IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY

BY TASH BETH AND SADIE

TASH BETH AND SADIE

A SHORT FILM BASED ON THE CHILDRENS NURSERY RHYME IF YOU

GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY WITH A TWIST...

ROLLINGHILL PRODUCTIONS

[email protected]

DARK EARLY EVENING IN THE WOODS.

Scene starts with a flash forward.
The camera tracks around the tree, revealing a TEDDY BEAR
on the tree, music is a dark gloomy version of the nursery
rhyme if you go down to the woods today without lyrics.
Scene gets darker until it finally cuts away.
AUTUMN DAY. EARLY MORNING.
Isolated forest. Red/Brown leaves on trees and on floor.
Birds tweeting in background, sun shining in trees.
Sound is the child nursery rhyme if you go down to the
woods today
ELLA a young girl with light brown hair wearing a red
dress and a flower in her hair is skipping with her mum
and dog. Mum wearing black coat and brown hair walking the
boxer dog called Kai. ELLA carries a little brown teddy
with a red bow tie round its neck.
ELLA sees something in the distance in the woods and runs
after it. ELLA playing with teddy, talking and making
noises. Atmosphere is happy and cheerful at this point and
sun is shining bright.
Out of no where a man dressed in dark colours with his
face covered appears and grabs ELLA from behind covering
her mouth. At this point sun goes in and scene turns
darker.
ELLA screams and tries to kick away. ELLA is dragged
backwards whilst she carries on kicking trying to get rid
of his hold. Still clenching onto her brown hair ELLA is
dragged into a bush.
Both characters approach an opening in the forest leading
to a quiet village.
WHITE ROOM.
Cuts to a white room with low lighting.
Walls look dirty with maps of the surrounding area
covering them. Maps look old and torn off at the sides and
dirty. They also look discoloured, looking yellowy.
Seen from ELLAS point of view the room featuring a large
wooden rustic table looking damp. Also show maps with pins
scattered evenly throughout. Camera is very shaky at this
point and distorted.
We dont see MANs face but we see his dark clothes, hairy
arms and dirty long fingernails. At this point the music
(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

2.

changes from silence to a darker and lower toned version

of the nursery rhyme if you go down to the woods today.
MANS point of view looking down at the bear on the old
damp table. MAN picks up rusty scissors and starts heavily
stabbing in the stomach, viciously pulling parts of the
white fluffy stuffing out and launches it over the table
vigorously. MAN is pinning bear down and shaking it with
anger. Close up to bears hand while its shaking. Cut/flash
too close up of ELLAS hands struggling and shaking, at
this point we hear ELLA breathing heavily and we can hear
how scared she is. Then cut back to the same shot of the
teddy shaking due to MANS hands. Nursery Rhyme continues
to play during this action.
MANS point of view again of the teddy as he continues to
rip into the teddy and pull out his stuffing. Teddy now
looks darker in some places due to being mishandled. Noise
in background is MAN breathing heavily and non diegetic
sounds of bear being ripped open. Nursery Rhyme continues
to play during this action. We also hear non diegetic
sounds of TEDDY ripping.
Cut/flash to shot of ELLAS dress being ripped again seen
from his point of view with sounds of her breathing and
panicking. Nursery Rhyme continues to play during this
action. We also hear non diegetic sounds of dress ripping.
Cut/flash back to TEDDY BEAR where MANS dirty and hairy
hands as we see the MAN place a camera inside the TEDDY
BEAR. Nursery Rhyme continues to play during this action.
Music now quitens as we see a close up of the MAN using a
needle sewing up the ripped areas of TEDDY BEAR. Parts of
the red bow are torn and ridged.
TEDDY BEARS point of view of MAN finishing sewing him up
whilst he walks over to the old, ripped maps and places
another white pin to the map of the forest. Nursery Rhyme
continues to play quieter during this action.
Close up of TEDDY BEAR from birds eye point of view
showing red light flashing in TEDDY BEARS eye to show the
camera is recording inside the head of the TEDDY. Music
suddenly stops and we continue to just hear the MANS heavy
breathing.
BACK TO WOODS. LOW LIGHTING.
MAN dressed with a covered face. Walking through forest
with distorted TEDDY BEAR. At this point we hear non
diegetic sound of leaves crunching. Long shot of MAN
placing TEDDY into tree with a hammer and a dirty nail.
Camera tracks around the tree with bear in it. As camera
tracks around the tree, the distorted half of the bears
face is shown to the audience. Sounds of hammer gets
louder and louder as camera tracks around. The camera then
(CONTINUED)

CONTINUED:

3.

then tracks backs out with the dark version of the nursery
rhyme increasing in volume as the scene appears to get
darker and darker the further away the camera gets.