31 | P a g e

Anywhere but Here United Kingdom 2016

Director: Jack Woods

Reviewed by J. R. Woods

The young girl has only one goal, this is the film made by di rector, Jack Woods, straight from the set of

Redemption, his new short film takes place in the

suburbs of London. Nature is at a scarcity and a Young

gi rl i s on a mission to help a flower. As innocent as this

ta le is, there is a lot of tension within the plot as Lewis

Woods, playing a youth community offender, he

approaches the girl curiously, and this causes tension for

the crowd. Amber Clough has a solid performance as the

Young gi rl in the piece. As her fi lm debut, she put in a

s trong performance as the wordless girl, travelling

around we see moving around the place with a mixture

of enjoyment, curiosity and worry a ll lend i tself to her

expression. This film highlights the importance of

teaching your children about stranger danger as the

Young gi rl interacts with the community worker, dread

feels the audience because the lack of known intent

from the young adult. The piece also brings up other key

i ssues such as environmental issues and how much

people care about the greenery. It tries to highlight a lot

of i s sues within the piece without feeling packed and

bloated with them. Al together this is a solid piece of cinematography, with standout performances from the

two main actors, Lewis Woods and Amber Clough. The

direction and camerawork was very well choreographed.

The piece brings to life a worst case scenario, creating

tens ion while leaving you on the edge of your seat throughout the whole encounter. It then delivers an

ending of maturity and release by a llowing the

characters to wordlessly end the interaction in an

outcome of complete innocence. Jack Woods’ new film

has a definitive link to the 2002 fi lm, The Most Beautiful Man in the World by Al icia Duffy, this stems from the

uneasy meeting of a third party. However there are clear

di fferences between the meeting, the fi rst being the

people themselves the offender in Jack Woods’ film

A cold autumn day a MIDDLE AGED MAN is in his garden digging up a flower and putting it in a

bag. He then puts it on a wall and fills in the hole with soil. He then goes and gets a bird-table

and puts it on top of the spot their used to be a flower. He then walks in the house and gives

the flower to a YOUNG GIRL. He then says something to her and walks out of the room closing the door behind him.

The young girl is dressed up warm and walks away from the house. She then walks out of the

garden and down the pavement to a derelict patch of grass. After looking at the patch of grass

for a while, she decides it best not to plant in there. She then walks to a local children’s park

and starts trying to find a place to plant the flower. After a ball flies past her and nearly hits the spot she was looking to plant the flower in. She decides to move the flower to a safer place.

She goes to a forest and decides to take a rest on a log. A COMMUNITY OFFENDER is picking up

rubbish in the background with a bright green vest on and a black bag. After a small amount of

time he sits on the log and tries to see what the girls holding. He then opens in his rubbish bag

and takes out several grubby toys. He then shows them to the girl and lays them on the floor.

She picks up a dog toy and he gently tries to take the flower but she drops the dog and pulls the

flower closer. He then picks the dog. He then lays the dog on the floor and takes a step back.

She goes and lays the flower on the ground before picking the dog, then goes and sits back on

the log. He goes to the flower and picks it up under her watchful eye. He then bends down and

plants the flower in a little hole he makes then smiles at the girl and walks off. The girl then waits for a little while and gets up and walks in the opposite direction.

The Young Adult, Lewis Woods, s tepping away

from the tense encounter with the Young Girl, Amber Clough.

Produced by Production Beacon Media Cast Jack Woods Designer Productions Amber Clough

Written by Jack Woods In association Young Girl Jack Woods Music with Lewis Woods Director of Composer JRW Fi lms Community

Photography Jack Woods and Offender Jack Woods Make-up Realwatch Alan Woods Edited by Design Enterta inment Middle aged

Jack Woods Cla ire Clough man

makes a link with the young

gi rl through the toys he offers

and the flower he plants; The

Most Beautiful Man in the

World the connection isn’t

rea lly theres just a brief

interaction through l iving

creatures like the pet dog and

the bug. The film has great

cinematography as well as a 4:3 aspect ratio to make i t feel

more innocent. We see this

fi lm through the girl’s point of

view, this is very s ignificant as

she is the protagonist, this contributes to the tension

because we are able to feel

her love for the flower within

the plot and it emanates to the

viewer. This amplifies the anxiety and pressure of the

piece because she trusts the community offender with the

flower whereas we have no

indication of what he i s going

to do with i t. After the

community offender plants

the flower, I found myself

s ighing a breath of relief. This

i s because there was too much

tens ion built up in the scene. It

was a very good structure to

the fi lm and the climax felt very rewarding, but you felt

that after the end when he

picks his bag up and walks

away. When you see the last

shot of the flower planted in the ground, you feel relief

because the girl is able to be

happy that the flower is safe

and i t is in a place that it can

s tay for the rest of i ts l ife. This fi lm in the end is quite heart-

warming and this i s a good

piece of film and I was able to

enjoy.