The Tree (1993)
February 25, 1993Release Date
Plot.
Where to Watch.
Cast & Crew.
Clara Jane Hannon
Infant
Kathleen Tipton
Mother
Jameson Baltes
5-Year Old Boy
Jessica Ivy
8-Year Old Girl
Travis Burk
8-Year ld Boy
Todd Field
Director
Todd Field
Director
Benjamin Troy
12-Year Old Boy
Jason D'Rion
14-Year Old Boy
Shel Silverstein
Writer
Danni Wheeler
17-Year Old Girl
Michael Kenworthy
17-Year Old Boy
Tal Skloot
Editor
David A.R. White
Soldier
Patrick Sherman
ProductionDesigner
Travis Martin
Rocket Boy
Matthew Modine
Boy as Middle-Aged Man / Boy as Old Man
Mab Ashforth
Mother's Voice
Kim M. Ferry
Key Hair Stylist
Jayne Marie Kehoe
Costume Designer
Donna Lyn Greenbaum
Casting Director
Lynda Montague
Casting Director
Roy Cullen
Screenplay / Producer
Richard Davenport
Cinematography
Details.
Wiki.
The Tree is a 1993 short film that Todd Field created while a fellow at the AFI Conservatory. It is a non-verbal dramatic piece following the life of a boy born at the turn of the century. The single setting, an apple tree set high on a rural ridge, is where we glimpse the boy mature, fall in love, go to war, return with his own son, and finally pay his last respects as a very old man who has seen much change. The set was designed using the tree as a scale foreground visual anchor and employing forced perspective for other items appearing in frame, including distant mountains, a train, and a town in transition. The scene changes from season to season and year to year all achieved practically using trompe-l'œil.
The film is loosely based upon and inspired by the story The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.