Menacing Woods

**Mods** · February 26th, 2002, 10:10 PM

Shoot it at day. Trust me. Our 15 minute epics take all day to film. So your 15 minute scenes will be the same :b

You can later on edit it (if using something like Adobe Premiere) and make it look darker etc.

Woods, esp dark woods as I mentioned, can be very spooky in the day time. Especially if they're dense.

I thought Milton Keyenes just had stone cows, no forests.

:P
Mods

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Mark "Mods" Lovegrove
Anarchy Pictures

**deanl** · February 26th, 2002, 10:12 PM

oops oops oops

Kingham · February 26th, 2002, 10:15 PM

Ha ha...Your right, Milton Keynes doesnt have woods large enough so we are driving to a location 30 mins down the motorway from MK

Thanks

Kingham

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If anyone needs me I'll be in my trailer!

eddie · February 27th, 2002, 08:33 AM

I agree with Despin, and if you are driving 30 minutes away to a location that isnt right then you are mad. There must be a perfect location within 30 minutes of you.

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**Mods** · February 27th, 2002, 09:47 AM

So if it takes 29 minutes to get there, they're ok?

I don't think it matters how far you have to go for a shoot. We're doing a few scenes in Majorca in the summer. That's about 2 hours by plane away :P

wink

Mods

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Mark "Mods" Lovegrove
Anarchy Pictures

**hairbrain** · February 27th, 2002, 09:50 AM

hey Mods....shooting at day will probably do... you're right. But shooting at dawn or dusk is the business. You've just gotta be VERY organised and have a lot of patient people working with you. The end result would be in a whole different league though.

If you want something to look magical or mysterious you need all the help from nature you're gonna get. Not everything can be fixed in post and you don't want to end up with a polished turd. Give yourself as high quality/magical footage as you can before you even think about polishing it up.

If you don't believe me... just go for a walk in the woods at dawn or dusk and then do the same in the day.

Also, for the director who doesn't know how to direct this... try and become a kid again. Go into the woods at dusk and deliberately hype yourself up into a scared state (like you used to when you were a kid). Imagine you are ACTUALLY in your horror movie for real... and take note of how your eyes flit about, what attracts your attention, how you feel the woods should be, how you move about them.

Just transfer all this stuff to your camera and you should be well on the way to creating that scared feel you're looking for.

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eddie · February 27th, 2002, 12:34 PM

no. What Im saying is that if you find a location that takes 30 minutes to get to but isnt a suitable location then you are doing something wrong.
Common Sense
Look elsewhere and find a suitable place

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**Mods** · February 27th, 2002, 03:16 PM

Ahh, i get you Eddie.

Hairbrain, yes, I agree with you on dawn and dusk - but its not something for novices. I've got some dusk and dawn scenes coming up in Static Fear, and i'm dreading them.

The main reason is, you don't get long for dawn nor for dusk. Dawn is easier, because you could start just AS it's getting light, but with dusk, its hard to judge when to start and then it could get too late, could get dark and you've only got a few minutes of footage. The rest of the day gives you plenty of hours.

The summer is the best time for this though, cos of course, because dawn, dusk and day are prolonged.

The problem is, with my film, i don't know about Kingham's, mine is set in November/early December time, so i'll have to manipulate cold mornings, etc, and with summer rolling in - it wont be that easy.

Or, I could just change the time of year and cut all the Christmas references in the script wink

Mods

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Mark "Mods" Lovegrove
Anarchy Pictures

**hairbrain** · February 27th, 2002, 05:10 PM

Either that or get all your actors to fake australian accents wink

Good point about shooting dawn for dusk... makes a lot more sense that way round. Virtually all of `Days of Heaven` was shot around dusk... it took bloody ages to do (20 mins shooting a day at the max) but the end result is a cinematic wonder.

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