–2: 180°, 24fps, locked off or on the crane. The market is ordinary first.
- 3 and 5: 45° shutter, handheld. Wok flame, steam and swinging bulbs stutter; Tam stays sharp enough to read.
- 4 and 7: 48fps, one beat each, the only slow motion in the scene.
- 6 and 8: back to 180°. 8 holds through Auntie Lo's line.
Cut on Tam's changes of direction, never on music; there isn't any.

▶ Steam + crowd density (plays on the board above)

▶ Bulb swing for frame 5 (plays on the board above)

♪ Night market, closing up — 0:31 · 0 BPM · M4A (plays on the board above)

Before night 3

[x] Hose-down at close agreed with market committee
[x] Breakaway fish crates x12 from props
[x] Dimmers on bulb runs, lanes C and D
[ ] Frame 1: footbridge closure signed by council
[ ] Shutter stop block at a hand's width for frame 7
[ ] Steam: two units at the wok station, one at fish stall
[ ] Tile-print mat for the frame 4 landing

Includes a nested board (open it from the canvas above)