Rosco SoftDrop^® - The Natural Background Choice For “Woodwalkers”

Woodwalkers is a 2024 fantasy film directed by Damian John Harper and co-produced between Germany and Austria. Based on the series of novels by Katja Brandis, the story follows Carag, a shapeshifting puma raised in the wild who finds his place in Clearwater High boarding school for Woodwalkers like him. There, he befriends Holly the red squirrel and Brandon the bison and together they explore the Woodwalker world filled with mysteries and dangers. Below, Production Designer Maximilian Lange explains, in his own words, why the distinctive design aspects of the film – including a real bison! – made Rosco SoftDrop his only background option.

Since we would be shooting with a real bison in the set, it quickly became clear that from this perspective alone, shooting on an original set would not be possible.

Carag’s boarding room inside the Clearwater High School set, featuring a real bison and a Rosco SoftDrop outside the window.

But there were mainly design aspects that made us decide to move the set to the studio: the story is about a boarding school of shapeshifters (from animal to human and vice versa) and we wanted them to have a special boarding room that was cozy, warm and safe.

Carag’s boarding room set with Rosco SoftDrop in the background.

The school is hidden away in the mountains and the exterior location, a building from the 70s, captivates with the special shape of its windows, which are vaguely reminiscent of animal eyes. Of course, we have adopted these windows for our set in the studio.

Maximilian Lange’s set drawings of Carag’s boarding room with the octagon-shaped window resembling an animal eye.

For me, there was no question of considering another background solution. We knew relatively soon that we wouldn't be shooting in a large studio where we might have the option of a virtual background. But also for sustainable reasons, I liked the simplicity of a backdrop with Night/Day effects and knew it would offer enough possibilities. Because of the view of untouched nature, I also think it would have been overly extensive to choose a different solution - especially as the window was not oversized.

A Rosco SoftDrop creates views of pristine nature outside the set windows and balcony.

It was a relatively small set that we installed in a hall in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Germany. The SoftDrop was easy to handle and easy to set up, even without a large studio system.

The Rosco SoftDrop was easily installed inside the compact studio set.

I have had very good experiences with Rosco’s Day/Night SoftDrops in other films, and there was no question that we would solve the view on this set with a SoftDrop. I have known Sarah Horton, Rosco’s Senior Digital Imaging Specialist, for a long time and I appreciate her precise way of getting the best out of each backdrop with the photos she takes. So, it was an easy decision for me.  

1) First composite of the raw image files.

2) Masking & blending before adding additional snow onto the mountainside.

3) Final day artwork file with the new snowy peaks created by the RDI team.

4) Final night artwork file with the new snowy peaks created by the RDI team.

My expectations were 100% fulfilled.  At the beginning, it wasn't quite clear what the night version would look like. Because we were telling a story of an untouched mountain landscape, there were none of the illuminated details that you usually see in cityscape backdrops with windows and streetlights. But the Rosco Digital Imaging team built wonderful, snowy peaks into the picture for us so that we had good "self-lighting effects” in the print despite the untouched nature. The all-round package was perfect.

Rosco SoftDrop creates a view of a night mountain landscape with snow peaks.

Woodwalkers is playing in cinemas now. Watch this gripping story to see the stunning visual effects and the production design featuring Rosco SoftDrop. To see more of Maximilian Lange’s marvelous work, visit his website www.mxlange.de. For more information about the product Maximilian used to create the view of untouched nature outside the window, explore the SoftDrop product page on our website.

Cinematographer: Peter Karause
Visual Effects Art Director – Zoran Cvetkovic