Window of cues.
We have all grown up watching films and TV, this means that we have learnt to read and understand the cues we are given during these things. Consequently, we should all react in the same way when prompted with these cues.
For this part of my installation I’m looking at the fear that these cues help to produce. I want the viewer of my installation to understand that this room he or she is immersed in is not a pleasant place to be. Using the cues created in horror films and other fear inducing shows such as the films 'Se7en', 'The Ring' and 'Secret Window', I have created a film that will be projected as the window to my installation.
The film includes oddly coloured and moving clouds, thunder and a heart beat. These images and sounds are used in horror films to signify that bad things are about to happen to the characters. The clouds whipping past shows time passing. The sky-changing colour shows danger. Thunder makes people jump and also signifies bad things are about to happen as does the heart beat.
To develop this I used Adobe Premiar, the assistance of my good friend and video guru Paul Oxborough, and some footage of some clouds floating by. We started by inverted the colour of the clouds so that they took on a yellow/brown colour. We then slowed the footage down and cut it into parts so that with inverting and copying parts we could make the clouds seem to pulse. This effect has made the clouds take on an odd ink/smoke effect that makes you wonder if they really are clouds. We then took a surround-sound stock recording of a rumble of thunder and added that to the track. Then, we added a heart beat to synchronise with the pulsing of the clouds.
The whole track was then copied and flipped so that the clouds go one way and then back again. This means that completed film can be played seamlessly on a loop.
The original plan was to create rain on a window but I had to scrap it due to the following issues. Initially, we filmed water hitting a clear glass shower cubical. However, we had to zoom into the cubical to eliminate the background and to focus on the drips. Consequently, when the footage was shown the raindrops were very large. So we would have needed the projected window to be bigger than the TV we tested it on otherwise the raindrops would be dramatically out of proportion and so make the installation less believable.
We also tried placing the rain over the clouds that we had produced. This also did not work as because we could not remove the background to the rain and so the effect was that the window was very dirty and needed cleaning and the raindrops were out of proportion.
To finish off the cloud film we took it into Adobe After Effects and added an effect that made the film look scratched, old and lined. It also makes the film jump occasionally which gives the impression of a subliminal image being flashed up on the screen.
The completed production demonstrates the cues that I was aiming to promote in this film. I look forward to seeing it working in my installation.
