First, I focused on a moodboard to show overall feeling and colour. I gravitated toward a green palette, as I like how ti looks when it’s dark, as opposed to a dark blue or neutral-black. I liked the look of dim light sources coupled with green, constricting walls. Constricting corridors are a staple of horror games, which is where i draw a lot of inspiration from.
Next, I ‘zoomed’ in and looked at primarlily photos of corridors and the horror games I wanted to take inspiration from (Silent Hill, Resident Evil, and Alan Wake 2). I wish I had worked out how to add a touch of bright red, as the contrast between red and green has a nice effect. I decided to go for a sewer-type of background, somewhere without doors or windows, to lean into the claustrophobic feeling.
Though I really enjoy the atmosphere of the Resident Evil corridor, I preferred the green lighting of the Alan Wake game, as it gave everything a sickly, unnatrual feel. Alan Wake 2 also deals with feelings of isolation and being on the fringes of society, while Resident Evil focused more on danger, which I wasn’t really looking for. The Resident Evil screenshot shoes the classic over the shoulder shot used in games thta I used as inspiration in my first scene.
I decided to move away from images and games and look at tv. I decided to focus on the episode ‘ Time Heist’ of Doctor Who, as the premise of the episode deals with being trapped, and had a lot of dramatic lighting moments. While the corridor is wider than the one I was going for, I paid attention to the colourful lighting used in the episode. I also used the overhead lighting as inspiration for the two light strips in my 3D background.
I decided to make my background in 3D, as you can import the camera tracking directly into the program instead of setting it up in Nuke. I decided this was better for my workflow, and gave me more control over the customisation of the enviornment. I opted to look at tutorials about corridors and made three versions of the scene with various walls removed, so I could import them into Nuke depending on what was needed. The corridor used in the tracking shot has it’s wall removed.