never want to wake up from this dream

 
The main concept behind this sequence of images is that dreams are an escape from reality. As the dream progresses, it detaches further and further away from reality. There are three distinct stages in this sequence:

1. Exploration

In this stage, the character (that is supposedly me) wakes up in a tiny body and starts exploring the surrounding area.

2. Semi realism

The dream is reduced to a somewhat semi realistic style. The content also starts to distort from reality; the impossible becomes possible. Laughing mushrooms, running apples… jumping origami toads, soaring human hands… these are all elements to show the detachment from reality. I also used elements of foreshadowing in the part where a butterfly is swallowed whole by a seemingly harmless flower.

3. Crayon

Here, the images are further reduced into a crayon-like state, completely detaching from reality. There are elements of fairy tales such as the Wizard of Oz in this part. I also used more foreshadowing in this part where the innocent-looking creature starts to approach the character, and changes into a monster out of nowhere.
 
As the story progresses, I purposely use brighter and brighter colours to give the impression of a happy dream – when in fact it’s not all happy and fun. This is shown by the use of foreshadowing as well. The use of foreshadowing shows, to put it simply, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Even if things are harmless on the outside, or pretty and colourful in exterior, they can be the reason of your fall. This can be said the same for dreams. As a mean of escape from reality, it seems as if it would be nice to never wake up from a dream. But that is not true. In the end of it all, we still have to face reality; dreaming will not help in solving the problems we face in real life.
 
 

Reflections

I feel that the images I used, especially at the beginning, were quite dull and boring. The ‘exploration’ stage felt almost like just a collage of photos rather than sequential images. Looking back at the whole thing again, I think I have restricted myself in going a little more ‘crazy’ in this project. Anything supposedly could happen in a dream – and that mindset just flew over my head. If my idea of dreams is a detachment from reality, then the images I used could have been a little more out-of-this-world and exaggerated – almost something like Alice in Wonderland. I also feel that I could have researched for videos or artists to reference from so I would at least have an inspiration to start off from.

If there was one thing I learned most from this, it would be never to escape from reality lol