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A Walk In The Woods

A lone Convict is dropped off in the woods at night. He is promised his freedom if he can make it to the center. But something horrible is stalking him throughout his journey. Something ancient.

  • Joe LeBlanc
    Director
  • Joe LeBlanc
    Producer
  • Daniel Kies
    Key Cast
    "Operator"
    CHORT, Road Racer
  • Joe LeBlanc
    Key Cast
    "The Convict"
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student, Web / New Media
  • Genres:
    Horror, GoPro
  • Runtime:
    4 minutes 47 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 27, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    100 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Columbia College Chicago
Director Biography - Joe LeBlanc

Joe LeBlanc was born in 1996 in Worcester, MA. Since the age of six, Joe knew that he wanted to make movies as a career. Particularly in the horror genre. Joe is also a professional sound recordist and sound designer. He idealized originality, style, and theme for his films. He believes that movies should show the audience something new as well as say something poignant. Joe also believes in the importance of finding inspiration from outside the medium of film. Therefore, he looks up to manga artists like Junji Ito and Shuzo Oshimi, as well as filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson. These artists influenced his dark, imaginative, style for creative horror films.

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Director Statement

We’ve all seen Hardcore henry. It’s a brilliant action film shot through a GoPro camera on the
lead actor’s head. The effect is a nail-biting thrill ride seen through the first person of the protagonist.
But what if this style was used in a horror movie? What kinds of effects or scares could come out of it?
This is the premise behind my short horror film, A Walk in The Woods. I want to use the firstperson style to lock the audience into the head of my protagonist. You will be forced to experience
everything he experiences in the haunted woods, unable to look away. You won’t get to see any cuts. I
want to create the scariest film possible with all the limitations I had at the time. I had no access to
physical actors. I didn’t have a professional crew. I didn’t have an amazing camera. But I do have a
GoPro, state of the art sound recording equipment, a few lights, and decent sound design skills.
I am also using a revolutionary audio recording technique used in ASMR and Binaural sounds to
record a 3D soundscape that’ll sound like you’re actually there! I used sound and ambiance to make the
audience paranoid of every noise they hear. They know that ghosts are in the woods. But they don’t
know where. I want to use this to create paranoia.
An important theme of the film is a lack of freedom. The point of view protagonist is a convict
who’s been thrown out of a car and led to a certain point in the woods. The voice on the Walkie talkie
tell him that if he can get to the objective, he’ll be granted his freedom. As he traverses on his journey,
he loses all of the freedom he thought he had. He will never be freed because he’s a sacrifice to
something strange in the woods. The voices he hears dictate where he’s able to look. Lastly, you, the
audience has no freedom either. You don’t decide where the camera is looking. I want the lack of clear
cutting to make you feel trapped in the protagonist’s shoes, unable to look away.
Working on this film has been incredibly rewarding. I really enjoyed being able to create a whole
film almost completely by myself. I am the true auteur for this film. I got to shoot at night in a creepy
derelict house in the middle of the woods. Every now and then, I would hear a branch crack and freeze
in terror. The sounds of night isolated me. I think it’ll do the same for you.