Concept inspiration

There are a few films that have influenced me with my self-directed brief, one of which is a no-brainer in that it too takes place almost entirely in dreams (though this is somewhat arguable). I am talking about Richard Linklater's Waking Life (2001) which features young man who is either lucid dreaming, dead or a combination of both. Waking Life differs itself from many other animated films due to it being completely rotoscoped.




Only A Dream will not implement rotoscoping unless absolutely necessary. Though Waking Life and Only A Dream share a common theme, the similarities end there. Waking Life does not follow the “dreamer” throughout the film and remains intentionally inconsistent while Only A Dream will exclusively follow the main character and he will always be present in every scene.

The screenplays of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche New York) often invoke strong surrealist imagery, perfect for conveying the strange segues of environments and situations found in dreams. This is conveyed particularly well when a director like Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze is on-board to interpret the script. And they are both amazing directors that have contributed to imagery that is constantly in the front of my mind when I visualise Only A Dream.

Concept documentation

For my self-directed brief I have decided that I will be making an animated short film, 4-10 minutes in length. This film may act as a pilot for a series of animations I may choose to do in the future. It will be animated using mostly digital 2D processes and occasional use of 3D when constructing environments and complex props or characters.

In Only A Dream (tentative title), the audience is taken into the dreams of a particularly troubled young adult male. These dreams have been specially transcribed into data and then into video from unseen technology that is hinted at throughout the film (through video/data artefact and camera information display). Through this technology, multiple “cameras” have been established by tapping into both the conscious and unconscious minds of the main character. With this narrative device, viewpoints from both first and third person perspectives are possible throughout the film.

Technicalities aside, the film is predominately a character piece in perhaps the most extreme sense (for there is only one “real” character). Other characters will be depicted through the dreams, but they will be shown how the main character perceives them to be.

It is through these dreams that we learn about the life, desires, fears and quirks of this main character. This will compose a tale of personal development and degradation on a far more personal magnitude. The film will consist of four or more dreams of the main character over a period of years, with each dream sharing common elements and characters.

I want to make it clear that the commonalities between each dream are only due to them being singled out of many, many others and sequenced together. It is almost as if there is someone or a number of people who have obtained this “footage” and edited it to form a cohesive narrative.

What is it to dream?

When I think of the word "dream" I cannot help but think of the words "imagination" and "fiction" in the same thought.

It seems as though our dreams are constructs, formulated by our unconscious mind as it picks and chooses anywhere from fresh to assumed forgotten memories. With these memories it ties and segues, weaving a kind of "narrative net" in which the consciousness is presented, probably to invoke strong emotional response.

In this narrative net, the stories themselves need not be sensible or realistic because - for some reason - our conscious mind believes almost everything presented to it by our unconscious mind. It seems as though rational and logical thought is compromised to stop incredulity from ruining or trivialising what one experiences in a dream. This is the ultimate suspension of disbelief.

Mediums of art and entertainment such as film and television have for many years worked under the assumption that the audience would be able to suspend their disbelief in order to enjoy the work more. However, believability plays a major role in allowing the audience to do this and when a plot line or character is not believably constructed, the effectiveness of the work is reduced. In dreams, believability is rarely a concern.

One may assume that in a dream, just about anything goes. But this is not necessarily true. A dream is a construct of the human unconscious mind, tapping into experiences and situations that the consciousness is generally aware of (even if it doesn't want to admit it). Because of this, a dream is a very personalised experience and for the majority of dreams, the consciousness is both the audience and the main character. This makes a dream less like a film or television show and more like a form of interactive entertainment (a game?).

A game is usually very interactive, but there are always limitations to what a game allows the player to do. These limitations are often placed purposefully to avoid the player from experiencing bugged anarchy. In a way, dreams also have limitations to keep the consciousness from performing actions that might compromise the integrity of the dream. That being said, when a dream becomes too much for the consciousness, the body awakens. This is often seen when a dream invokes an extreme emotional response, usually fear.

Though our consciousness tends to be rather tethered to this "narrative net" governed by our unconscious mind, there are times when we are able to break free and become "lucid" while dreaming. These moments are appropriately named lucid dreams and they are essentially unrestrained dreams of seemingly limitless potential. In a lucid dream, one is able to make conscious decisions about what to do, see or create in this dreamscape. The unconscious mind takes the back-seat, much like when awake, but the unconscious is still able to influence the body and conscious mind, albeit subtley.

Indeed, there are times while lucid dreaming when the unconscious seems to fight the conscious' hold over the dream. It seems as though the unconscious still has some say as to how aspects of dreams are constructed and it uses this to (and I say this with hestiation) trick the consciousness into thinking it has woken up, thus allowing the unconscious to take the reigns (as we - our consciousnesses - do not often construct our surroundings while awake). One way in which the unconscious might perform this trick (I say biting my lip) would be to influence a "scene change" in the dream that replicates the feelings and environment of waking up in one's bed. Though the individual is still dreaming, the consciousness is fooled. If the consciousness regains incredulity while lucid dreaming, it becomes clear that these "false awakenings" must be very, very convincing.

It is pretty obvious that I have an immense fascination with dreaming. I think it is also obvious that I believe I hold the answers as to how dreams are created, what they're for, etc. In reality, I can only say that these "answers" are my simple understandings of the conscious and unconscious minds and most of what I am saying is based on anecdotal evidence and/or my own opinion.

I post this because I feel it sums up my views on dreaming and the mind which will, I suppose, tie entirely into my self-directed work.

Prototype imagery