When approaching this project, I had many ideas exploding from my head. However, the concept of vivid experimentation with the three elements – sound, text, visual - was reoccurring. I was drawn to horror because horror, as a genre, is vast but exaggerated. My focus was on the relationship of horror through the evolution of technology. It was creating almost like a chronological timeline. I devised four categories of technology – the phone, television, camera, and the internet. I also wanted my video essay to mimic the structure of techno-horror films, such as Searching or Unfriended. These films break the fourth wall by forcing the audience to partake in the events in the film. I wanted to portray my video essay with the elements of horror films, as if the viewer was watching a horror film about horror films. 

 

My foundation for the video was quotes that I found from Michael Dodd, who is a film critic. I incorporated them in the video as subtitles on a black background. I did not want the words to get lost if it was just audio. I wanted them to look like subtitles, as if you were streaming a movie, implementing the internet aspects in horror. I recorded and manipulated my voice of the quotes. I manipulated my voice to sound is if it was coming through a phone, implemented the aspect of the phone horrors. For each category, I used about three to five movies. During the montage of the films, the soundtrack that I used was “Welcome to Videodrome” by Howard Shore. I was inspired by the avant-garde sound, funky and techno rhythm. It sounds ominous and dark. For transitions, I wanted to incorporate sounds and visual of each technological category. For example, the camera section I used VHS startup/turn down sound and VHS visual static noise. This was to break the fourth wall, making the audience participate.     

            The video essays that I used to help inspire me was After the Facts and Season of Fear. After the Facts incorporated elements of old school cinematography for an aesthetic. From the black and white footage to the black screen mimicking the film strips and the scissors sniping, illustrating the editing process. Season of Fear helped me organize. I liked their use of season to focus how horror uses them. I also got inspiration from Show & Tell: The Movie Voiceover Part 1. I liked how they balanced sound, visuals, and text without one sector overpower one or the other.    

Looking back at my video essay, it is easy to notice how horror has intensified as technology has modernized. Films, like Scream or When a Stranger Calls, whose plot is driven by the horrors of phones. The ability to not see the perpetrator and the ability to taunt over the phone reinforces the “stranger danger” feeling. However, horror films that incorporated internet illustrates the dangers behind the screen through stalking and catfishing natures created by the internet. It is more accessible and improbable to escape, especially in today’s world. 

·      I forgot to add this citation to my video but here it is: 

Dodd, Michael. “Safe Scares: How 9/11 Caused the American Horror Remake Trend (Part One).” The Missing Slate, 21 Feb. 2017, themissingslate.com/2014/08/31/safe-scares-how-911-caused-the-american-horror-remake-trend-part-one/.

            I chose a public and private setting. I chose two public areas, one directly outside of the Vatican City but both poses were in front of religious imagery – the Madonna in particular. Bothe places were in dense crowds. While I only captured the movement, the reactions around us were interesting. Some stared in awe or disgust. There was some who kept minding their own business. While we did not have direct confrontation, it created a rustle. I also chose the private sphere because there is a notion that what happens in private, stays in private. So what happens when you take taboo topics and display them in public spaces?

            Many women are reduced to a single moment and it defines them. The danger of the single story is that “it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult” (Adichie). I wanted to play with the continuation of movement, making the female figures multidimensional and complicated.  

In these three short films, I explore the movement behind “Minerva Dressing”, “Cleopatra” and “La Fornarina”. Each video explores the painting through different cuts. For example, “Minerva Dressing” is created through different angle shots and blunt transition cuts because I really wanted to get in that personal space of undressing because the image looks like there was a lot of movement to get to its still image. For the other two videos, the movement is more subtle because of their still poses so I took longer shots and less cuts. As a woman, it was fun to create these portraits of women through a female graze. Most of these artists are male so my vision, hopefully, provided a different perspective in bringing the paintings to life through video.    

 

            I did have difficulty with this project, but I approached the project with just the focus of the subject and did not necessarily looked beyond that. I focused more on the moment like what was happening around that person, why are they in that position and who is reacting to it. It helped me gauge and understand the concept of “street”. Street does not necessarily mean the literal street, but the attitude. So, I focused on other settings, like restaurants, church, and stores. Overall, this was an interesting project and it helped me understand Rome better.