Director Mariama Diallo and cinematographer Charlotte Hornsby on the horror film Master

The horror film Master explores the idea of institutional and
historic racism at an elite, mostly white college campus, as two
Black women are stalked by evil spirits. Director and screenwriter
Mariama Diallo is a lifelong horror fan, and sees the horror genre
as an expression of anxiety. She feels that horror frees you to
talk about ideas that are disturbing and unsettling at their core.
Master incorporates some of Mariama's personal experiences as an
undergrad at Yale, where the advisors/mentors were called Master.
As an African American, Mariama later found it bizarre and perverse
to have referred to someone in this way. She knew she wanted to
make a film called Master, and examine the scary realities of what
that word means. Once she began to write, Mariama found that
accessing her memories of being a Black woman at an elite
university felt painful and horrifying, so she knew this was where
the script needed to go. She started imagining how to picture the
school- orderly, controlled, static and a looming presence. When
the malevolent spirit appears, it is a jarring, violent rupture to
the polite presentation of the school. Mariama and cinematographer
Charlotte Hornsby worked together on her short film Hair Wolf, and
they knew they shared the same ideas and influences. As they got
into preproduction on Master, they watched movies, had long
discussions about the look of the film, and shotlisted the film
together. Prior to becoming a DP, Charlotte was an art director, so
she has a deep understanding of using color in her work. Charlotte
was definitely influenced by the color palette in Suspira and chose
to use shades of red and experimented with using shadows for a
haunted feel. Charlotte also liked the use of zoom lenses in movies
such as Rosemary's Baby, and used a long slow zoom in Master to key
into the pace of the scene. She chose to represent the POV of the
supernatural forces watching from a distance with a zoom lens,
while putting the camera on a dolly to act as the character's
perspective. Find Mariama Diallo: Instagram: @diallogiallo Find
Charlotte Hornsby: https://charlottehornsby.com/ Instagram:
@charlottehornsby_ Find out even more about this episode, with
extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep163/
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