So you want to create stirring nature documentaries. You could go the National Geographic way and risk trench-foot, snakebite and more in pursuit of the scenic wild. Or you could take the Boris Godfroid route: Schlep a few hundred pounds of bricks into a spare room, cover it with moss and other forgiving plant life, and let nature run wild in miniature.
That’s the background behind “Life on Moss,” a striking four-minute record of snails, insects and other micro-fauna creeping through a rain-soaked mini-forest built by Godfroid from spare building materials and a lots of bright-green bryophytes.
Shot in a afternoon and night with a Nikon D7000 and a couple of lights, you’d never guess the film’s action is happening a few feet from electric outlets and hardwood flooring.
The studio setup.
Godfroid is a third-year film student in Belgium with a particular bent for the small and overlooked. His online gallery includes some stunning macro stills of insects and more short films unlikely to crowd out cat videos on YouTube (“a short fiction film where you follow a dung beetle in one of his adventures.”) Working with his brother, Janharm, Godfroid is also amassing an impressive portfolio of travel photography.
Image credits: Photographs by Boris Godfroid, used by permission