For this particular project, I was interested in creating a movie about the feeling of being and nothingness. I was intrigued by McGinity’s lecture about phenomenal realness; the attributes of being and feeling real. What are such attributes and how can we mimic a VR experience?

Is the moving image an exact representation of life? Can a digital camera truthfully re-create a perfect human scene? From a POV perspective, I seek to explore the possibilities of living. Dream in this matter, is the matter in which we try to deconstruct why dreams feels real – immersive real yet perceptually incorrect. But yet, why do we always wake up from a dream with the feeling of wanting more? Wen the feeling of wanting more is tied with the concept of desire – it feels that there is a strong connection.

This particular image best conveys the mood and style I intend to achieve. A dream-like quality of the scene, possibly being too pretty to be true. The emptiness speaks of the former presence of being.

Imagine a 60 second short film. Succinct yet feeling so real. Mundane and nothing eloquent. Moving images of your life.

Yet, more often that not, we never question why dreams feel real. It this perception of ‘real’ false? Or perhaps it is immersive only it its functional state as a dream? So what are the attributes of realness?

It is widely known that human beings exhibit the 5 senses; sight, smell, sound, sense and taste. In a dream, sight seems to be the overwhelming notion that creates an immersive experience. In a nightmare, you produce a bodily reaction purely some the concept of seeing. You do not smell, hear, sense or taste anything. A reaction occurs primarily off sight. But this does not compound the notion that it feels real. Maybe the bodily reaction creates a vivid sensory experience and yet we can deduce that only through sight – can we truthfully mimic an immersive experience.

If the attributes of realness is primarily derived through these 5 human senses, and yet we can create an immersive experience primarily through sight – what are the flexibilities given in a still-video format?

Nonetheless, its seems roughly difficult to replicate all 5 senses as the format of a media art is purely limited towards the audio and visual format. We could replicate the sense of touch and smell but it would move this project more towards an installation.

To address the concept of ‘dreams’, the 60 second short film will be broken down into miniatures. Consisting of 6 – 10s clips, the idea is to replicate all the senses. To introduce an element of truth – true seeing moving images and yet creating a discontinuous feedback

Therefore, it felt wise to mimic the visual aspect of a dream – the sight and introduce elements of sound to distort the perception and immersion of the viewer. A perception that is only correct and immersive given the context of a dream. Therefore, I propose that the final

What you are seeing is real, but what you feel may be not. It is immersive and yet in its own right perceptually wrong. Like a dream, it is difficult to realise that you are within a dream. It is only within the moment that you are awake when you realise that none of it was real. An immersive experience and perception that is only true given a context of being in a dream.

For instance, a moving still image of a silent forest – trees swaying left to right creates the sound leaves swooshing. I intend to recreate a truthful representation of the trees but replace the sound with off-beat aural tunes.

To break down the 60 second short film into miniature sequences would provide me 5-6 possible sceneries and time to replicate a series of dreams. The idea of jumping between scenes when you are dreaming seems relevant if I can replicate it within this 60s short film.

I was also intrigued by the idea of dusk and dawn. In a literal concept, we dream within the space of the night. The process of dreaming, more often than not occurs when you sleep. The period between dawn and dusk is the moment of being alive and yet we dream of other things.

The clips will be kept short and simple. 6 clips of the same location during the dawn and dusk will be played and looped back within a possible timeframe of 2 minutes or less. The audio plays a big role in distorting the element of realness.

 

PRE-PRODUCTION MATERIALS/ASSETS

 

Shown above was the overall pre-production moodbard/image inspiration and/or off-handed storyboarding sequences.

As a photographer, I find it diffiuclt to work with a storyboard. The concept of visualizing ‘a shot’ makes me feel uncomfortable. A certain sense of expectation needed to be place onto the possibility that it might not happen. Instead, I rely a lot more on ideas/feelings and record my surroundings intuitively. All this happens with the overall image/mood board and style guide above.

Two Column A:V Screenplay

WATCH ‘BETWEEN DAWN AND DUSK’