Major Production Unit: Pre-Production - Woods Scouting

Our initial location for the woods scenes at Barming Woods was lost due to not being able to get permissions as there were plans to tear down the place for a quarry. This meant a new location or the final chapter was needed. Myself and our D.O.P went out to two woods given to us by Kent Wildlife Reserve.


Location 1

The 2nd photo was the location we thought would be best for the campsite sequence (Scene 33) due to it being the most open area we could find and the 4th & 5th photos to be the settings for the hunt (Scene 36). This location was very nice and felt eerie but the only way to access it was through a 5-10 minute walk across some very boggy terrain: not great when 7+ people and equipment need to get through.

With this in mind, we set out to the second location.



Location 2

The second location was a huge improvement to the first one we visited: the trees were gnarled, and seemingly endless when shot at the right angle which was how I envisioned the location when writing the script (First three photos). The 4th photo was a large open space with a steep hill surrounding half of it which we saw as a perfect spot for the campsite scene to be set in. The 5th was a few minutes away with a very high hill which, when stood next to, looks very intimidating and gives the feel of being trapped.

After an hour at this place we agreed that this was definitely the woods we would use, and with permission having already been granted by Kent Wildlife Reserve we had it fixed.

Below are some test videos we shot whilst at the second woods to help picture what the hunt scene would look like. The location itself consists of several sections of woods, each with varying levels of density. The one we shot the tests in was the most densely packed: