Understory

A personal project that started as a way to test a lens and turned into the longest thing I have shot.

Approach

One patch of woodland about forty minutes from home, visited most weeks for eleven months. Same lens every time, same rough position, no attempt to find better compositions — the constraint was the point, because it makes the change the subject rather than the framing.

Sound was recorded on every visit and none of it is synced. The final mix is built from recordings made months apart, which is the only part of the film that is dishonest and the part that makes it work.

On location

Alone, usually early, usually for under two hours. Thirty-one visits, of which about nineteen produced anything. The best sequence came from a morning I nearly did not go out for.

Delivery

Four minutes, no commentary, no titles until the end. It has screened at two short festivals and is the piece that has brought in the most commercial enquiries, which was not the plan.