Recently I had a chance to re-edit an old short of mine, Séance. This short was initially called Vintage Séance after my blog. In fact, I kind of made it to promote the blog, but after viewing it later, I felt I could probably do more with it than keep it as a small promo.
This time around the film is slightly quicker. I didn't have a great camera or editing software when I initially filmed it, but now I have taken the old footage into FCP (final cut pro) and have sped it up and tightened the editing a bit more. Unfortunately, I lost a lot of the original footage so I couldn't start from scratch. I mainly had to use the original .mov file and re-edited that as opposed to going back into original footage.
Because of this, the film still has its original filters, which I actually prefer. The old filters are just from iMovie but they still give off the look that I felt worked for this short. I really wanted to capture antique cinema (pre-talkies/ silent film era), which is why I chose an aged film look with a thick sepia tone.
As for the style and film elements, as well as character design, I wanted to really show that Southern Gothic style that I often lean toward, and incorporate a magical, but dark, side to it by having a séance gone awry. The séance itself also plays into the spiritualism movement, which was also common during the turn of the century/1920s era.
For the sound, I had my brother Bijan Sharifi assist me, as he is an expert. I told him I needed original music (since the music I originally had in the short was not my own) and I wanted the film to sound old and scratchy. He accomplished this with ease and made it sound even better than I had imagined. An extra slight reverb on the music made the audio sound a bit ghostly, which exceeded my expectations and made the film much spookier.
Take a look at the final cut of Séance on Vimeo:
