Length: 03:09
Written & directed by Ben Goodger
Genre: Drama
Date: 2011
Rating: ★★★★☆
Logline: A jilted businessman practices pleading his case to a former partner to a tree in the woods.
At first glance this film can be viewed as a simple vignette on a guys attempt to figure out how to win back his lover. It cycles through self deprecation, reasoning, threats, begging and ends in violence. It's logical, a little unoriginal, but well performed. When the businessman, played by Mark Rice-Oxley, starts trying to beat up the gnarled old tree, your'e left thinking, thank god it's the tree and not the person he wants to win back. And with that statement, you'd have hit the nail on the head and grasped a little of just what this film is trying to say.
Created as part of the Open University and BBC's Creative Climate Shorts project we move on to the other meaning. Technically we are watching a guy talking to a tree. We're so used to the language of metaphors that we automatically assume that the man is imagining speaking to another human being. But take the film literally and all of the dialogue is then transformed to a different level. I liked Goodger's reasoning, "
Well shot, clean camera work (though there may be a couple of shots with suspect aspect ratios), nice camera movement too. I found the backing track of bird tweeting a bit distraction as it sounded more like audio from a rainforest than a British woodland. Structurally spot on with a solid mid point and effective tonal change by use of camera and sound.
For me, the film works at its best on its deeper lever as the surface presentation isn't as captivating and i doubt will hold audiences very well and so may suffer at prior knowledge being needed to fully appreciate the film.
Created as part of the Open University and BBC's Creative Climate Shorts project we move on to the other meaning. Technically we are watching a guy talking to a tree. We're so used to the language of metaphors that we automatically assume that the man is imagining speaking to another human being. But take the film literally and all of the dialogue is then transformed to a different level. I liked Goodger's reasoning, "
Like an abusive partner we take our blessings for granted until it is all too late...
For her part Mother Nature is absolutely indifferent to his desperate plight.
" Tree's don't punch back. Extra star for the symbolism here. Well shot, clean camera work (though there may be a couple of shots with suspect aspect ratios), nice camera movement too. I found the backing track of bird tweeting a bit distraction as it sounded more like audio from a rainforest than a British woodland. Structurally spot on with a solid mid point and effective tonal change by use of camera and sound.
For me, the film works at its best on its deeper lever as the surface presentation isn't as captivating and i doubt will hold audiences very well and so may suffer at prior knowledge being needed to fully appreciate the film.
Best Bit: Watching it a second time having read the directors take on the film.
Worst Bit: The looped bird squawk during the end credits.
Final thought: Trouble with symbolism is that dense people like me don't always see it first time. You need the businessman to be dressed as a lumberjack for me to get it.
Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.
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