Teddy Bears Picnic is a creepy short horror film written and directed by Thomas Hodge that is being used as a proof of concept video to help gain funding for the feature version. The film has done really well at the film festivals, gaining much attention.

As DOP I worked closely with Tom, designing the shots and helping him bring his twisted imagination to the screen. The shoot was loads of fun, but not without challenges. Wanting to film in the winter to have bare and gnarly trees, we only had limited amount of the required daylight, so we were constantly racing against time. With careful planning and great team work, we managed to get all the coverage we needed and more.

Watch if you dare!

Skills and services required

Using a mixture of my own kit and hired lighting, I built a kit list to suit the budget without compromising on the shots we wanted.

I also used some classic cinematic horror techniques such as using split diopters and tilt shift.