The Dusty Piano Plays Itself — Parlor Haunting

Elegant supernatural short, 8 seconds, 16:9. An abandoned Victorian parlor: dust sheets over the furniture like shrouded figures, curtains rotted to lace, grey daylight filtering through the torn fabric. 0-3 seconds: the camera begins a slow orbit around a grand piano, its lid propped open, keys yellowed and filmed with dust; the orbit reveals a toppled candelabra, a portrait with its face turned to the wall, and the bench pulled slightly out. 3-6 seconds: mid-orbit, a single key depresses on its own with a low, sour note, dust puffing off it; then another, and another, a broken waltz assembling itself wrong notes and all, played by invisible hands, the tempo faltering like a half-remembered tune; the portrait with its face to the wall seems to tremble with the bass notes. 6-8 seconds: the camera completes its circle to find the piano bench now occupied by the shallow imprint of someone sitting, the velvet cushion depressed though the dust everywhere else is undisturbed; the waltz stops mid-phrase, the last note hanging. Craft: the parlor has a grand piano with yellowed keys, dust-sheeted armchairs, a gilt mirror gone cloudy, and the depressed velvet bench cushion; no people are ever seen. Camera: a slow continuous orbit around the piano, ending on the bench; smooth, deliberate, unhurried. Lighting: grey daylight through torn curtains, dust motes hanging in the beams, soft desaturated tones. Atmosphere: melancholic, deeply wrong. Style: elegant period decay, muted color grade, 24fps.