FEAR
What is fear? It's abstract for some, a nightmare for others.
Director: Michel de Freitas
Editing: Michel Freitas
Cinematography: Michel de Freitas
Visual Effects: Michel de Freitas
Actors: Michel Feitas
Screenplay: Michel Freitas
Production Company: Prism Productions
How it came to be
Fear might be my most abstract short film yet, it's open to many different interpretations, even I change my view on it as I get older... But, to be completely honest, my initial intention was not to depict fear itself, but to use Godzilla as a way to show some cool VFX. But after having done the Godzilla effect, I felt that I could take this much deeper into an unknown abstract world. The first thing that came to mind was fear, a feeling to which the Japanese associated a very big and dark monster: the Godzilla. It all made sense.
The short film itself has no intended meaning nor plot behind it, it simply depends on who you are as a viewer: for some, the nightmares I have in this short film are due to my fear of Godzilla, for some it's me overcoming that fear and for others it's both (and for others it might even be something completely different).
I went for a 4:3 aspect ratio to create a sense of claustrophobia, a place that I can't leave and have to confront. The black and white represents the nightmare I'm having whilst the colorful and contrasty color palette represents a real life scenario.
One small detaiI I that I found cool was that as the nightmare evolved and the rain became imense, my sweat also got worse. I used the same shot for the beginning and for the ending to show that the protagonist has probably had that nightmare more than once already... well, at least that can be one way to interpret it! I think the ending wrapped up this abstract short film pretty well.
The VFX
I'm still deciding on whether I should make a video breaking down the VFX for this short film since it's too much to write. But here are some key VFX frames for you to analyze:
You might be wondering what the effect on the radio is... it's the numbers "0.02", which were added in post. The two dark and rainy scenes on the right were both filmed inside my bedroom without a greenscreen... can you gues how I did that?
The thing that annoyed me the most
It's crazy to think how I didn't notice this but the title at the beginning and at the end of this short film is unaligned!
Overall, this was and still is my most abstract short film yet, which didn't go the way I planned initially, but ended up being better than what I had in mind! I learned a lot from this short film, especially VFX and camera work... but I also made some mistakes which I will definitely learn from. Thank you to everyone who shared, liked and critiqued this short film to help me become a better filmmaker!