For this project we are exploring the many layers to life specifically fear and our understanding of things around us. The exploration of creating fear in the audience through art and film.
We had firstly looked into what particularly generates feelings of intense fear and looked at a selection of films, the one which stook out to me was a film called:
What I had particularly liked about this work was the lack of dialogue: no one spoke unless they were reacting in fear. there was (to my knowledge) no instances where the pov we where following had spoken outright which i felt added to the suspense and horror of their scenario. They had no idea where they were, the area they were in was almost like a maze with multiple placements of rooms with little context on what they where for and there was little human interactions, with the small percentage having unknown goals. The other thing I had liked was mainly due to it being a product of its time, there was no colours -only black and white- the whole piece itself felt as though it was shrouded in shadow the environment had an dank and unsetteling feel but also the small inclusions of animation, such as the rats eating away at some food made me squirm in my seat: it was not horrifying but the movements themselves had the intention of creating fear and emphasizing the slow and torturous way of stripping this seemingly innocent man from any hope he would of had to get away. Even when they had gotten away, a mysterious figure had spotted and I would assume taken him (with the man’s wellbeing unknown). It had suspense and whilst I wasn’t jumping back in fear, the concept felt very realistic: like why would you speak in a ominous underground place with seemingly horrible people lurking around the shadows? you wouldn’t you would figure a way out for your life depends on it.
We had also looked at the alternating views and hidden meanings of the well known “The Shining” with the focus being on the review of it called ‘room 237’. The main points which interested me in this documentary was the look of mythology in the film, the link of the myth of the Minotaur and the labyrinth the idea being that the main villain jack being the Minotaur with the setting of the hotel being his twisted labyrinth. Another point brought up with a fair amount of evidence was the look at the colonialism of native Americans and the mass amount of bloodshed. The words which stuck out to me about this was not only the film actually mentioning the hotel being built on a native burial ground but also the imagery on cans aswell as photos throughout the hotel. the reviewer suggesting the placement of these throughout the film implies of the overshadowing anger and pain which is apart of the history.
We were then tasked with creating a scary story in six frames:
I based mine on the common nursery rhyme of crows, with the idea that having seen multiple is a sign of good luck. The rhyme applies to both crows or magpies:
“One for sorrow Two for joy Three for a girl Four for a boy Five for silver Six for gold Seven for a secret, never to be told”
Whilst the main part of the rhyme is known there are various takes on the last leading into crows after seven. The story behind it being that seeing crows on joyous occasions would somehow imply the couples fortune. I re imagined the first half into a horror type of scene, following a boy being followed by crows counting them until he gets to seven: A secret never to be told. My aim for this was to create a subtle hint of insecurity combined with fear, we don’t know what they see in the last seen and we may never know.
short ideas for my interim film I would like to look at the idea of unsettling the viewer, playing with the idea of shaking up the viewers imagination and what they think.