TREATMENT BY
DYLAN MARANDA
and
WILDGIFT
Thanks so much for the call the other day and for considering me for this project. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I’ve lived and grown alongside trees my entire life. Forestry is a responsibility as much as it is a resource, and I’m excited by the idea of making something that can capture this feeling.
You should know that I consider all my treatments a starting point for discussion, not the be-all and end-all. Even better to have someone like you, Adam, with a film background and a deep knowledge of the brand and messaging inside and out.
If anything feels off in here, let me know and we can talk about it on our follow-up call.
All that said— let’s dive in…
We plant more than we harvest.
Simple in principle, but once you get beyond the obvious, it’s truly moving how much work goes into an idea as basic as that.
That’s what really excited me about your brief — the film directly reflects this thought process, one that is integral for the audience to experience in order to receive our intended message.
You’re exactly right in thinking that this idea should be fun, peppy, and accessible — but I think once we get past that initial punchline, there’s room for something more reflective. A feeling we can create that will really stick with people.
Because once you get past the coffee machine small talk, the awkwardly charming break room birthday, or the desk cubicle knick-knacks — there’s a quiet passion and dedication shown by Foresters who are working for our future.
Here’s how we can do it....
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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...
We’re making a strong conceptual choice in the art direction — we need a strong visual choice to match.
I still very much see the visual language of this spot as being very grounded, but with a refined and stylistic approach that acknowledges the world we’re showing on screen is inherently cinematic.
Here are a couple of ideas:
- I see this as being entirely on tripod. I think handheld here is a crutch. To me, it feels too documentarian for the elevated idea you’ve come up with. That’s not to say there won’t be any movement — in fact, I think the perfect whip pan could be a lovely tool to play into the comedy without being on the nose. Still, the refinement of mostly static images is what’s going to immediately separate this spot as being noticeable. It’s a simple choice that commands attention, allows us to make specific movement decisions, play with height and levels, and lets our characters remain the focus.
- Using time of day to our advantage. I see shooting this in one day as a strength. I would love to allow the sun to guide our setups — or even play into some of our scenes.
- A strategic use of directed light to make the mundanity of the office or the repetitiveness of the forest feel focused, warm, and memorable. Think: pockets of sun hitting desks in the right place, the movement of light through branches on someone’s face, or the glow of a monitor illuminating the coolness of blue hour. In a 30, we always have less time than we think. Let’s use light to make every frame more memorable than the last.
I have some more ideas surrounding camera movements, the colour grade, and how we could use some interesting lenses...
But let’s start big with these points and talk about it together on our follow-up!
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I’m really glad we’re aiming to use real people for this. In contrast to what one might think with my acting background, I truly enjoy getting to work with non-actors who get to play themselves.
What I love is that the jobs and titles are as much a character as the people who perform them. Let’s lean into that. I find that street casting to showcase a particular profession almost makes you immune to cliché — you rely on the people to responsibly guide you into their true world.
I like the idea of identifying buckets of professions. Like you said, a “futurist” is a great place to start, because it’s broad. That could encompass a range of jobs — but how we’ll know we’re on the money is when we find someone whose personality embodies a futurist as much as their title does.
I’ll cover it in the logistics section, but I’d really like to spend the time to properly cast this. I have someone in mind that we could use to street cast, whom I’ve worked with before, and it makes a world of difference. What I am thinking is she could help us through the process of picking the foresters out of the location we choose to shoot at — making sure we have a variety of faces, good vibes, and adequate comfort on camera.
I hope you’re as excited about finding our Foresters as I am!