Our short film, The
Occupant, is a psychological thriller targeted at both males and females in the
15-24 year old age bracket. We’ve chosen this age range as the violence mature
content presented are unsuitable for a younger audience, therefore we have
given the film a certificate of 15.
As the product is a psychological thriller we aimed to produce a
narrative, which provokes audience discussion and conveys an underlying theme
of mental illness. My role during the creative process was director, as
director I focused on the performance on the actor and overlooked the overall
creation of the film. However throughout the creative process our group did help
each other in their roles giving suggestions so that together we created a
short film we were all proud of. At the beginning of the creative process we
struggled to come up with an interesting narrative that fulfilled the criteria
and contained the conventions of a short film: only one or two main characters,
twist at the end of the narrative, simple easy to follow narrative, shot in one
location and a good use of the micro-elements. After coming up with a few ideas
we finally settled on this narrative. We then produced a rough storyboard to
give us a sense of direction when approaching filming. We used this rough
storyboard on the first day of filming as a platform and to give us an idea of
how the narrative will come together. This meant that we had room to come up
with new ideas. Whilst shooting for first time at the location we were inspired
to try unique shots as well as the ones we planned to film, this meant that we
had a handful of shots to choose from when it came to the first draft of
editing. Once we completed the first draft we realised that there were shots
missing as well as apparent continuity errors. However when it came to
organising reshoots we where unable to schedule a day where the actor could
attend. So instead of having a few shots film we needed to re-film the project
with a new actor. On the days we where re-filming the weather was very windy
and dull, this worked to our advantage as it created an eerie atmosphere and
added a grainy texture to the shots. As we had a different actor we decided to
change the way we wanted the main character portrayed, we changed her from
innocent/scared to mysterious/intrigued. As the height of the actors had
changed dramatically, we decided to shoot high angle and low angle shots. When
editing the second version of our film we completed it quicker than before so
we decided to test out the film by asking people to watch it and give us their
feedback on what needs improving. There was a major concern with the use of a
knife in the ending sequence due to health and safety, with this issue being
brought to our attention we had to rearrange the ending using another prop. We
came to the decision of using a screwdriver instead of a knife. Initially the
character picked up the knife off the kitchen counter but instead we changed it
to her searching through a draw for it, this added to the questioning of her
mental state as she was consciously planning to attack this figure.
