Night Night Nancy is short film horror, about a girl who has an intruder in her house, and all the while messages her boyfriend for text, only to discover he has been dead and, as up for interpretation, killed and come to kill her as a zombie or has gone crazy after being brought to near death and therefore readies to kill her. It has a good twist on horrors and modern day technology which can draw a younger audience in.
The title sequence in itself is very modern and can attract an younger audience from the off set as it is a close up of a screen showing a text message of the title. This connotes a modern twist on the short film and that its genre is fun and interesting for that demographic.
A slow zoom is seen to begin with as the character is established through a mid shot, and the sound of the phone pinging and typing can be heard and seems calm as the equilibrium is set. The lighting can be seen as dark which sets mise en scene type enigma created as it seems mysterious and the text message titling and the actual title itself keeps the audience on edge. There are causal, colloquial tones as she messages who is presumed to be her boyfriend and shows she is comfortable and at ease, and as she begins to move the angling starts to show her higher, rather than at the beginning lower down and possibly vulnerable. She can also be seen as consumed by her phone as she gets up to leave her bed but her notification drags her back down.
An OTS, close to POV perspective shot makes the scene personal and sees her in a CU on her phone, and a shot reverse shot shows her as more vulnerable as it sees her at a close up to a mid shot and slow zoom in, it makes her look very alone and sees her taken aback by what she has discovered and shows her in shock. Her text messages also make up for her lack of speech and projects what she is thinking and feeling, giving a direct clue to the audience to how she feels.
The mise en scene is shown to be dark and poorly lit, and focuses in pools of darkness and shadows in pools of light. The shots show her at tracking mid shots as she cautiously walks around with very little sound, and switches to a shot behind her to add enigma as the concept of the unknown is introduced. As the genre is horror the conventions make this a typical moment for a jump scare, and the combination of slow body language, quietness and dark lighting add to this horror genre.
In the blocking shot, as an audience it creates high enigma as she is in line with a blind spot, and also that the audience at this moment are to see, for a spilt second, more than the character which heightens tension and feeling on edge. The sound of unattractive breathing is heard and a mid shot of the woman's facial expression give complete convention normality to what is happening and makes the audience feel fear too as they see it on her. The shot is filmed on a Steadicam or handheld to emphasise the uncertainty of what is happening.
As she runs we see her face and body and also can therefore see behind her with the backwards tracking shot, which builds on the enigma. The half and half shot of different depths, again like the kitchen shot, entitles the audience to more knowledge than the character herself, which gives us a want,in terms of narrative, to help her as she doesn't see the danger. The convention of the knife is also seen which represents horror clearly and the breating of the person can be ominously heard as the antagonist travels from room to room.
The low angle shot briefly shows the victim hide in the closet, then switches to a low angles pan which is slightly canted to the antagonist walking in the room, and this fluid motion shows how close of a call the characters were to meeting and adds tension and gripping, on edge drama and also makes the evil character seem more menacing as it's the first, closer mid shot of the character, and shows the weapon scrape down the door, as the mask, bloodied, darker clothes show complete opposite representation to the victim in light, white clothes to represent innocence.
The shot reverse shot shows a close up shot of the girl with obvious complete discomfort in her body language from the situation, as she shakes uncontrollably and holds her breathe, with fear in her eyes. It then cuts to a blocking shot of the outside of the closet, a POV shot from the woman, as the darkness and blocked shot adds mystery and intensifies the situation, and shows the outside of the closet area in a fragmented image, and adds tension as the evil character is seen to walk past as they search for her.
The technology side comes into play here as what creates a higher level of disequilibrium is as there is a 'side on' view of her phone, which creates subconscious instability through the shots, it then breaks up the SRS, and then cuts back to her reaction which creates panic for the audience as the antagonist is seen to look up as 'it' slowly rises, straight through the closet, yet at a distance which cues up the presumable end for her.
This is the ultimatum for horroresque conventions, as the SRS shows her to be stuck in the same positioning, yet the blocking, split screen is seen as not completely full to a shot of it then being filled by the mask, which seems horrifying as the gap had closed in distance between both characters and the antagonist looks straight at her. An unusual twist occurs however, as the evil character is seen to turn away and walks away - a surpising end in which the main character is now safe, although the whole sequence was seemingly supposed to have her die.
The technology aspect is then reinstated, which I believe may convey the message of using phones wisely, as she could have called the police yet called her boyfriend, who landed her in a dangerous situation just then anyway. There are now somehow pictures sent to her of her supposed boyfriend dead, which adds to the whole drama. Yet it sticks to the horror most of the demographic for this film would relate to and makes it seem more real in that sense as the audience can imagine it happening to them.
The final scenes are shocking as the noise from behind her, the sound of a phone ringing, is another worry as it connects her boyfriend being closer than she thinks, as she was (before the intruder), seemingly alone. Enigma is created from the phone call, and also as close up shots are seen as she slowly turns her head and puts the light on, to which more enigma is raised as there is a POV shot of a bloodied hand in handcuffs, holding a phone - which links the phone call, ringing and phone in hand; the bloodied hand is the boyfriend's, which makes the audience believe everything said from the boyfriend was a lie and in fact a set up, and that is why the other dangerous character walks off. The close up shot of her then in defeat and also sadness conveys a message to the audience of having no hope left, and the cut shows the man, dead faced and banadaged, her boyfriend. It then cuts to black to leave the inevitable on a cliffhanger and let the plot twist sink in.
MEDIA LANGUAGE:
- angled shots to represent the characters according to vulnerability and power
- horror related props such as knifes used as convention
- tracking shots switched from front to back to add tension
- cleverly edited to have text type on screen
- darkened mise en scene sets the tone as mysterious
- sounds are phone notifications and breathing, add intensity
AUDIENCE:
- audience hooked through technological factor
- seamlessly has phones throughout; relatable
- 15-24 year olds would watch this, 40/60 split on gender to females
- seems more horrifying as realistic
- uses mobiles as unique twist to grab demographic
NARRATIVE:
- blocking shots gave the audience more information than the character for some moments, heightens on edge feeling
- conventions such as shortening in distance leads audience to believe probable outcome, then switches
- can link through phone use and ringing that the new character at the end is the boyfriend, shock factor but satisfaction as intelligent audience can make link
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