An Uninvited Guest
A mysterious alien named Gary joins a team of young astronauts on Mars.
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William ManningDirectorEl Banana, Love At First Sighting, Rat Race, The Mouse Trap
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William ManningWriterEl Banana, Love At First Sighting, Rat Race, The Mouse Trap
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Laura IngKey Cast"Lt. Samantha Edwards"
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Maxford Jeffs-WaddellKey Cast"Capt. Kenneth O'Toole"The 7th Floor
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Tyson PearceKey Cast"Garth Scott"
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Quinn LytleKey Cast"Dr. Alan Kubrick"Tails of the Were-Cow, Rat Race
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Aiden CargnelliKey Cast"Gary"Brain Rot
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Project Type:Documentary, Short, Student
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Runtime:5 minutes 55 seconds
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Completion Date:March 24, 2023
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Production Budget:0 USD
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Country of Origin:Canada
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Country of Filming:Canada
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:Yes - Etobicoke School of the Arts
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ESA Big Screen Film FestivalToronto, Ontario
Canada
April 19, 2023
Best Screenwriting Nomination -
ESA Big Screen Film FestivalToronto, Ontario
Canada
April 19, 2023
Coveted Audience Choice Award -
Toronto Teen Film FestivalToronto, Ontario
Canada
June 2, 2024
Winner Toronto Teen Film Festival
Director William Manning took a break from editing this film to celebrate St. Patrick's Day
I’ve experienced my fair share of uninvited guests in my life, so I decided to make a film about it. An Uninvited Guest could easily be summarised by the question “why are we keeping this guy around who is actively making our lives worse?” This very question I’ve asked myself and my friends multiple times, as this sort of issue seems to keep happening in my friend group, only none of us are at risk of being eaten by a giant worm. This film presents multiple conclusions to kicking an unwanted person out of a group. For example, Gary crying represents the unwanted person’s life being ruined by getting kicked out of a group, and Gary killing everyone represents the person taking everyone down with them.
This is the most complicated film I’ve ever made. It includes five characters and multiple locations, along with several different scenes with particular sets and props that needed to be assembled and collected. Fortunately I had the entire March break to edit my film, otherwise I think I’d still be working on it now.
I rarely ever do colour correction in my films (which is something I should probably start doing) but this time I decided to mess with the colours. I wanted the movie to look like old footage from a NASA film camera, so I cranked up the noise and changed some colour settings to do that. I also wanted certain parts to look like Mars so I made those shots really red. Before this I always just felt my films looked perfectly fine without changing any colours, and looking back I still think I’m right.
I learned a lot from making this film. For example I learned to never make anything complicated again, since it's way too difficult when you have seven other classes going on. I think for my next film I’m going to set it on Earth, and maybe limit myself to two or three characters, unless I get a really good idea that involves other things.
Overall I want the audience to know that they are not alone in experiencing their uninvited guests, and sometimes you just have to live with these things going on, because having that uninvited guest eat you is probably way worse than being forced to hang out with them.