Forest settings

Our narrative opens with a scene in Morgan’s and Evie’s house, but the majority of the plot focuses on the cycle track and the forest settings. We chose to have our trailer set in these locations because the forest settings have an eerie effect and there are so many places to film, including-

The cycle path, the different areas of the woods, fields, the harbour, secluded pathways and hidden ditches.

All of these locations can be seen to have a spooky atmosphere, the forest areas are often secluded and the colours and textures of the autumn leaves create a chilling effect. This will greatly benefit our supernatural horror genre.

I often walk up the cycle track, and by doing so I’ve stumbled across many areas that would be really great to film around- especially for a supernatural horror film. The images on the left are of the harbour that’s placed down a pathway on the cycle track, and due to the time of year the harbour is just marshy and soggy- it’s usually filled with water but you’re currently able to walk across it- we can use this to benefit us by taking advantage of the swamping trees and muddy ground, both of which connote the sense of being trapped or vulnerable.

The harbour is wide and open yet secluded as I’ve seen very few people down there, this could be very useful when filming- we’ll have plenty of space, good settings and few interruptions.

There are many areas along the cycle track that section off into areas of woodland, within these forest areas are many different pathways and tree structures- this will offer us a range of locations to play around with and film in. We’ve planned to do quite a few shots of our lead character, Morgan, running through a forest- the variety of woodland and places to film will hopefully create a diversity within these shots so that they do not all look the same or become boring.

The greenery of the setting obviously creates an earthy effect, and this will indicate to the audience that the characters are vulnerable as they’re not protected or sheltered- they’re out in the open. Forests are often used to create a chilling atmosphere, as the darkness created by the tree coverage and the fact that the trees tower over you connote a sense of evil and dominance. I think that an effective way to create suspense will be through the use of sound effects, and the crunching of leaves might be an appropriate way to achieve this. Overall I think the forest settings will help us achieve an eerie effect.

Whilst exploring through the forest settings I’ve discovered different places that would be good to film in, but the most useful and bizarre thing that I’ve found was a bunker.

It’s completely pitch black in the bunker- I had to use a torch whilst down there- so Alice’s headlight will be extremely useful when we film there.

We can use the stairs to create suspense, as we’re considering having a shot of our protagonist slowly walking down into the shady and mysterious bunker.

My partner Alice also took photos of possible locations to set our trailer, the height of the trees in these other forest settings are much greater than most of the trees up the cycle track, so it may be more effective to set some of our trailer here so that we really grasp the towering and intimidating effect of the trees. There are also alternative fields and pathways that we could use here, to create more of a mixture of settings and structures within our trailer.