I. T H E M A K I N G O F:
S I G H S F R O M T H E D E P T H S
P l o t
The concept of my film will take inspiration from the dream sequence in Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and the colour palette used in Luca Guadagino’s Suspiria (2018). Sighs from the Depths creates a dream sequence of an occult ritual that involves manifestations of both the subconscious and conscious mind. Dream mirrors the reality of what is consciously happening in waking life as the ritual occurs, giving two worlds the character is inhabiting, both evil. The film takes its reference from the dream sequence, symbols of rebirth, and a specific cinematic colour palette.
A L a n g u a g e o f
D r e a m s
Dreams speak to something primitive that exists within the collective unconscious as well as the personal unconscious. Within these dreams the seeds of awareness of ones true nature are sown. They speak of something long known to us, once very familiar. Sylvie’s sleep is disturbed by dreams of her childhood, her suffering, the death of her mother, her illness. In her dream state the symbolic visions that come to her are unconnected with reality, they appear in sequence as apparitions.
O c c u l t S y m b o l i s m
Throughout the film symbolic associations are made to depict concepts of religion, parturition, and trauma.
This is the seal of the twenty-ninth Spirit of hell, which thou wear as a Lamen before thee. He bears the answers of all things, past, present, and to come, and can discover all secrets.
Horned animals such as the black goat are symbolic of divinity, used throughout ceremonial rituals and witchcraft.
The mirrored room contains a symbol meant to invoke dark magic, a ritual chamber of sacrifice. Within the mirrored room ancestral fears of our subconscious come to surface.
C o l o u r P a l e t t e
Sighs from the Depths uses its eventual transition from earth tones to blood red as a symbol for violent upheaval. A shifting colour palette doubles as an argument for the casting off of oppression as the film uses its colours to separate the dream sequences from those of waking life. The cinematography will utilize earth tones of dull blue, brown and green to identify the conscious mind we inhabit when we are awake, and red to symbolize the dreams that contaminate the unconscious.
Cinematography
Sighs from the Depths was shot on a Bolex H16 Reflex with black and white 16mm film and the Fuji XT-2. The film was captured through a process of meticulous stop-motion animation. Armature puppets were sculpted by hand in plasticine clay and cast in resin. The animated world is constructed of a handcrafted set.