Video Project

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OZqxO5AnVJ1qZG6PPMf3_tjlrupbLDYj/view?usp=sharing

For this project, I made a video that played with the role of the monster in a horror movie. I started with the idea of making a horror movie where everyone was the monster, playing with the perspective of who was really afraid of who. The video starts with the seeming normalcy of peaceful shots that descend into scarier shots, but does not end with a simple chase of the monster after the victims. It is ambiguous the entire time who or what the monster is, only that there is generally a sense of fear present. In the last scene, the tables are turned, and the victim who was assumedly stalked all along by the monster ends up being the one who seems the scariest. I distinguished who's perspective was being played out using sound effects and different visual effects, but in the end attempted to blur these effects to make it ambiguous that there ever were any differences in the characters or the "monster." While "a horror movie where everyone is the monster" was my starting point, as I filmed and edited, and re-filmed and re-edited, I found myself using that as a springboard to play with what makes something qualify as the source of horror in a story. There is no monster ever seen with the exception of the people who played the victims, and the viewer in the camera perspective themselves. Through viewing them under different lighting and contexts, and with different outfits, the feeling of who they were in the story changed dramatically and was confused by the end.

Ultimately this was a fun project to make, playing with the different ways in which we see something as being meant to be scary in a film. It was ironic that I made a "horror movie," since I do not watch horror movies and am very easily frightened. Nevertheless I am glad I did, as I feel that there wouldn't be any other way that I could call into question the things that I did without making a video like this. 

Credits, order of appearance: Alyxandra Master, Brianna Gilman, James Schulfer, Justin Sharp, Daniel Staples. Filmed by Daniel Staples. Edited using InShot.