Major Project Unit- Inspiration from "The Shining."

Whilst scripting Ascension, the kind of atmosphere set pieces would create was something I wanted to focus on heavily, particularly with the scenes taking place at the Lodge in the Scottish Highlands. The kind of atmosphere I wanted to create was similar to the atmosphere created in Stanley Kubricks film adaptation of Stephen Kings; "The Shining."

As seen in the above photographs, the location of the haunted hotel in the Shining is actually a very scenic one, and would probably be described as some kind of winter wonderland, if not for the horrific goings-on at the place. The use of snow and fog creates the illusion of a very small, enclosed (almost cozy) area which is the kind of atmosphere I wanted to capture and use in my own location for Ascension.

I wanted to play with the idea of a very beautiful, scenic, grotto-esque type area being made dangerous, and inescapable, and so during the creation of my script and describing the scene, I made sure to pay special attention to the description of the snow, and the enclosed nature of the area, such as mentioning "glistening frost" "hanging lights" and "snow that covers the place like cake icing."

I feel that the idea of having such creepy, dangerous occurrences in such a scenic and beautiful area adds its own effect and definitely adds a sense of fear and unknown to the story I am trying to tell.