Removing leaves from trees?

[Kevin Vega]

So I'm shooting a holiday themed film in the middle of July, and need to remove the leaves from the trees in the yard to make it look like December.

Any ideas on how to do this?

 

[David W. Jones]

Find a different location.

Correct in post.

Wait till December to shoot.

How large a budget do you have to take care of this?

 

[Kevin Vega]

Not much at all. It's a scene where some one climbs a tree and sits outside a window. The other scenes we can probably mask the issue with fake snow and throwing the background out of focus.

 

[Bruce Watson]

So I'm shooting a holiday themed film in the middle of July, and need to remove the leaves from the trees in the yard to make it look like December.

Any ideas on how to do this?

A few years back a hurricane came and sat right on top of Wilmington, NC for half a day or more. Blew all the leaves off the trees. Residents there called it an early winter, because that's exactly what it looked like. Thankfully nearly all the trees fully recovered the next spring.

But waiting on a hurricane is perhaps the least efficient thing you can do. Even if you rent a cherry picker and talk a patient intern into picking the leaves off one by one, you've got the problem of the leaves growing back -- this time of year that's what's going to happen. And remarkably quickly too.

Fighting Mother Nature is often an expensive and futile thing to do. Just sayin'.

 

[David W. Jones]

Find a location with conifer trees, AKA evergreen trees which do not loose their needles in the winter.[h=3][/h]

 

[David G. Smith]

Find a location with conifer trees, AKA evergreen trees which do not loose their needles in the winter.[h=3][/h]

Or NO trees.

 

[clang]

Relocate the shoot to the southern hemisphere?

Seriously, manually removing the leaves is probably the only practical option, but incredibly tedious.

Hmm, or frame your shot carefully and use a fake (or dead) leafless tree?

 

[Lustgarten]

Probably some horrible herbicide you could use for one. Maybe cgi for longer shots and stage if you need closer stuff with the person in the tree. Get someone to shoot a plate somewhere of the tree and maybe a person in it from a distance, and then greenscreen around the house where the tree will go. I'm no cgi expert, but something like that might work.

 

[Kevin Vega]

It would seem building a fake tree would be the easiest and cheapest option to get exactly what I want. I have a request out right now to an effects company. Should have a quote by Monday.

 

[David W. Richardson]

I thought the conifer trees suggestion was a good one.

 

[maranfilms]

David jones is spot on, Find a different location. it's the only logical thing to do. Otherwise your going to drive yourself crazy with it. You can try to greenscreen something, or rotoscope out the tree, then drop in another in post. But it sound like you will have someone sitting in the tree while having dialogue with someone in the house? is this correct? If thats the case, there's no easy way, Can you re-write the scene, maybe something similar tp get the same point accross?

 

[Kevin Vega]

Here's the scene:

EXT. COOKE HOUSE - NIGHT
Jennifer crawls out her window, sits under a big tree, opens her journal ready to write. From here she can see Megan via the upstairs bedroom window. A moment later, Frankie is visible. Megan and Frankie embrace. Jennifer watches, almost guilty.


INT. COOKE HOUSE - MEGAN'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Two glasses of port half empty. Open suitcases, a few clothes ready to hang. Megan and Frankie embrace. The embrace becomes a kiss. The kiss turns to the pulling off of shirts.



EXT. COOKE HOUSE - NIGHT
Jennifer climbs the tree, sits where she can see into Megan's window. She watches in bewilderment.




I've also got this scene:

EXT. COOKE HOUSE - DAY
Jennifer under a tree with David.


JENNIFER
Why can't I stay with you?!


DAVID
It's complicated, honey.


JENNIFER
Why! You're my father, I'm your daughter.(shouts) What's complicated?!
David embraces a weeping Jennifer.


JENNIFER

I really hate our house. Cold as stupid ice. I hate the neighbors. I hate everything about it.


DAVID
Let's get something warm to drink.


They head for the house.

 

[David W. Jones]

So change the script/location!

Instead of a tree... Maybe a wraparound front porch with a porch swing, front porch light practical to motivate light on faces when sitting on the swing. Easier to shoot a single story than worring about two story house shots and budgeting to build platforms to shoot that high up as well as the liability issues involved with a minor actor climbing out a window and down a tree. Of course this does not address the fact that in the dead of winter your actors will not show breath outdoors, but hey.

 

[David W. Richardson]

Why does it have to be winter?

 

[Kevin Vega]

Why does it have to be winter?

Because it's a Christmas film.

 

[atarijedi]

I would say use a defoliant, but using one in a residential area would probably be illegal.

 

[David W. Richardson]

Christmas in Orlando looks far different than Christmas in New Hampshire.

 

[David W. Richardson]

I would say use a defoliant, but using one in a residential area would probably be illegal.

Don't kill a tree just to make a film.

 

[clang]

Instead of a tree, you could film exactly the same action with a ladder leaning up against a building, or a stack of boxes, or a conveniently parked truck. I don't see anything in your script extract that actually requires a tree as such.