222.270 Digital Video Media Tahiwi, Belle, Nick, Jess, Kat: October 2013

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

Rationale

For our short film we decided to do a Horror comedy.

We wanted to have a theme of misdirection for our film. From the beginning the audience is misdirected, we assume the man who is having breakfast in the home belongs there but as we see him wave at the neighbour and the neighbour not recognising him things start to seem odd. As the real tenants come home we realise the man is a Squatter and he and doesn’t belong there. Again we push this theme as he takes shelter in another home. When the tenants come home then we assume the actions they are doing are just slobby and the strange happenings that are taken by the Squatters point of view as just his misconception as he has misplaced his glasses and is in a disillusion from falling asleep to horror film. But again we trick the audience when the ending reveals the family really are cannibals.

We wanted the film to have an obvious comedic horror to it, we did this by using classic horror music such as the psycho track when the hobo was doing ordinary things. We placed these noises over quick cuts like cooking eggs and putting clothes on for comedic twist. We also used intense orchestra music each time the Squatter misinterpreted a character to put a huge emphasis on how scary he was seeing it but cut the music out where it was the audiences view to make the Squatters misinterpretation look more ridiculous.

For our setting we used an ordinary flat for the first home so the attention wasn’t swayed from the Squatter and he didn’t look too out of place. For a second we used a much more warn down, abandoned looking home to give a more horror style setting for the climax of the story to unfold. The home also matched the family’s slobbish personalities and gave a more obvious reason for the Squatter to interpret as abandoned when finding a new home.

Overall we approached this project with the desire to create something fun. We enjoyed shooting and making something that wasn’t supposed to be seen as a serious horror while still keeping a slight gory touch.