Day 2 – 30 Days Wild

For my second day of the challenge, I wanted it to be something more ‘proactive’ and it to require being outdoors.  Also, if it was to be a video, then I wanted it to be considerably better than my first one.  It had stopped raining, so I couldn’t do “Dance in a downpour”…

DECISIONS
Early in the afternoon, my friend Gary came to help choose what I was going to do for Day 2 of 30 Days Wild.  I was quite inspired and had several ideas (thanks to the handy challenge booklet provided by The Wildlife Trust) which I was going to put my spin on and make a film of.  I found it quite difficult to decide which one to go with!  I briefed Gary on all the ideas and how – with his help – I’d like to execute them (so to speak), in the end we agreed upon “Give your favourite tree a cuddle”.

PRE-PRODUCTION
My spin on the idea; was that I cannot pick one individual tree as my favourite!  And to create a fun video of how I had to hug 4 of my favourite species of tree, 2 of which I have a connection with…  Of course I hug a few other trees too!  Haha.
There wasn’t a script exactly, I just finalised what I wanted to say etc.

TREE HUGGER
I didn’t have to travel far for the first tree, it is quite close to my family home.  All of the trees in fact weren’t too far away.  I decided I would do the Intro and Outro for the video at an ancient woodland/nature reserve approx 10 minutes walk away, Balaam’s Wood – where I became generous with my hugs.  The second and third tree weren’t too far away from the first, the fourth was located in a country park approx 5 minutes walk away – but it is deep into the country park!  So in all it took around 35 minutes to get to!  I will reveal more about this particular country park and it’s name another time 😉

TIME
Due to starting it in the afternoon, I was very much aware that time was not going to be on our side.  Obviously we had to allow for any last minute changes to the filming schedule and for any possible outtakes, but there was strictly no dilly-dallying!  Editing took time, naturally, as you have to import the footage onto your computer and choose what clips that are wanted and needed and so on.  I am very grateful that Gary stuck around for this process, his opinion helped a lot.  It was great getting feedback from a ‘viewers’ point of view, so there were a few chops and changes before the finished film.

I wanted it to upload quicker to YouTube, so I chose a Standard Definition preset – resulting in it unfortunately appearing a little small in frame.

To see the final edit and find out the trees I chose and hugged click here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ2MRENaeQY