Research

    One of my peers recommended I look further into séance scenes during the group meeting and that is exactly what I am going to do. This post will be a little longer than my past ones, so I think It'll be best to split it up into some sections: history, sample analysis, and reflection.

History

    So what is a séance in the first place?? 

Séance captured in France 1897, photographer unknown.

    

    The word séance derives from it's French root, meaning "session". In English however, seances are associated with ghosts and the supernatural. Why is that? Well, in 1849, two sister, Catherine and Margaretta Fox, wanted to show to the world that they could communicate with spirits. Their demonstration, in which they claimed that spirits would communicate through "clickings" (one meaning yes, two meaning no), is the first documented case of spiritualism being performing in front of an audience for money. Even though the Fox sisters admitted to their demonstration being a hoax years later, spiritualism and seances still became very popular across the world. Just off of this little bit of research that I've done, I've deducted that my original idea isn't exactly a séance, but rather a weird combination of a séance and a possession.

    There are actually different types of seances (there's like a whole science to this, it's much more complex that I imagined). Religious seances fall under the religion of spiritualism and Divine Metaphysics, so this is not relevant for my research. There's also seances that a performed by mediums on a stage to an audience, again, this is not relevant. The only kinds of seances that fit my idea are leader-assisted seances and informal social seances. Leader assisted seances are performed by a medium, which I do not have, these mediums go into a trace, which I DEFINTELY want to incorporate into my story. And obviously, my "séance" will be in an informal setting, so this will be my biggest inspiration for the rest of the project.

Samples

Emily 

    So, Emily is a biographical film following the life of writer Emily Bronte. It's not really historically accurate at all, but I do love the way it incorporated supernatural aspects to a realistic setting. Maybe an odd choice to reference first since it's not a horror film, but honestly, this clip may be the closest to the idea I have in my head. During this scene, Emily is using a mask to conjure up the spirit of her mother and it seems like her mother actually possess her body. I'm particularly inspired by this scene because of the tonal shift that occurs. While mine would be set in modern day, this is surprisingly close to the the...vibe that I want to capture, just a group of friends trying out something stupid that turns out not so stupid. One detail that I noticed used to develop the tonal change without the need of fancy effects or incredible acting (not saying the acting is bad though...the cast is phenomenal in this film) was the pacing of the editing. The beginning of the scene relied on very little cuts, and only used them to get an occasional reaction shot or different angle. However, by the end of the scene, the cuts are frantic and much more frequent. This really helped translating fear to audience. The lights flickering also helps with this effect (I could probably do this on Premiere Pro). One last detail I wanted to mention for this scene was the variety of shots and angles that were used. They really bring an eeriness to the rest of the setting, I could actually try recreating some of the shots in my own film. 

Stills from Emily

Hereditary

    One day I'll write a blog post that doesn't involve me mentioning Hereditary, I PROMISE. This film is a much more traditional horror, I really don't even want to rewatch this scene because it just freaked me out so bad, but well oh well, the sacrifices I make for media studies. Hereditary is about a family that is haunted by a demon following a series of tragic events. In this particular scene, Annie (Toni Collette), who believes she is a medium, is performing a seance to communicate with her daughter, Charlie. Charlie possesses her body, but rather than it being a traditional horror sequence, Charlie just asks for her mother, which is honestly so much creepier than most seances scenes. This scene is honestly so strong just because of everyone's performance, so while I hope to have actual actors in my own project, I can't fully rely on developing tone thorough characters (to be honest, it's not really fair to compare Toni Collette to any actor so...). What actually caught my attention the first time I watched this scene was the camera movements used. It's very subtle but there are very few, if any, static shots throughout this whole sequence. The constant movement, the tilts and pans, make the rest of the atmosphere very unsettling, like there's something lurking in the shadows. I mentioned this in a past blog post, but I really do want to use movement in my project. Since I am talking about Hereditary, I also wanted to mention another scene that had a big impact on me when I was originally coming up with the idea.

       In this scene, Peter (Annie's son) is possessed by this demon for the first time. I'm not exactly sure how much this scene will influence my actually opening, but the look on Peter's face is so terrifying and has stayed with me since I watched this movie. The whole idea of not being able to control your own body is a great theme I could try to tie into my own film.

Talk to Me 

    I know I talked a little about Talk to Me's opening scene a couple blog posts ago, but I did feel the need to discuss this sequence since it's pretty hard to deny the similarities between my own idea. So, Mia (the one in the yellow sweater), is trying out this hand thing that lets spirits into their body or something like that at a party. I actually saw this in theaters and the jumpscares and so simple but SO effective. I truly don't know if I want to include jumpscarses at all, but if I do, Talk to Me's quick cuts are a good technique to model after. Like Emily, this scene has a more informal, casual environment, that fit well into what I am visualizing. What I thought this scene did very good, was subtly developing each of the character's personalities through their actions. There's something else I wanted to mention about this scene but I'm really blanking at the moment, so if I remember, I'll probably include it in a later blog post (also little side-note, but I love how the costume design emphasizes Mia as the subject).

Some stills from this scene

    That's all the research I've got left in my today; think I'll watch a horror move as a treat.

Sources

Kingston, T. (n.d.). Séances, spirits & mediums - victorians & spiritualism. History Undressed. https://www.historyundressed.com/2017/06/seances-spirits-mediums-victorians.html




Levrier-Jones, G. (2021, October 18). The rise of spiritualism in 19th century America - History is now magazine, podcasts, blog and books: Modern International and American history. History is Now Magazine, Podcasts, Blog and Books | Modern International and American history. https://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2021/10/18/the-rise-of-spiritualism-in-19th-century-america