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.