A Darren Aronofsky inspired horror short film
STARRING Jasmine Zhang
INSPIRATIONS & INFLUENCES
The basic concept of my film was greatly inspired by Aronofsky's Black Swan, where Nina must kill her pure self as symbolized by the white swan in order to achieve perfection in being the black swan — literally and figuratively. Darren Aronofsky has a very strong thematic pattern; his films center around the ambition of a single character, when that character pursues his/her ambition to such an extent that it becomes obsession and leads to self destruction. Aronofsky explores the darker realm of the human experience with drama, brutality, and the fine line between ambition and madness. Thus, my film centers around a character obsessed with maintaining her perfect image, resulting in a the alternate “perfect” version of herself having to kill her human self. On the technical level, Aronofsky’s use of color, cinematography, editing, and sound design cultivate the psychological state of the main character — another quality I drew inspiration on.
COLOR
Aronofsky uses consistent thematic color palettes for his characters, like the red symbolizing success in "Requiem For a Dream". In my film, to distinguish between the human and perfect sides, I employed white and yellow for innocence and black and blue for sorrow and manipulation. This is evident in costume choices and color grading, where shadows have a blue tint and highlights have a yellow tint, with reduced red in post-production. On set, I maintained a limited color palette of white, black, and blue for clarity and coherence.
MISE EN SCENE
Aronofsky's character-centric approach often involves physically centering characters within the frame. Hence, I strategically positioned the protagonist such that perspective lines of symmetry point directly at her, drawing the audience’s eyes towards her. Additionally, I utilized the expansive doorway of her home to frame her surroundings, conveying a sense of emotional detachment from her family despite their apparent interaction.
STILLS
