Private Project

Umbra

Umbra is a short period horror film set in the 1800s. The world has been shrouded in a perpetual night, and from the shadows demonic beings called "Banshees" now prowl the land, the only defense against them being the one thing that is now scarce, light. The Connor family are on the last stretch of a long cross country journey to a place called "The Refuge" a safe haven from the banshees. But this last "stretch", is a valley that is infested with the evil beings.

  • Scott Alexander Naar
    Director
    Hallie, Goldfish, Benjamin, Bully, Witch Game, Nightscapes
  • Scott Alexander Naar
    Writer
  • Sarah Hartman-Naar
    Producer
    Hallie, Goldfish, Missed Connection, Death's Day Off
  • Austan Wheeler
    Key Cast
    "Elijah Connor"
  • Sarah Ogan
    Key Cast
    "Abigail Connor"
  • Kailee McFerran
    Key Cast
    "Mercy Connor"
  • Alexandra Santiago
    Cinematographer
    Bully, 8.5.18, Cherry.
  • Franck Manyong
    Executive Producer
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    15 minutes 37 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 15, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    4,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 4K
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Scott Alexander Naar

I was born in Jamaica the son of a banker, and as a child I struggled with a lot of social issues. One issue that I reconciled with constantly was the fact that I felt like I had no talents. All my friends were good at sports, I was terrible at sports, all my friends could draw well, I could only draw stickmen. My mother tried to help me find my passion for years but nothing would ever stick. One thing I did have a knack for and didn’t realize until I decided to pursue the path of filmmaking was stories. I loved writing them, acting them out, pretending I was a hero in a medieval story or a space ranger flying through space. When I was a teenager, I finally found a talent and a passion, music. I played in a band and decided I wanted to pursue a career in music as part of a rock band. I had finally found a talent that I could be proud of and excel in.
From here, I had a sort of renaissance of love in the arts and began to watch and critique films I would watch. Suddenly, I became a sort of cinephile and became quite obsessed with everything about film. But it wasn’t until I left Jamaica and went to Chicago to further my music studies that I decided I wanted to pivot from music and pursue film. It felt right, it felt like I could be more creative but also I fell in love with the idea of visually telling a story. With creating a world with characters, settings, plots all from my imagination and putting them on a screen for people to see. I soon began making very short films with an old VHS camera, the first of which was a campy vampire film that was a homage to Universal horror films called “Son Of Nosferatu”. It had no budget, I used my roommates as actors, and did the monster makeup myself. It was…rough, but I still felt proud, I had made a film. My college unfortunately didn’t have a film program so I finished my four years, moved to Florida and decided to go to film school there at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. It was here that I learned the foundations of my filmmaking skills and began understanding not only how to make films, but what my specific voice was with filmmaking. I met like-minded filmmakers, made a ton of short movies that won numerous awards and finished off my journey there with a film titled “DAYKILLERS”, which won me to highest honor in my graduating class.
After Art Institute, I pursued my masters at the University of Miami where I honed my skills even further, but while Art Institute helped me develop my technical skills, UM helped me craft more of my artistic abilities, especially with direction and screenwriting. It was there at UM that I began to truly make films not just to make them, but because I felt an innate need to tell a story that I thought needed to be told. At UM, I directed and wrote seven shorts films, all of which did extremely well on the festival circuits, and my thesis film “HALLIE” won me the “Best Director” prize at my school’s end of year film festival and it was also chosen to be shown in LA as part of a showcase of the top films from UM. Now I am living in LA to pursue the next level of my career, which I believe entails making a big budget feature film and distributing it accordingly.

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Director Statement

Umbra is a film that taps into the most base fear of most people, fear of the dark.