Making of Into the Forest: A Vanishing World
- Dawn McCall
- Jun 28
- 3 min read
In January 2024 I started planning my first short film on Britain's Temperate Rainforest. The aim of the film was to produce an educational/ conservation style film that brings awareness of Britain’s rainforests, their important in our ecosystems, planet health and the animals and plants it supports. I would be looking at some of the key elements that makes this type of forest special and some of the challenges it faces today.
When researching for this project I found that this rainforest is incredibly rare and more threatened than the tropical rainforest that most people associate with the word rainforest and the sad bit is that most people are unaware it ever exists, this was my call to action.
I set out to learn as much as possible about this fragile but amazing environment to start to put a plan together. I then decided that to incorporate all the areas I wanted to cover that I would have five chapters (acts) to my film (shown above). I also wanted the film to have a sort of connection and a feeling of like you was there. I would do this through the use of sound. The filming style would be one with no music or presenter, just with a voiceover along with sounds of nature to hopefully make the viewers feel like they were there and more connected to the film/ place, so it was more of an experience and not just a film.
Production Process
When I first looked at the structure of what I had planned my original thought was to have it all in voiceover and use footage of me at the beginning and the end of the film as a introduction and conclusion. The footage would include me walking into the forest at the beginning and walking out at the end. After reflecting on this, I decided early on that it may work better if I did this as a bookend style piece to camera instead. By doing this I aimed to connect with the audience better, as I would be looking at them rather than the audience looking at me walking through a forest. I would make it more personal, that way they would hopefully take on the message I was saying.
After writing more of a script I realized that I wanted to get a lot of information across in a short amount of time and I did not want this to get in the way of my nature sound experience, so needed to make sure I had the right balance of both elements.
Filming
The filming production was a learning process and had some complex elements to it. I was lucky to have been given a home made camera rig so I could get big sweeping pans of the woodland environment which I had to learn how to put up, operate and take down. I really like the one with the green leaves.
Above: Wire camera rig in action
I am happy with my final film ever though there are a few bits that I am not quite happy with but I am still learning. Hope you enjoyed this bit of an insight into how I made my first film.
You can watch my final film below
If you liked this content please like and share, lets spread awareness of this precious environment
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