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Our first shot tries to immeditatley set the tone of the film. We use a wide lens to leave the audience unnasuuming and unbothered. Then we use a zoom to try and draw the audiences attention, attempting to highlight a key detail which is obviously our protagonist. Our aim is that this shot convinces the audience that the protagonsist is some sort of reculuse or introvert.

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"I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree.
I have my ways of praying,
as you no doubt have yours."

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Ordinarily I go to the woods alone,
with not a single friend,
for they are all smilers and talkers
and therefore unsuitable.
I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree.
I have my ways of praying,
as you no doubt have yours.
Besides, when I am alone
I can become invisible.
I can sit on the top of a dune
as motionless as an uprise of weeds,
until the foxes run by unconcerned.
I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.
If you have ever gone to the woods with me,
I must love you very much.

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The New Forest was a great spot for us to film as it is the closest thing you will get in England to true nature. It is renowned for it's beautiful scenery and wildlife which provided us with unlimited potential for shot variety and experimentation. With a short amount of looking we found several locations which we genuinly believe could and should be used in actual high budget films as they were incredible. The natural landscape captured the themes of the project with large trees, wild animals, ilolation and imagination. It was also very practical for us as not much needed to be done in order to visualize a shot and we didn't need to move from location to location very much since everything we needed was everywhere. It also meant we didn't have to collect props prior to filming as the majority of our props consisted of plants and wood.

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Shot 1 Boy stands in a clearing of the forest. Maybe with sun rays on him if possible.

(Static low wide angle shot with actor in the middle of the frame. Actor will stand a decent distance away, around 40 feet. Intended to make him seem isolated/small.)

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Shot 1 Boy is looking up at the sun using his hand to cover it. The sun light peering through the gaps in his fingers.

(Hand held medium/wide shot looking up at the trees)

Shot 2 Boys face slowly being revealed by the sunlight as he takes his hand down and his eyes adjust to the light

(Hand held close up high angle looking down on the boy. The light slowly slides across his face)

Multiple reschedules due to weather meant we had to film on a day that was sunny/cloudy. We couldn't make the shot happen. We were also unable to bring lights due to our small crew size.

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Shot 1 Vines, leaves and roots start to climb the boys hand

(Static close up on his hand and upper wrist. Layering more and more foliage in one continuous clip then cutting it to remove my hand.)

Shot 2 The foliage climbs up his arm

(Using the same technique as before)

Shot 3 The foliage climbs his leg

(Using the same technique as before)

Shot 4 The foliage clings onto his face

(Using the same technique as before)

Shot 3 and 4 were cut as they didn't feel necessary

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Shot 1 Boy walks past a tree and when he comes on the other side a part of his outfit has changed to meet the nature asthetic.

(Hand held wide tracking shot adjacent to the actor.)

Didn't happen. The actor did not bring extra clothes like we thought he would.

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Shot 1 Reference to poem line "I can sit on the top of a dune". Boy climbing tot he top of a dune/hill.

(Over the shoulder hand held)

Shot 2 Boy standing at the top

(Low angle medium shot. Looking up at him to make him seem tall and above the world. Only the grasss at the bootom and the tips of trees should be in frame)

Shot 3 Boy standing at the top

(Low angle wide shot from afar. Boy is centre frame intended to make him seem important and at the centre of nature)

Idea was cut. The New Forest is mostly flat so finding a hill that fit this aesthetic was not likely.

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We wanted to capture the fear/excitemtn in his eyes. The close up helps focus on the spiratic movement of his eyes.

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Shot 1 Looking up at the trees

(Low angle, pointing up at the sky with the tree. sun shining through. Emphasises the grandeur of nature.)

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This was the main shot that was imagined, wild boy standing in the middle of the forest, small and alone he is free and takes it all in.

Having it be a lower angle shot helps with showing the height of the trees and making the actor small in the frame.

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1x Canvas Pop Reflector

1x Hague D5T Camera Tripod Tracking Dolly Kit

1x Samyang 135mm T2.2 VDSLR EF Lens

1x Sony PXW FS7 & 6 Lens Kit

1x ZOOM F4 Field Recorder

1x Easyrig Vario 5 small-frame Vest (couldn't get)

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As mentioned, We filmed it on the sony FS7, the reason we chose was that it was easy to carry and that we were able to use its colour indepth to record as much colour as we can as well as the wide options of lenses that it provides helps give us some range of shots.

For settings We filmed it in raw 1920 x 1080 at 24 fps

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For lighting since we are filming outside we didn't have to bring any lighting equipment with us but we did bring a reflector to have on hand incase we need it to bring more light to the face of the actor.

Lighting was a challenge as it was cloudy and we wanted the sun to shine in most of the shots.

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Hat - Green or Beige

Top/Jumper - Green

Bottoms - Brown chinos/cargos or blue jeans

Shoes - Casual typical teenager trainers or boots

Bag - Preferably rucksack or Small satchel

Accessories - Wooden ring necklace, Headphones

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Walking stick (Natural forest branch)

Water bottle

Foliage for stop motion

Small book/diary

Camera?

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Shot 1 Walking down a railway

(Following behind)

And/or

Shot 2 Wlking down a railway

(Dolly Zoom)

Didn't Happen

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Shot 1 Boy falls into leaf pile

(Hand held tracking, follows the boys face as he falls down)

Shot 2 Leaves fly into the air in an explosion

(POV looking up as leaves onto Boy)

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Shot 1 Horses grazing

(Wide angle mix with close up)

Shot 2 Foxes playing and or sleeping

(Medium shot from far away)

Couldn't find any animals

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We were writing anything that came to mind no matter how unrealistic or rediculous

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Shot 1 Watering dying plant

(Close up of the water trickling down the plant. Slow motion?)

Shot 2 Removing waste

(Panning shot of Boy picking up rubbish)

Shot 3 Removing waste

(Low angle, wide of a spot littered with rubbish. Boy stands amongst it cleaning)

Didnt happen. Wouldn't fit with the vibe, also required gathering rubbish which as impractical for us

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Shot 1 Boy is walking down a path. A womans voice calls out "Villr!". Boy turns to look in suprise.

(Hand held close tracking shot from behind transitioning to Over the Shoulder as he turns)

Was filmed and then used for alternate purpose

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Shot 1 Boy stands tall holding two sticks to his head as antlers.

(Low angle wide cutting to close)

(Inspired by The Green Knight)

Didn't happen. Cool idea however seemed irrelevant and impractical to the film

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Shot 1 Boy stands in the forest chanting Nordic vocals.

(Wide angle of boy in a clearing, mixed with close ups to his faces)

(Inspred by Vikings TV Show)

replaced with a howl/woooooooo

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Shot 1 Boy sits down at a tree carving a bit of wood.

(Wide shot paying homage to the scene from The Lord of the Rings where Frodo sits under a tree. Hence dubbed "The Frodo Shot")

Replaced with a book as it was easier, and we couldn't find a carved figure we liked

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Shot 1 Boy walks from left to right along a gap between the trees

(Dolly zoom wide shot)

Dolly was ditched as we lost the spot and only found it at the end of the day where we didnt have time to get the dolly. The boy also walks right to left now

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Shot 1 Boy jumps into a lake

(Medium panning shot as he jumps in.)

Shot 2 Boy swims through slowy

(Hand held close up on his face at eye level)

Didn't happen. It was completely impractical for us and especially the actor

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Shot 1 Boy sits on a big tree stump with his feet dangling down.

(Low angle very wide shot maybe fish eye lens. Intends to add grandeur and sens of isolation through how small he appears.)

Couldn't find a big tree stump

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Aim is to have the Boy be running as if he's completely free and deperate to explore.

Shot 1 Running through trees

(Basic hand held tracking shot. Mix of wide, mediums and close ups. Close ups focusing on his face and feet. Mediums staying close to his back.)

Shot 2 Bursting through the bushes

(Hand held medium shot that pulls into a close up or over the shoulder. Followed by low angle close up on his face)

Shot 3 Boy steps up onto a log

(Hand held medium shot focusing on his feet)

Shot 4 Boy jumps a gap

(Medium shot focusing on the boys lower half)

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Shot 1 Boy is hiding from stranger walking past him

(Camera faces down a path and turns to face the forest. As it turns people walk closely past the camera. After a moment it zooms from a wide to a mid shot. Boy starts to peer out the bushes as it zooms)

Shot 2 Bow watching them

(Low angle close up on his face)

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Shot 1 Boy is sitting in a make shift hut made out of logs and sticks like scouts do.

(Medium shot peering through the gaps of the logs)

Shot 2 Boy discovers/walks into the hut.

(Wide shot boy walks in to frame and peers through the door)

Shot 3 Boy rests in the hut.

(Medium shot through the doorway. Boy resting his head againt the wall looks out the gaps)

Only shot 2 was used

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Shot 1 boy approaches a tree and gets a grip on a place to leverage himself

(Hand held over the shoulder shot as he peers up the tree looking for a place to start climbing)

Shot 2 Boy is climbing the tree

(Montage of shots. All hand held, high angle looking down on the boy as he climbs. Close up as he grabs a branch and then moves on.)

Shot 3 Boy is sitting on a high branch dangling his feet.

(Hand held medium shot from his side)

The concept was still used howver replaced due to obvious safety reasons. Insteas large fallen tree was used.

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Boy was originally intended to be younger so these ideas seemed to fit however we opted for an older actor.

Shot 1 by is sword fighting a tree

(Hand held medium and close up shot)

Shot 2 balancing a stick on his hand

(Static wide shot showing what he's doing. Also hand held close up on the boys face looking excited as he tries his best to balance it)

All were cut for maturity reasons regarding the actor.

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The aim of this mood board was to highlight the key colour themes of our film as well as create visual stimuli to our ideas around shot composition and set pieces.

For the colour we obviously wanted a primarily green and brown aesthetic. It is the most fitting to the general narrative of our film as the mix of colours promote a very earthy and naturistic feel which evokes feelings of peace and being content.

In the top left is our initial inspiration for our stop motion sequence. I found the two hand photo particularly profound as I saw it as a remnant of another person similar to our protagonist who found a way to fully embrace nature into themselves. The top right gave us an idea of what our character would look like and fit into the scene. It helped us stray away from our character being a boy as we found these photos presented a deeper more mature connection between a young teen/adult and nature. The idea of the real world being a weight as you grow up and nature being the only escape sprung to us from these photos. Throughout we included photos that we saw as nature communicating with people which we thought was essential to our understanding of nature as a religious source to some. The door photo represents nature inviting people to take part in its peace and serenity much like God and his prophets. The eyes gave us the feeling of nature watching us as if to say I see you and I'm looking out for you much like an omnibenevolent entity would. Finally the very top left photo of a hand reaching out to a finger was very striking as the small hand reaching to a finger connotes nature's dwindling size as the world slowly dies to pollution. This actually inspired our idea for the protagonist to be cleaning up waste, which we unfortunately had to cut.

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Here is a photo of what The New Forest typically looks like during the summer so inspite of how brown and grey our recce shoots are we were confident in our vision.

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Our motivation for our visuals was to achieve a more grounded and realistic approach. We aimed to reach this with a hand held format that would help ease the viewer into settling into our protagonist's world. Pairing the hand held with over the shoulder shots created the immersion of being there behind him accompanying him. Additionally, by using hand held shots in places not near the protagonist we created the illusion of the forest watching him, which helped to bring his almost religious connection with nature to life. We also opted to maintain close and wide shots. We focussed on close ups as we believe it creates a more intimate connection between the viewer and the protagonist, further enforcing the idea of this being a shared journey. Our use of wide shots was to amplify the overall scope and magnitude of nature. We wanted nature to feel like an overpowering force that could make anyone seem small by comparison and using helped us achieve this goal with a combination of low angles and careful framing. For example in the shot where the protagonist howls we decided to frame it in a way that placed a tree on either side of the frame, acting as a wall to imply nature is closed in on him and blocking out any other view.

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This was changed to a felled tree but it is still relevant to the development of our vision.

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Our interpretation of the poem was first and foremost very spiritual/religious. Each line comes across as very articulate and thought through as though every word means a great deal to the speaker. There is the especially obvious line of “praying”, which informed us the activities the speaker is doing is his own way of connecting or communicating with his deity or in this context, nature. We wanted this to be reflected in our film through a collection of subtextual religious imagery as well as its score. We had an immediate plan to have a build up of energy using said score which would climax in the middle to a more blissful peace. We thought this was a reflection of how real prayer may feel with the initial excitement of connecting to your deity and eventually settling in to appreciate their presence.

When approaching this project with religious inspiration we tried to highlight the iconic points of nature which are widely regarded as special. The first and most obvious idea we landed on was sunlight. We aimed to approach this project with an emphasis on sunlight being what connects the character to nature. For instance in a clearing scene we aimed to have a sun beam land directly on our character which would be our idea of nature presenting itself to him. We also planned to have the character block out the sun with his hand and slowly remove it as his eyes adjust and light up with the reflection of the sun, which we thought would emphasise this message of connection or being spoken to. After all the eyes are commonly regarded as windows to the soul and a change in his eyes would emphasise this. Another obvious idea of nature is roots/vines. In all cultures roots play an important role in society, in family trees they are presented on paper as the roots of a tree growing deeper and cementing itself into the earth. This presented us with an idea of a stop motion sequence featuring numerous roots and vines slowly climbing up the character's body and consuming him. We imagined spacing this throughout the film would help imply that the more time he spends in this forest the more he begins to grow a part of it. We also had a similar idea regarding the costume of our character which reflects the forest with green and  beige tones. His outfit is also kept casual as we didn’t want him to come across as materialistic and instead very natural. We continued this theme by having the climax happen as the character falls into a pile of leaves and fully surrounds himself in leaves. The act of him purposefully falling also indicates he is giving himself to nature,  which we wanted to preface with a shot of him turning to look back as in to imply there is no going back from this commitment. He presents this act as a sort of challenge to prove how deeply he believes and cares in this journey of his.

With regard to specific lines the “Old black oak tree” seemed significant to us as it is the only point of interest mentioned. To us this implied a level of importance as a place special to the speaker. While we couldn’t find an old oak tree in our location we did find a felled tree to make our point of interest. It seemed to us that having him climb the tree was a more fitting way of expressing his journey with nature. It presents a metaphorical sense of climbing to the highest point of a tree and being above the human world. Another specific line we latched onto was the final line of the full poem “If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much”. With this we saw an opportunity to immerse the audience by making them a secret character which would create a more profound connection to the film. We intend to intentionally mislead the audience into believing he is alone but subtly dropping hints he has brought someone with him. We chose to start with the first line “Ordinarily I go to the woods alone” which suggests this isn’t an ordinary trip and someone is with him, however you never see another face other than his for the whole film. Additionally we frequently used a handheld camera to make the audience feel grounded to the film. Then in the shot where he turns to look at the camera he briefly breaks the fourth wall and confronts the audience. Finally after the protagonist says his final line “If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much” we layered a male and female voice to come from off screen which cements that the audience is who he has brought along with him. With the voice being layered it leaves the identity of the friend ambiguous, which lets the audience associate themselves to it without feeling disconnected by gender.

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When approaching the audio we tried our best to keep things natural. When recording on set we kept the mic on quite frequently in order to capture the natural ambience of the forest. Prior to recording when the protagonist howls we scouted places which had a nice echo so that it could add to the vastness of the forest. We tried our best to capture bird noises, however in the end we opted for Catbird calls we found online. We found this more fitting since they're directly referenced in the poem. We used foley for walking and leaves rustling which we had recorded on set.

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RA 2024-2025 ADDITIONAL RISK ASSESSMENT NEW FOREST 04_05_2025 - signed

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For the editing process, i have used hard cuts and the use of a montage sequence to tell the story and for the flow and pacing to match with the high rise and low rise.

I have also edited to match the music and that it matches at the highest point in the short.

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My aim for the colour graidng is to try and aim for the colours that are shown in the inspiration. I wanted for the brown warm look with the ground and for the trees and bushes green to have a more precence with a golden look.

This was not a an easy job, where some shots it is difficult to find that balance but i think i was able to get what i wanted with the limits of my ability in colour grading.

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Organising the shoot, I have read on their website that commercial shoots require a permit. By that I concluded that our shoot didn't need a permit.

It was only after we finished filming I was shown a clause that i have missed out which stated that student filming is required to have a permit to film at the location.

This was something I should of seen but didn't. Although we didn't have the permit we were not asked by any staff member on site or anyone reporting us filming on location.

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For the cinematography visual I wanted to use the artwork done by Thomas Fearnley.

In the search for art works that is focused on the forests and the atmosophere and feeling is able to be expressed in it, thomas fearnley is who's work i have found.

What makes his work effective?

In some of his work that are in deep parts of the forest display the blending and vanishing of the forest with its use of colour blending. it details in seperating the focus and the background and the background to be a distant large area that we have yet to explore or know.

Framing

His way of framing is more center with its main focus, The reason for this as the centre is more focused the environement around it blends in and blurs hiding the detail of the forest as the focus is more present in it.

Visuals

The way the colour blends in is what caught my attention the most and the way the forest gets blurred as it gives a sense of getting lost in the woods and not being able to see the end of the forest. This was the major inspiration was to display not being able to see the end of the forest and how big and lost the character can get lost in.

https://artvee.com/artist/thomas-fearnley/

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View Artworks by Thomas Fearnley on Artvee.

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Was originally recorded during a break as a test shot for later. Idea is that the shape of the hole in the tree resembles an eye and including it is supposed to give the impression of nature watching. Were going to record here again later with the protagonist on the other side of the hole but filming took us elsewhere.

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We really thought there was no better way to capture the protagonist growing with the forest other having roots and vines crawl up him. The only feasbale way we could see ourselves achieving this was with stop motion. Using stop motion allowed there to be sense of time, as though this is a long process and he really is growing. We used a close up so you could ntice the small details and so we wouldnt have to do the same technique for other parts of his body which would have been too time consuming.

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A young man wanting to be alone as he begins his process of embracing and becoming part of the forest of the north in orders to escape the modern world and its noise and people.

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All the same as shot 21. We felt that only showing his hand wasn't enough so we extended the shot up to his arm to make it nfeel like a more complete process.

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For this Film Poem basing it on the How I go into the woods. I want to follow its themes in isolation, escapism and nature.

I wanted th story to be about a young man who goes to the woods every month to embrace and escape from the city and people. He would go alone and be happy without anyone watching or guilt.

Having it be about escapism, i want the focus to be around him and the forest he is in, the focus on freedom that comes with it but also seen as a becoming part with nature and the forest around him.

I decided to go with being focused on norse folk culture as their myhtology and tales are majorly focused on the forest and the world and how they connect themselves to the world through phenomonens and supernatual aspects. Without going dark i wanted to give it a child like feel when someone is free and no one is around.

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With Sound, the focus is more on what wild boy is hearing, the environment is blocked out as he is focusing on having fun but when he comes back he focuses on embracing the forest around him and acknowledging the world and the noise come backs.

For the poem lines ee did not record on sight with the equipment, i ended up using my mic which ended up not sounding the best.

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This shot was filmed for the prupose of someone clalling his name. We changed this to be before he falls into a leaf pile as we saw it as confrontation and daring gesture. We cut it to be quick as its supposed "a get ready for this!" action. We used a close up to make this gesture more personal.

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This is blurry as its captured as he is falling. The purpose of this is esentially the protagonist giving nature a trust fall. At the peak of his high and excitement he gives himself to nature. The shot tries it's best to follow his face as he falls but given our equipment it was a challenge to do so. We cut this shot before he lands as lef piles don't actually explode and we to create the illusion it does with the next shot. Again we chose to keep the camera close as this is again a personal moment to the character and to shoot it from a far wouod take away from it as it would make him seem small.

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Where the leaves fly up was a bit tricky. Tom our main man behind the camera layed down in the leaf pile and me (Owen) and our actor stood either side and threw leaves above him. We wanted to create the illusion of an exagerated explosion of leaves as the protagonist hits the pile. We thought it would feel very surreal and almost dreamlike.

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For this shot its supposed to be a metaphor for himb climbing a tree and reaching new heights. It also a reference to the "hugging the old black oak tree", which we saw as a significant place for poem. We kept this shot reatively a medium as we wanted to focus on the effort he is putting into climbing the tree.

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This is shot with a wide lense so we can again establish this felled tree as a point of importance to the protagonsist. We also set up our next shot, "The Frodo Shot". It can also be interpreted as him settling back down after reaching the top of the felled tree.

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This is our "Frodo Shot". We are clearly paying homage to The Lord Of The Rings purely because we are fans of the series and we really thought the scene where Frodo sits beneath a tree is beautifully shot and iconic.

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For this shot, The focus was the gap between the forest. The gap between and the thickness of the forest between shows the transition to going deeper into the woods and the light being blocked shown at the end of the pathway.

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Contact the team at Film New Forest. Learn how to get filming permission

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Thomas Bate

Directing

Editor

Cinematogropher

Owen Galbraith

Directing Assisstant

Sound

Cinematographer

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We made a small shotlist as we wanted to keep it open and wide as we did not do a proper location recce to determine where will do each shots.

So most of the time it is down to improvisation which i think helped elevate with some of the shots that we have filmed in the short.

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Owen recorded some foley from a previous project which has been used for this.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17VPX8ujyji4OdlqJNQvIYshZw21RYKAq

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These are foley sounds that i have found on online which are needed for the rest.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KN7Mgx7sKuY0dPaUDwrKkNd1QRDXxNZP?usp=sharing

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The music in the film were from 2 different artists.

Midnight Forest - Syouki_Takahashi

Peaceful Meditations - NikitaKondrashev

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This shot is mostly identical to the shot 5 howeverit is for a different purpose. During this shot someone calls his name "Villr!" from off screen. This is to reveal he is not alone and imply that it being said off screen could mean his companion is the viewer. This is also the last shot and ends where he first howls and kicks off the whole film. This is to leave it up to interpretation that this was all in his head and a fantasy.