Man of the House
Man of the House follows the family of an abusive father, Robert, who resurrects his consciousness after death by uploading his voice and personality to the family’s AI-controlled smart home. Together, Andrea, Apollo and Thalia must overcome his technological grasp.
This project involved extensive use of visual and practical effects throughout, maintaining a kinetic feel through continuous handheld camera moves.
About the project
Shot over the course of a week in a single location, this short really made maximum use of all the resources we could get our hands on. Nearly every scene has lighting gags, practical effects or lots of camera movement within which made the shoot challenging, but the end product something to be proud of.
Shooting on the Arri Alexa Mini LF gave the DP a great freedom to move throughout the space and so to facilitate that, most of the lighting that my spark and I did had to be rigged out of sight and covering the whole scene at once. For this, I paired back the lighting equipment to fully utilise remote lighting from Aputure with tube and panel lighting being rigged in above many of the scenes. Colour, it was decided, would become stronger over the course of the film, with many of the natural tones strengthening in saturation and tone as the climax of the film is neared. The AI system in the house was the exception, with its purple motif constant throughout almost all scenes.
Technical information:
Camera: Arri Alexa Mini LF with Angenieux Optimo DP Zoom lenses - 2.34:1 aspect ratio
Audio: Stereo
