Ben Hagarty’s new Short Film “Lost Woods” is a Collision of Ambition and Finding Home

The Offload: What inspired Lost Woods?

Ben Hagarty: I think many factors played into what inspired this film but the biggest one is quite simple. Shawn Skadburg (my writer) and I grew up playing in bands. We had a pop punk band called Old Men, Dead Dogs and an indie band called Long Nights. Later I went on to start a hip hop group called Skool’d.

Music is what makes our blood flow. In our teens, we toured the US together—sleeping in vans, playing shows in basements, living off ramen noodles. Those were some of the most important years in my life development. As I got older and into my professional life, music continued to be apart of my DNA. I’ve spent the last 10 years documenting musicians and directing branded projects that all have a music tie-in in one way or another. I’ve even toured at the highest level around the planet a few times.

So my first instinct was to try and tell a story from the perspective of a musician and dive deeper into the position of dream chasing and sacrifice.

TO: Is this your first Narrative Film?

BH: Technically, yes. In high school and college, we were making short film projects, writing scripts, and dreaming big about making movies one day. But as I grew up, my focus started aiming toward documentaries and short form content. I’ve been wanting to explore storytelling in this medium for the last few years, but just haven’t carved out the time to do it until now. I think that truly comes down to being nervous to explore it.

TO: This film seems to connect a lot of dots in parallel with your life. How does this tie in with your live concert filming experience and returning home to Iowa?

BH: Yeah, it for sure does. If you look at the exploration that the female character Dana is having with her relationship and her future, I think that outlook is how I felt about leaving Los Angeles after having lived there for 9 years and coming back to my home town in Iowa.

I moved back to be closer to my Dad while he battles cancer, so a little bit different circumstances, but even before he was diagnosed I had this feeling that I needed to change something up in my life. There is a lot of weight with that. For me, LA holds the key to my success in a way. Would leaving that end my career? Could I continue to do what I do from somewhere else? Those were real questions I asked myself and I think that comes across in the way Dana is thinking about her next moves in life.

TO: How many prep days / shooting days / and post production days did you have?

BH: So for context, I’ve been a Canon USA Ambassador for the past three years. I’ve had a few opportunities to create “launch” content whenever they release new products and this was one of those projects. Canon reached out and asked for me to make something for a new set of lenses that they were going to release. They gave me complete freedom and we chose to use it as an opportunity to create something narrative.

My first chat with Canon about this project was on September 10th and our first cut was delivered October 8th—that’s pretty nuts. I didn’t receive the lenses until September 25th. So everything came together at the last minute—including getting my DP, writer, and actress into Iowa and sourcing gear/crew in Iowa (which is not easy).

We shot from September 26th to October 3rd and delivered our first cut October 8th. The full project was delivered and went live on Canon’s pages October 30th which included the main short film, a 10-minute behind the scenes film, various social pieces that we created, a movie poster, behind the scenes photos, and more. It was a pretty intensive project—we did this to ourselves!—and I even had a week long Mexico wedding trip that happened in the middle of the post schedule. I’m proud of everyone involved for helping me hit the deadline.

TO: What were some of the biggest challenges you experienced on the film ? Is coordinating 3 boats at the same time a little tougher than you expected?

BH: Haha, yes. Coordinating three boats to film our dialogue scene was not easy (as you can see in the BTS video). We were racing against time with the sunset. That was one of the biggest challenges on the whole project because this conversation between Jacob and Dana was so important and if it didn’t read on camera, the whole film would be garbage.

Also, the guy playing Jacob (his name is Jacob Pauli) is not an actor… so I had no idea if he was going to translate on camera. But I felt really good about it going into it. We had Kyla Burke there playing Dana, she’s a professional actress and was giving Jacob a lot of advice and encouragement throughout the prep process.

At the end of the day, I’m really really happy with how that scene came out!

TO: Is that a real festival in the woods?

BH: Yes! Lost Woods is a real festival that my friends put together and this was their second year of running it. They carved out this beautiful space in the woods, built a stage, put art and lights EVERYWHERE and brought in about nine Iowa bands to perform. They made it free to the public. The first year about 600 people came. This year, 1,600 people came.

This was something that I knew I had access to coincidently, so when Canon reached out I instantly thought about using Lost Woods in some way or fashion. Getting those guys to be so involved when they also had to put on the biggest event of their life and headline the festival… I got so lucky.

TO: Those live concert shots gave me the chills, what was your focus on when you were capturing those moments

BH: Hell yeah! Me too - haha! Honestly, our original plan was to just shoot some moments of the band at the show (back stage, photos with fans, going in and out of their trailer, etc.) But once we were there and saw how they had the place laid out, we decided that it would be sick to shoot a one take of the band going up on stage. This became a high stakes moment, but once we did the rehearsal Shawn and I both knew this would be how the film opened if we did it right. We spent the next two days rehearsing over and over: figuring out where we would place lighting along the trail through the woods to hit our key moments, finding the best way to make it feel organic that he’s with his girl before a show, and how we would ultimately shift focus from him to Dana to set the tone.

When it came time to film that moment, it felt like what I imagine it’s like for an NFL player before they run out on the field for the Super Bowl. There was no room for error. Fans were actually waiting for them to play. If anyone messes up the shot goes in the trash. But everyone killed it and that opening shot gives me chills every single time.

After we got that we knew we needed some key moments (Dana watching side stage, him realizing she’s gone, them performing, etc.) But shooting shows is how I got started, so going through my internal shot list and knocking it out was the easy part to be honest. We just needed high energy and beautiful moments and we for sure got that.

TO: Talk me through the post process? Were there any reshoots? How much footage idd you capture ? Did you happen to use any OWC products in this production?

BH: We did use OWC products on this job! I used the Atlas memory cards, a 32TB ThunderBlade SSD plus the 4TB Envoy Pro FX as a shuttle, and an Atlas card reader. That 32TB drive is so fast man. Handling all this 6K raw footage was a breeze and the dumps went so fast too. I’m not even saying that because you’re interviewing me—it truly was so quick and I have total confidence in the storage systems that my footage is safe. Bravo to y’all!

But to answer your question, no re-shoots. Our actress, DP, and writer flew back to LA and I just started living in the edits. We had everything we needed. It was just about how to weave it together. We shot a little over 7TB of media for this project. So much good stuff too that didn’t make the cut.

TO: What have you learned and, the obvious question, what’s next? A feature?

BH: I don’t think it was technically a lesson that I learned but something I am thankful for having developed early on is patience. It takes a great deal of patience to get an idea to fruition and especially in an environment like this where you are needing to source so much from people in order to get the thing you want. You have to move with patience and gratitude.

I really loved this project and it might even be one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. I would love to explore features of course. I have so many stories that I think I can share that would provide value to others who would watch. My goal is to always provide value to anyone I’m around or who’s watching. I hope I can continue to do that.

TO: Anyone you would like to specifically thank for their help on this production?

BH: It’s a true team effort! None of this was possible without every single person listed in the credits of the film being involved. I’m so proud of our crew, my cast, and my community for helping us bring this vision to life. I don’t believe this film could have been made in LA. This was luck. This was timing. This was true dedication and love for telling stories. So cool to do this in my home town in Iowa.