Bloopers, Outtakes & Behind the scenes

After two days of filming, we ended up with lots of extra footage - including messed-up lines, laughing fits and broken torches. Here is a quick video showing some of the extra bits we attained.

Film Feedback

After showing our film to our class, we recieved the following feedback from our classmates:

Mise-en-scene:

• Props were carefully considered and linked with the conventions of horror
• Red candle - significant for time/time running out, red - connotations of danger and blood. Builds anxiety.
• Painting of naked woman - relates to Hitchcock's works, and could symbolise being trapped or confined.
• Titanic monument - symbolises death 
• Shakespeare mask - Shakespeare wrote tragedies focusing around death - symbolic for plot and events in the film. 
• Ironic use of light: Lighting is dark throughout, and yet once the victim reaches the basement and climbs stairs the lighting becomes brighter. This is ironic as the lighting suggests a sense of hope, however the victim is about to meet her death - which means the bright light could symbolise the stairway to heaven. 
• Restricted view - torch works well to instil 'fear of the unknown' by placing the audience in the victims position. 
• Banisters on stairs - can symbolise being trapped. 

Camerawork:

• Good range of shots - canted angles create a sense of disorientation. 
• Shots change as the victim descends further into the house: the victim is introduced in a low angle - suggesting she is in control of the situation, however she is then presented in medium shots - making her seem more vulnerable, and then finally a high angle - making her seem weak and defenseless before she is killed.
• P.O.V. shot was very effective in increasing tension and involving audience. 

Editing:

• Smooth and continuous editing 
• match on action shots used when opening doors
• Creepy font suits genre

Sound:

• Silence was effective - helped build anxiety/suspense
• Loud footsteps - created an anti-climax as they scared the audience, only to find out it was just the girl. 
• Good sound effects - little girl laughing

We also shared our film on social networking sites such as Facebook, and here are some of the comments we recieved:

'The Occupant' Timeline

Final Film Opening

"Everything should have gone smoothly for Alice, a young woman in the process of moving into her dream home. She finds the quirky charm of the 19th century property endearing, but she struggles to shake the unnerving feeling of never truly feeling alone in this house.

The further Alice ventures into the dark depths of her new home, the more secrets she unearths. As night falls, she can't resist feeling the sneaking suspicion that this perfect property hosts more than one 'occupant'." 

'Full' 4 minute horror film

After originally editing all of our clips together on Final Cut, we realised it was extremely over the time limit given for the task. We originally planned to open our film with 'Alice' moving into her new house with her friend Vicky helping her unpack her belongings. The power would then cut out, and Alice would venture down into the basement to turn it back on at its source. After Alice goes missing, Vicky then wanders around the house in search of her friend, only to find that the house was not 'empty' all along after all.
We eventually shortened our opening down to approximately 2 minutes, however lots of extra footage was lost, including the character of Vicky, and so we created the full length version of our film 'The Occupant' to see how it would have turned out if he had been allowed a longer time limit.

Font Ideas

For the title of our film, we will want to use a bold, harsh font that conveys themes of horror. We researched different types of fonts on 'www.1001fonts.com' and found several styles that would be suitable for our film:

I feel as though these fonts create an eerie feeling and would be typical fonts used in real horror films in the media. In the end, we decided on a font called 'cracked' that was available on Final Cut Express, and we used it for our credits. 

Final Film Name Brainstorm

We wanted to decide on a film title that matched the plot of our film, and so we brainstormed several ideas all connecting the the idea of moving into a new house. We eventually decided on 'The Occupant' as we felt it conveyed the plot of our film, along with sounding quite sinister.