The Woods

On a gorgeous Delaware night, a young photographer grabs his photography gear and sets out to capture the perfect sunset photo. His journey for the perfect photo takes an unexpected turn when he mistakenly captures something he wasn't supposed to.

'The Woods' as a concept/story was actually written back in 2021, but timing and my lack of confidence prevented any progress. That ended in 2023, and I enlisted the help of my friend, Josh, to finally tell the story that had been rattling around in my head for the better part of a year.

This was also around the time that I started to experiment with connected threads between films. Meant to be the beginning of this trend, I released a mirror sequence a few weeks prior, hinting at an alternate dimension. 'The Woods' was meant to carry that thread, with the antagonist, The Gatekeeper, being an entity from that dimension. Issues during the editing process, however, also affected the quality of the final film.

When I was editing the film, I came down with pneumonia during the final week before release. I was hopping between my bed and my desk to make adjustments and tweaks wherever and whenever I could, and rather than delay the release, I published what I had. I'm glad that I did, because otherwise it might still be on my hard drive, but I think the ending sees a sharp drop in terms of quality and cohesion.

All that said, 'The Woods' is another attempt to play in the genre that I find so captivating to make. And who knows, maybe another trip to 'The Woods' is around the corner...