Beneath the Still Canopy
Joe and Tina find themselves deeper in the summer woods than intended, lured by the promise of abundant berries. As the sun dips, a sudden, unnatural silence descends, and they stumble upon unsettling marks on a tree, hinting at a presence far older and stranger than they could imagine.
# Beneath the Still Canopy
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
Two young adults searching for a fabled berry patch become hopelessly lost in a forest that falls unnervingly silent, only to discover they have stumbled into the domain of an ancient, watchful presence that warps the very fabric of their reality.
## Themes
* **The Malevolence of the Natural World:** The transformation of a familiar, indifferent wilderness into a sentient, hostile, and inescapable trap.
* **Sensory Deprivation as Terror:** The use of profound silence and the failure of sight and direction not as a void, but as an active, oppressive force that preys on the characters' sanity.
* **The Impotence of Modernity:** The complete failure of contemporary technology (GPS, smartphones) when confronted with a primal, ancient power, highlighting human vulnerability.
* **The Fear of the Unseen:** The horror is built not on what is shown, but on what is felt, heard at the edge of perception, and glimpsed in the shadows, forcing the audience to share in the characters' paranoia.
## Stakes
The characters risk not only becoming permanently lost in a supernaturally hostile forest but also losing their sanity and their lives to the unseen entity that controls it.
## Synopsis
JOE and TINA, a young couple in their twenties, are deep in the woods, following the half-remembered directions of Tina’s grandmother to a legendary berry patch. As dusk approaches, their frustration at being lost gives way to a creeping unease. The turning point comes abruptly: the constant, ambient drone of forest life—cicadas, birds, rustling animals—ceases completely. They are plunged into an oppressive, unnatural silence that feels heavy and watchful.
Their attempts to retrace their steps fail as the woods become a disorienting, featureless maze. Their phone compasses spin uselessly, severing their last link to the modern world. Their growing panic is amplified when they discover a towering cedar tree marked with ancient, unsettling carvings—geometric patterns and stylized, unblinking eyes that seem to stare out from the wood. The carvings confirm their fear: they are not alone, and they have trespassed into a place with a dark, hidden history.
As the last light fades, the silence is replaced by a new sound: a low, resonant hum that seems to emanate from the very earth beneath their feet. The vibration grows, felt deep in their bones, and the air takes on a metallic taste. The forest itself seems to shift and warp around them, the trees leaning in like grasping fingers. Paralyzed by a primal dread, they see a tall, indistinct, and utterly still figure waiting for them in the deepening shadows, realizing too late that the silence was not an absence, but a presence.
## Character Breakdown
* **JOE (20s):** The pragmatist. Grounded, skeptical, and initially more annoyed than scared. He trusts in logic and technology, and his frustration stems from their failure. He tries to be the voice of reason, but his rational worldview is systematically dismantled by the forest's unnatural phenomena.
* **Psychological Arc:** Joe begins as a confident rationalist, annoyed by what he perceives as a simple navigational error. He ends completely stripped of his skepticism, reduced to a state of primal terror as he confronts a supernatural reality that his modern logic cannot comprehend or combat.
* **TINA (20s):** The believer. More intuitive and connected to the nostalgia of the quest. She is the first to sense the wrongness of the forest, her unease preceding Joe's. Her initial hopefulness curdles into a deep-seated fear as her grandmother's idyllic stories are twisted into a waking nightmare.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE FRUITLESS QUEST:** Late afternoon. Joe and Tina push through dense bramble, far off any trail. Their bucket is empty, their patience thin. The setting sun paints the sky, signaling their time is running out.
2. **THE SILENCE FALLS:** Joe voices his skepticism about their location. As they argue, they simultaneously realize the world has gone quiet. The constant thrum of cicadas and forest life has vanished. The silence is absolute and terrifying.
3. **THE LOST PATH:** Acknowledging the danger, they turn to go back, but the path they made has disappeared. Every direction looks identical—a relentless, green wall. Panic begins to set in.
4. **THE UNBLINKING EYE:** They stumble upon a massive, ancient cedar. Carved into its bark are strange, unsettling symbols and stylized eyes. The carvings are ancient but deliberate. The feeling of being watched becomes undeniable.
5. **TECHNOLOGY FAILS:** They pull out their phones. The compass apps spin wildly. Tina's phone is dead. Their last modern tool is useless. They are truly cut off.
6. **THE HUM BEGINS:** As darkness envelops them, a low, deep hum starts, vibrating through the ground and their bodies. It’s a sound that feels ancient and powerful, coming from everywhere at once.
7. **THE SHAPE IN THE DARK:** The hum intensifies, the air tastes like copper, and the forest geometry seems to twist. Paralyzed with fear, they see a tall, unmoving shape standing between the trees ahead, waiting for them. They are trapped.
## Visual Style & Tone
The film will employ a naturalistic, handheld camera style to create a sense of immediacy and claustrophobia, making the audience feel as if they are lost alongside the characters.
* **Cinematography:** The visual journey will mirror the narrative descent. It begins in the warm, diffused "golden hour" light, creating a false sense of security. As the silence falls, the palette will shift dramatically to cold, desaturated blues and deep, oppressive blacks. Light will be used sparingly, forcing the viewer's eyes to strain against the encroaching darkness. The carvings will be shot in tight, reverent close-ups, emphasizing their alien and ancient texture.
* **Sound Design:** Sound is the primary driver of horror. The film will open with a rich, layered soundscape of the forest, which is then violently stripped away, leaving a deafening, uncomfortable silence. This silence will be punctuated only by the characters' unnaturally loud footsteps and panicked breathing. The final act is dominated by the low-frequency, bone-rattling hum that builds to an unbearable crescendo.
* **Tone:** The tone is one of escalating atmospheric dread and folk horror. It avoids jump scares in favor of a slow-burn, psychological terror that preys on fundamental fears of being lost, unheard, and watched. **Tonal comparisons:** The film aligns with the environmental dread and reality-bending horror of *Annihilation*, the slow-burn folk terror of *The Witch*, and the unsettling, high-concept nature of anthology series like *Black Mirror* and *The Twilight Zone*.
**Format:** Short Film / Anthology Episode | **Est. Length:** 10-12 minutes
## Logline
Two young adults searching for a fabled berry patch become hopelessly lost in a forest that falls unnervingly silent, only to discover they have stumbled into the domain of an ancient, watchful presence that warps the very fabric of their reality.
## Themes
* **The Malevolence of the Natural World:** The transformation of a familiar, indifferent wilderness into a sentient, hostile, and inescapable trap.
* **Sensory Deprivation as Terror:** The use of profound silence and the failure of sight and direction not as a void, but as an active, oppressive force that preys on the characters' sanity.
* **The Impotence of Modernity:** The complete failure of contemporary technology (GPS, smartphones) when confronted with a primal, ancient power, highlighting human vulnerability.
* **The Fear of the Unseen:** The horror is built not on what is shown, but on what is felt, heard at the edge of perception, and glimpsed in the shadows, forcing the audience to share in the characters' paranoia.
## Stakes
The characters risk not only becoming permanently lost in a supernaturally hostile forest but also losing their sanity and their lives to the unseen entity that controls it.
## Synopsis
JOE and TINA, a young couple in their twenties, are deep in the woods, following the half-remembered directions of Tina’s grandmother to a legendary berry patch. As dusk approaches, their frustration at being lost gives way to a creeping unease. The turning point comes abruptly: the constant, ambient drone of forest life—cicadas, birds, rustling animals—ceases completely. They are plunged into an oppressive, unnatural silence that feels heavy and watchful.
Their attempts to retrace their steps fail as the woods become a disorienting, featureless maze. Their phone compasses spin uselessly, severing their last link to the modern world. Their growing panic is amplified when they discover a towering cedar tree marked with ancient, unsettling carvings—geometric patterns and stylized, unblinking eyes that seem to stare out from the wood. The carvings confirm their fear: they are not alone, and they have trespassed into a place with a dark, hidden history.
As the last light fades, the silence is replaced by a new sound: a low, resonant hum that seems to emanate from the very earth beneath their feet. The vibration grows, felt deep in their bones, and the air takes on a metallic taste. The forest itself seems to shift and warp around them, the trees leaning in like grasping fingers. Paralyzed by a primal dread, they see a tall, indistinct, and utterly still figure waiting for them in the deepening shadows, realizing too late that the silence was not an absence, but a presence.
## Character Breakdown
* **JOE (20s):** The pragmatist. Grounded, skeptical, and initially more annoyed than scared. He trusts in logic and technology, and his frustration stems from their failure. He tries to be the voice of reason, but his rational worldview is systematically dismantled by the forest's unnatural phenomena.
* **Psychological Arc:** Joe begins as a confident rationalist, annoyed by what he perceives as a simple navigational error. He ends completely stripped of his skepticism, reduced to a state of primal terror as he confronts a supernatural reality that his modern logic cannot comprehend or combat.
* **TINA (20s):** The believer. More intuitive and connected to the nostalgia of the quest. She is the first to sense the wrongness of the forest, her unease preceding Joe's. Her initial hopefulness curdles into a deep-seated fear as her grandmother's idyllic stories are twisted into a waking nightmare.
## Scene Beats
1. **THE FRUITLESS QUEST:** Late afternoon. Joe and Tina push through dense bramble, far off any trail. Their bucket is empty, their patience thin. The setting sun paints the sky, signaling their time is running out.
2. **THE SILENCE FALLS:** Joe voices his skepticism about their location. As they argue, they simultaneously realize the world has gone quiet. The constant thrum of cicadas and forest life has vanished. The silence is absolute and terrifying.
3. **THE LOST PATH:** Acknowledging the danger, they turn to go back, but the path they made has disappeared. Every direction looks identical—a relentless, green wall. Panic begins to set in.
4. **THE UNBLINKING EYE:** They stumble upon a massive, ancient cedar. Carved into its bark are strange, unsettling symbols and stylized eyes. The carvings are ancient but deliberate. The feeling of being watched becomes undeniable.
5. **TECHNOLOGY FAILS:** They pull out their phones. The compass apps spin wildly. Tina's phone is dead. Their last modern tool is useless. They are truly cut off.
6. **THE HUM BEGINS:** As darkness envelops them, a low, deep hum starts, vibrating through the ground and their bodies. It’s a sound that feels ancient and powerful, coming from everywhere at once.
7. **THE SHAPE IN THE DARK:** The hum intensifies, the air tastes like copper, and the forest geometry seems to twist. Paralyzed with fear, they see a tall, unmoving shape standing between the trees ahead, waiting for them. They are trapped.
## Visual Style & Tone
The film will employ a naturalistic, handheld camera style to create a sense of immediacy and claustrophobia, making the audience feel as if they are lost alongside the characters.
* **Cinematography:** The visual journey will mirror the narrative descent. It begins in the warm, diffused "golden hour" light, creating a false sense of security. As the silence falls, the palette will shift dramatically to cold, desaturated blues and deep, oppressive blacks. Light will be used sparingly, forcing the viewer's eyes to strain against the encroaching darkness. The carvings will be shot in tight, reverent close-ups, emphasizing their alien and ancient texture.
* **Sound Design:** Sound is the primary driver of horror. The film will open with a rich, layered soundscape of the forest, which is then violently stripped away, leaving a deafening, uncomfortable silence. This silence will be punctuated only by the characters' unnaturally loud footsteps and panicked breathing. The final act is dominated by the low-frequency, bone-rattling hum that builds to an unbearable crescendo.
* **Tone:** The tone is one of escalating atmospheric dread and folk horror. It avoids jump scares in favor of a slow-burn, psychological terror that preys on fundamental fears of being lost, unheard, and watched. **Tonal comparisons:** The film aligns with the environmental dread and reality-bending horror of *Annihilation*, the slow-burn folk terror of *The Witch*, and the unsettling, high-concept nature of anthology series like *Black Mirror* and *The Twilight Zone*.