Saturday, March 31, 2012

Writing a dream--

--is actually kind of complicated.

A couple of weeks ago, my friends and I made a video for a competition. Sadly, we didn't win anything, but we got a lot of recognition and compliments from everyone. And we had a blast filming. With that project over and done with, I decided I'm not ready to call it quits yet. I'm still in the short-film-making mood.
There's another film festival that I'm considering entering with my sisters, although if we miss the deadline (Monday), that's okay -- we're just doing this for fun.

This time, the focus of the movie is on dreams. Surprised? I hope not.




For many people, dreams don't have any structure to them at all; they're completely random in how they play out, how one thing ties in with another, and the dreamer's logic is all out of sync, too. That's all well and good, but when making a film about dreams, it would be kind of a waste to just film whatever,
put it together,
and call it a dream.

I would like for there to be some structure to it.
It's the architect/engineer in me, I guess.

How else could you convey a sense of cohesion, otherwise?

My sister and I spent a couple of hours tonight mapping out the movie, from scenes to transitions. Transitions and details are of the utmost importance in this movie, I think. They serve as reminders, explanations, or enigmas. While the dream sequence in and of itself is nonsensical, it kind of does make sense as a whole -- but that's only possible with all of these transitions. Otherwise, not only would it be choppy and poorly-edited, but also completely random and hard to understand.
Me, I like organized chaos.

So while it's difficult to think on a more detailed level during the sketching phase, it's all necessary. If it doesn't make sense now, I think the finished product will clarify that for you.

In coming up with this movie, we essentially wrote out a dream from beginning to end, with all of the phenomena I've experienced. That means that I get to show you what I've been through! To a degree. I can only do so much to make the viewer feel involved.


I don't want to say too much without giving anything away, so for now...

just know that a short movie is in the works.
And you bet I'm gonna post it here when it's done.