This part of the previs shows where I started taking full advantage of the wider 16 by 9 frame. It became a space not just to show the man, but to show the world that he is trapped within. The extra width allowed me to introduce more environmental detail and more emotional context around the character.
The previs begins with the man rubbing his right thigh. Small actions like that were important to me because they make the character feel human right before everything becomes strange. He reaches for the belt and moves through the scene just as he does in my earlier previs versions, but the framing shifts slightly. He is pushed closer to the camera, which lets the audience focus on his behaviour and the tension in his body.
I also started exploring the idea of flashbacks in this stage. There is a moment where he stands in the kitchen and sees his wife at the stove. The camera moves behind him and the warm memory breaks apart into a derelict, diseased version of the same kitchen. It was meant to show how far things have fallen and how much distance there is between who he was and who he is now. In between these two shots there was supposed to be a second one where the demon appears and waits for him. It is missing in this old previs, but the intention was clear. He looks up at the demon, and that is when he becomes fully possessed.
After that the previs cuts to the child’s bedroom. She is sitting on the floor playing with a doll, and the father is making his way up the stairs in his possessed form. I used this moment to introduce her as the main character and to connect her to the father’s approach. Cutting back and forth between her and the father was a way of showing two very different emotional spaces without any dialogue. He is climbing toward her, and she is unaware of the danger.
She reaches for a lighter, and in this early version the idea was that the lighter was what the father had been looking for earlier. I make this clearer in later drafts, but this previs shows the first seeds of that connection. This is also the first place where I experimented with the idea of the girl being blind. In this previs she relies on her hearing, and there is a piece of cloth sliding under the door that she does not hear. It was meant to show her vulnerability and her dependence on senses other than sight.
She stands up, grabs the lighter, and goes into the closet. This was always an important moment to me, even in the earliest previs work. Inside the closet there are burlap framed dolls. In this early concept I wanted these dolls to play a far bigger role in the short film. The idea was that in the presence of the demonic father, the dolls would come to life or at least become affected by him. They were meant to be a physical extension of his influence, silent witnesses that react when he is near. Later on I changed my mind about how central they should be, but this previs shows where the original idea came from.
The rest of the previs continues the same structure as earlier versions. The father approaches, the sense of danger builds, and the girl hides in the only place she can. What changed in this iteration was not the broad sequence of events but the space around them. The wider frame, the flashbacks, the possessed transformation, and the early introduction of the girl’s blindness all helped me understand how to use visual storytelling to shape the narrative long before I committed to the painterly style.
This previs was another step in figuring out the emotional rhythm of the film. It taught me how to move between memories and the present, how to balance two different points of view, and how to signal danger through sound and movement. Even though many of the details evolved later, the core foundations were already here.
Expanding Narrative Scale With the 16 by 9 Frame
When I moved to a 16 by 9 frame in this previs, it was not for aesthetic novelty. It changed how I thought about storytelling. The wider ratio finally gave me room to show the man and the environment as a single emotional unit. Horror often relies on environmental pressure, and this previs is where I began using width to trap the character visually rather than relying solely on close shots. The wider space let the room feel like a presence instead of a backdrop, which shaped how I later approached every shot in the film.
Microgestures as Emotional Anchors
The moment where he rubs his right thigh looks insignificant, but that kind of microgesture became essential in my character work. These tiny, almost nothing movements make the human moments land harder before the supernatural elements overwrite them. In horror, grounding the audience in small, believable actions creates sharper contrast when things become unnatural. This previs is where I realised how far those minor behaviours could carry emotional weight.
Early Flashback Experiments and Dissolving Memory
The kitchen flashback in this previs was my first attempt at blending past and present in a single movement. The warm kitchen shifting into a decayed version was meant to visualise internal deterioration rather than literal memory. This previs helped me understand that my flashbacks weren’t supposed to be recollections. They needed to be emotional truths, visual metaphors for loss. The missing demon shot between the warm memory and the ruined kitchen is the clearest indication that I was already building the thematic structure that later defines the film.
Possession as a Visual Cut Rather Than a Gradual Transition
Even though the demon shot is missing in this previs, the intention behind it shaped the film. I wanted the possession to feel like a hard narrative break, not a gentle slide. In horror, abruptness often reads as violence, and this previs established that tone early. The idea that he looks up, sees the demon, and essentially changes identity underscores the brutality of the possession. That rhythm stayed consistent even after moving to the painterly style.
Parallel Emotional Realities Through Intercutting
Cutting between the father climbing the stairs and the girl playing with the doll became the prototype for the dual POV structure of the final film. This previs taught me how effective it was to let danger and innocence play side by side. Horror becomes more tense when the audience knows more than the character on screen, and this previs is where I committed to that structure. Everything in the final film’s first act comes from this early intercutting experiment.
Early Exploration of Lina’s Blindness
Her reliance on sound in this previs was the starting point for her blindness. Watching how she responded to cues differently from sighted characters made the emotional logic of her disability click. The cloth sliding under the door that she does not hear became my first real test of how to frame threats that bypass her perspective. It taught me how to use auditory cues and how to manipulate what she can and cannot detect long before I finalised her character.
The Closet as a Liminal Sanctuary
This previs was also the first moment where the closet became her safe space. Even though the painterly version of the film handles this differently, the emotional intention began here. The idea that she gravitates toward enclosed, warm spaces made sense narratively and visually. Her slow, deliberate escape into the closet helped me solidify the idea that small enclosed spaces would always protect her from the wider, more corrupted environment.
Burlap Dolls as Environmental Reactors
In this previs the dolls were supposed to react directly to the father’s presence. This idea grew out of my interest in making the environment respond to the demon indirectly. Even though the dolls no longer behave this way in the final film, this previs is where I learned that props could serve as emotional extensions of characters. The dolls being passive observers later on was influenced heavily by this experiment, even if their role changed.
Establishing Emotional Rhythm Through Visual Repetition
By repeating similar sequences from earlier previs versions but reframing them with wider space and more emotional clarity, this previs taught me how important rhythm is in horror. Scenes do not need new events to evolve. Sometimes the evolution comes from the way the space around the character tightens or stretches. This previs made that idea tangible. The events stayed the same, but the feeling shifted dramatically, and that became a core part of the final film’s storytelling.