The brief

In a quiet, secluded part of the beautiful Holmfirth countryside, the distant sound of chainsaws and falling trees rings out. It's this impressive 350 acre site that is the jewel in TKF's crown.

Working with some of the UK's major utility companies, local authorities and private clients alike, TKF offers a complete one-stop-shop for high quality and fully accredited land management training courses.

I was asked to create a video that would capture the attention of prospective trainees at careers fairs, give them an insight into the range of courses available and encourage them to find out more.

The solution

I decided to shoot the video as a 'journey' around TKF's working forest.

Starting at the company's head office, we hear a trainee phoning up to enrol onto a course. We travel with them on an exhilarating off-road drive to the log cabin classroom to be inducted. We then follow them into the forest as they pick up a chainsaw for the first time and learn how to climb and fell trees.

The filming took over a week to complete, as there were so many shots to gather - from the closeups of chainsaws cutting into bark, to trees being felled, tractors dragging the logs away and 4x4s splashing through puddles! All of the filming was carefully risk-assessed and carried out safely.

For the tree-felling shots, we filmed impressive high-angle wide shots with a drone and used mini GoPro cameras strategically placed at ground level to capture the 'crashes' as the trees landed.