I carried out a similar experiment with my digital drawings as the one I did with the Jumbie wood carving. I decided that I could edit my digital concepts that I had of my folklore creatures so far, into different scenarios to see the effects. I wanted to create a really dramatic change in scenery to see if the emotional response was different when they were removed from the original context.
At first, I placed the Soucouyant into a natural bamboo forest environment, which is where I interpret the character dwelling in the game and also in the folklore. The effect was a mysterious image, and a feeling of dread and suspense, almost as if the Soucouyant was prowling through the forest looking for a target. However, I then placed it into a completely different environment, a market scene full of people. The result was a feeling of ridicule and humour, as the people in the scene did not seem bothered by this seemingly scary figure at all, when in reality seeing this creature would most likely frighten people. I also continued to put the Soucouyant in scenes that seemed out of context, such as in New York. This reminded me of a typical movie scene in an action/horror film, where a creature has invaded a city. The taxis in the image, now that it has been edited, look almost as if they are stopping in surprise at seeing the Soucouyant. The crowd on the other side of the street could be perceived as equally shocked bystanders, but despite this there is still too much of a bustling and cheerful vibe that puts the Soucouyant's horror aspect out of context. The last edit shows the Soucouyant in the interior of a house, which is distinctly not in the traditional Caribbean style, already placing it slightly out of context. Furthermore, although there were no people in the forest edit, the fat that there are no people in this house makes it hard to see the effect of possible human interaction that the Soucouyant would have and the emotional responses that could occur. The edit leaves us only with the indication that the Soucouyant was looking for something or was lost (which comes across as quite funny).
I carried out the same test with the Jumbie drawing, placing it it into scenes that I thought fitted the context well and scenes that did not. The first featured the Jumbie on the coastline, which has a sombre and melancholy feel to it, alongside the disturbing feeling when seeing the tall shadowy figure of the Jumbie lurking in the distance. This fits well with the context to me as I relate the Jumbie to water and the sea- it is a spirit of a slave who died on the passage from Africa to the Caribbean, and the skin of the Jumbie represents the wood of traditional carvings and also water rotted wooden ships. Despite having a grim background, the glow of the sun against the shore seems almost uplifting, giving mostly a peaceful and melancholy feeling to the Jumbie in this context, rather than that of fear. I then placed the Jumbie on an abandoned pier, which had more of an eerie feel to it. The pier reaches into the distance and the dark sky and foggy scene seem to place it into a context better suited for a horror game. This was the most effective in sticking with the context out of the edits that I tested. I then placed the Jumbie on a ship deck, but the fact that it was during the day and that the ship was clearly occupied by sailors removed the fear aspect. Instead, it appeared as a lost creature wandering around populated areas. The last Jumbie edit was the most ridiculous and I found it very out of context. I placed it into a busy playground full of parents and children, none of whom seemed to care about the presence of the Jumbie, much like the Soucouyant at the market. When the environment is wrong and no one reacts or cares, automatically the creature seems less scary.
The last edit test was for the Douen drawing. I placed the Douen in a forest setting but this time on a rickety bridge that seems dilapidated and unused. I really liked the effect of this and how it seemed to fit so well with my context. It was almost like it was looking at the view saying "Follow me", much like in the folklore. For the second edit I placed the Douen beside an old abandoned wooden building. I was playing around with the idea of a children's hideout area. I received a malevolent and mysterious feeling of foreboding. The Douen seemed to communicate without words through the image, getting the viewer to follow. I then placed it outside an old Caribbean home, which seems to resemble a typical 'haunted' house. Despite the disturbing image of the weather worn and aged house, it wasn't really scary as the Douen was outside it on the street during the day. Perhaps if it was night time then it would be scarier. The last image seemed fairly out of context, until I thought about Horror film scenes, showing haunted photographs of spirits in the background like in 'Indidious' (2011). As it takes a while to point out the Douen at first glance in this edit, when you do finally find it it is almost startling.
Evaluation
I found this experiment very useful to my project. Not only did I discover what removed the fear factor from the characters, but I also found scenes and contexts that I could vividly imagine my characters to dwell in a game. I found it very interesting how fear could be replaced by humour depending on the setting and context. This experiment shows how important it would be for a game environment to use the correct context that allows suspense and fear to brew.
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