(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.)

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

(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.

(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

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

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

(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.

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)

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

Water bottle

Foliage for stop motion

Small book/diary

Camera?

(Following behind)

And/or

Shot 2 Wlking down a railway

(Dolly Zoom)

Didn't Happen

(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)

(Wide angle mix with close up)

Shot 2 Foxes playing and or sleeping

(Medium shot from far away)

Couldn't find any animals

(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

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

Was filmed and then used for alternate purpose

(Low angle wide cutting to close)

(Inspired by The Green Knight)

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

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

(Inspred by Vikings TV Show)

replaced with a howl/woooooooo

(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

(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

(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

(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

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)

(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)

(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

(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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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/

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.

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.

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

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

Directing

Editor

Cinematogropher

Owen Galbraith

Directing Assisstant

Sound

Cinematographer

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

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

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

Midnight Forest - Syouki_Takahashi

Peaceful Meditations - NikitaKondrashev