Watching Down

Yesterday, we watched the short film "Down", and jotted down some notes.

It contained jagged writing in the middle of the screen. This was of a silver/white colour, on a black background. It moved around the screen vigorously, flashing and jumping around. The title credits then faded into the establishing shot. This was of the stairs, going to the first floor of the house. The camera slowly moved up these stairs. It seems like a good idea, to link in with our film. It created a spooky, suspecting feel. At the top of the stairs, the camera turns to the bedroom door. Here it shows a American style stop sign, stuck on the door. The door then opens and the camera moves in. This reveals a young boy, asleep in bed, and as the camera gets closer, the young boy starts to become distressed. He moved around sharply, jumping around the bed, tossing and turning. During this, the screen flashes and goes to a black and white "flashback". What happens in the flashbacks are not very clear, as the camera moves so quickly, to create fear in the atmosphere. All that i could point out from these quick flashbacks, that a whip pan shot was used showing the trees. This image was quite disturbing. The young boy suddenly jolts awake, frightening viewers. At this point i noticed lightening outside, but upon second viewing, i realised that the lightening was happening throughout this. That was a benefit of watching it more than once, because you pick up more things when you watch it over. The boy looks over, and discovers that there is a ghost in the doorway. The young boy looked very scared, and clearly distressed. The ghost of the girl just stood there and looked at the boy, and then walked away.

I think that "Down" is a really good short film made in our local community, and it has given us a lot of inspiration which we can adopt into our idea for our film.