As a director, my primary focus is always on story. I am hunting for the key things we need to set our sights on to make this the best film it can be.
So how does that translate to this idea?
Well, I have some thoughts:
They are the key to all of this. I love what you said about characters in spots that feel like you “know them.” That’s where I want to get with this. I think a lot goes into this, which I’ll speak about in its own section... But when we know people, we get an idea of why they do things. If we feel we know our Foresters, we get to connect with the “why” of their dedication to the forests they work for.
I think that falls into two buckets. Firstly, the script in the form of the VO. I think choosing to stay with VO on this is great, as you can stay malleable into post to experiment with what feels right — but I would love to try and take a stab at crafting something with you that we can use as a starting point to guide the 30. On the flip side, our Foresters. I want to make sure we are crafting at least one individual “visual” beat for our separate characters to coincide with their VO stories for the cut-downs.
Like I said on the call, I love the direction of bringing the office space into the woods — but it’s not something people are used to seeing, so how do we get the audience to buy in? This is where a strong visual choice comes into play. Details on that coming up, but in summary, we need to take the visuals seriously, or why would the audience take us seriously? It might sound daunting, but I think this could be one of the most exciting aspects of this spot.
Let’s dive into some details...