Initial Research: Genre Specific Analysis 3

"NIGHTY NIGHT NANCY" Short Film Analysis

"Night, Night Nancy" is a short horror film about Nancy and someone in her house who is trying to kill her. It begins with her waking up to texts from a friend, she finds pictures taken of her sleeping on her phone and realises there is someone in her house. 
Directed by Lewis Farinella
Music by Jacob Cadmus
Starring Amber Collins, Leah Farinella & Mandrin Borrero
Executive Produced by Joseph Mckeel 

- "NIGHTY NIGHT NANCY" short film

Through this analysis of "NIGHTY NIGHT NANCY", I will be analysing different aspects of what all films should generally have, for example, camera shot, angle and movement will be a title for my analysis. This is so I can look at camera angles and therefore show how these certain shots, angles and movements are effective within the film, and therefore gain research into using it in my film. 

Camera angles/shots

The opening shot is a medium shot showing her straight on facing the camera so the audience can see the character and understand she is just waking up and checking her phone. This opening is important as it introduces the character and gives the audience an idea of the characters involved. For a short film, only a couple of characters are normally involved in the film, so not much time is spent with introducing the characters. This shot of introducing the characters will be important in our film, so I will make sure I include this shot in.

A medium shot is used again as we can see her shoulders however the angle has moved slightly so we see more of a profile shot of her face. Space is made on the right hand side to place the text from the message. This type of editing I will try to include the text in, especially from the prank calls, as we are deciding to include the stalker to text them anonymously. The frame is tightly packed showing mainly just Nancy, this is to show her facial expressions for effectively to the audience.

A close up is used to show her looking down through her phone. This shot is used so the audience can see clearly what she is doing through her point of view. A point of view shot is a really effective way of distributing to the audience the thoughts and feelings of the how the women feels. 

A long shot is used to show her walking through her hall, the camera moves slowly with her so as she walks towards the camera, the camera is slowly moving backwards. When she gets close to the camera the camera angle changes so it shows her walking from behind

A medium shot here shows the girl quite close up and also the killer looking for her. By doing this it creates suspense as the audience can see him getting closer to her. The shot is in deep focus because it is important we see the killer creating fear within Nancy. Deep focus allows the audience to see her reactions as he gets closer. Focus is a requirement in the film that'll we'll use in our film, as the suspense is what makes thriller/horrors successful.

A low angle is used to show the killer coming through the door after panning away from the door she just went in, all at the same low angle. This creates my suspension as we are able to see the distance from the two characters through the use of the angle. The direction of angle we will also include in our film, as angle plays a big role in importance, and mainly to create different emotions to the audience than eye line angle.

The camera here is shown to be close to the gap between the doors, this shows the killer looking for her in the other room. The camera does not move away from this position to show when the killer comes closer to her. This is also a POV shot, so the audience get a real sense of the suspense and fear in the girl.

A close up is used to show the killer about to kill her. This is to create a scare as we see what he looks like. The killer is placed in the centre of the frame with little in the background, this is important because the killer needs to be the shock. If there was a lot in the background it would take away the attention of what is necessary for the audience to see.

Mise En Scene

Throughout it looks as if the lighting within the house is the only lighting they use. This may of been because they could not have accessed other lighting. In some of the shots the house lights are shown to be on, however all shots are very dark, this implies that they have edited the lighting to be very dark (low key lighting).


This shot shows the house lighting is on, however because the brightness has been edited low, the lighting looks dim. I think for our film, lighting will be an important aspect of our film. We need to make the lighting accurate, or it won't provide the effect we need to make a successful film.

One of the shots shows her turning on the light when she is in darkness. When she turns on the light we are able to see the killer in close up with high key lighting so we can see him clearly and create a scare. This change from light to dark is important for our film as we need jump scares to complete a genre aspect and expectation.




Nancy appears to have minimal makeup or makeup made purposely to look as if she is wearing none, this is to go along with the storyline that she has just woken up. Her costume of shorts and a top is her night wear.


Her costume of shorts and a top is her night wear. Her costume in the film was necessary to go along with the storyline. More of the costume emphasis is on the killer as he needs to be scary.

Regarding the killer he is first shown in a grey hoodie and a silver mask with his long hair in a mess predominantly to the side. By wearing a mask he is hiding his face as he is a murderer. Blood is on his hands to conclude to the audience he has already murdered, who we find out is her boyfriend.

Editing

Quickening cutting rhythm is used in order to create tension and suspense during the ending when we are seeing the killer. If the cutting rhythm was slower it would not have created a scare. A jump cut is used at the end when we see the bloody killer saying "night night Nancy". This creates the scare from the audience as he is there when she turns around.

Shown in the two screenshots is an example of where they use match cuts, successful through editing. Other examples are used throughout. The match cut here is from the audience knowing she is reading her texts/replying to them    to the actual phone displaying the texts. This matched cut is used to not show a obvious cut through editing.

Sound

The sound of this film has a mysterious attribute to the film. At the start of the film, there is no sound whatsoever apart from the diegetic sound that is from the characters movement and the phone itself she is texting on. As she sees the pictures on her phone, the music starts to slowly introduce itself through the  non diegetic sound. As she sees the monster inside her house, the music starts to gain tempo, and it starts to begin to increase. 

As the monster is trying to find her, it gains more and more in volume. The sound from her phone then goes off which gives the monster a clue on where she is. At this point as the monster is approaching her, the music reaches its peak as the suspense level rises again. 

It then stops as the monster disappears after not finding her, which releases as part of a relief. After that, the main sound that jump scares everyone is the diegetic sound from the "boyfriend" of Nancy where he says "Night Night Nancy" and switches off the light.

Discussion

This short film has all the concepts of an horror film. For my film to gain this level of successfulness, I will adapt my film around some of the ways the film has gained tension, and the ways it creates a high level of suspense to the audience watching. This will be done through the use of sound, camera shot and angle, and how the scene is set through lighting. The lighting within my film has to be perfect and not to ruin it. Something to be done using test shots to get the perfect contrast on screen which I will do through Pre-Production.