The lasting impression of this movie is the striking wide environmental shots of the hotel slowly being encased in snow and ice which symbolizes the rise of isolation that the characters feel throughout the film. I wanted to create a title sequence that emphasized those emotions.

When first looking for inspiration, I collected images that featured snow-covered landscapes and icy forests and then mixed in warm tones of the carpet, room key, and tricycle featured in the movie. It provided a nice contrast to the cooler tones in the mood board.

Moving from imagery to type, a typewriter font was the standout choice. The family stayed at the hotel so Jack could work on his book which he wrote using a typewriter. I also wanted the font to have a rough, uneven quality to reflect the chaotic shift Jack undergoes toward the end of the film. The Sears Tower font family captured the right tone and aesthetic for the title sequence. The next step was to create the storyboards.

The storyboards helped narrow down what to film and how to composite the shots. Upon reflection I removed all the elements except the axe and focused solely on the frozen landscape and the characters to emphasize their isolation from civilization.

Luckily this project was presented around the winter months. After a heavy snowfall overnight, I took the opportunity to film at the local metro park and in my parents' backyard. Starting with getting the shots that featured people. I directed the subjects moving around the snowscape with the focus being on the body language. I purposefully kept their faces out of the shot as Jack Nicholson's facial reactions are a large focal point in the film and I wanted to contrast this with body language. Having a foreboding, menacing posture with an axe reflects Nicholson's malicious expressions on his face, not to mention the viewer doesn't know what will happen to his character at the end of the movie and this technique keeps his identity hidden.

Capturing the environmental shots wasn't as meticulous. I captured a range of shots playing with depth of field and panning movements with the camera using both a tripod and hand-held shooting. I made sure to keep the movements slow to medium pace to make the mood match. Some of the hand-held shots added a small amount of movement to add to the urgency and stress at the end of the sequence. After selecting which takes to use for the video came animating the credits.

I took a simple approach when animating the credits, predominantly choosing to fade in and out the text for most of the frames so that the credits never fully took away from the backgrounds and subjects in the shots. A couple of exceptions were Nicholson and Duvall's credits as I had them being revealed when the camera pans right. To add more dimension to the text, outer glow and drop shadow layer effects were added. The drop shadow is a solid white backdrop to help with readability. The outer glow is a transparent white that flickers to increase the sense of uneasiness with the words.

Sound design was kept simple, only having the piano track of the original Shining opening theme, nature sounds, and chanting. Opening the video are nature sounds, which slowly fade away as the video continues. Closely following the nature sounds is the piano playing The Shining theme, timing the transitions to the piano keys. Chanting starts to be heard when you first catch sight of a man holding an axe, growing in volume the more he appears. At the climax of the video, you get a burst of voices which then gets cut off as the axe comes down into the frame.

Videography and editing footage were great experiences I took away from this project. Taking what you see with your naked eye and translating that onto film isn't a straightforward process. Learning to take the time and focus to get as many takes as you can with as many variations was also valuable. In editing, there were some shots where I wish I had taken more time, slowed down, or even a different filming technique. I didn't have the chance to retake the footage because by the time I was able to begin the editing process the snow had already melted. Overall, I'm glad I storyboarded beforehand, so I had a general idea of the shots I needed to capture.

Tone and ambiance informed all my design decisions for this project. Learning to look out for the feeling you want to express in a project helps drive informed outcomes.

Sound design is another area of growth in this project. Successful sound design is where you never notice or question what you're hearing when watching a video. I learned this while planning and placing the sound clips, paying attention to moments when a sound didn't quite "land" or felt "off." It takes patience and a good ear to know when it sounds effortless, but when you get there, it makes the piece feel complete.