The other reason I haven't been keeping my dream journal recently is that the kinds I dreams I do remember having just seem to be either replays of whatever I've been doing that week, or a preview of what my day is going to be like. As far as I can tell, nothing really out of the ordinary happens, except that I seem to be even more stressed out in my dream. So I guess what I've got to do is chill out a bit... get more sleep... and make sure there's time for recording dreams.
On to my project... I'm finishing up interviews right now and working to find the right video filters in final cut express. By this time next week I'd like to be done the interviews and moving on to writing the screenplay for my film based on these interviews. Originally I wasn't going to use the interviews in my film at all, but I think I've figured out a way to do it in a non-lame way. I'm going to use short clips of everyone I've interviewed in the credits for the film. I think it's going to be sweet.
Here's an example of the kind of filter that I'm looking at using. I'm still playing around with it, but here's glimpse into what it may look like.
Hey, I know that man... Phil!
ReplyDeleteThe filter experimentation sounds good. I think it could be key to establishing a good link between the visual aesthetics of your video and the concept of dreams or a dreamlike state. I think that a unique, and surreal appearence would lend itself nicely to your concept.
On another note, I wonder if you shouldn't try waking yourself up at particular intervals to induce dreams that you can remember or record consistently. I think everyone's body is different, but you should be able to figure out roughly an interval at which you are in the R.E.M. portion of sleep cycle. I think if you wake up during that or just after, you could write your dream down immediately, or possible time it so it is more fixed in your memory. I for one have always been an advocate of napping for research and academic purposes!
Dreams and memory seem so incredibly intertwined with this project, since you and your subjects are recounting dreams that were experienced in the past (even if only the night before). It seems like the ephemeral nature of memories of dreams could be something you embrace in the project. Maybe forgotten dreams could just be blank space in the film or the film/sound could be so distorted that the subject matter is unintelligible. Not having time to journal might not be such a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteYour work reminds me much a lot of the poet Ione. Much of her work deals with dreams and specifically the sounds and music we hear in dreams, which originate entirely in our minds. Great stuff -- I look forward to the final result.
Also, I'm totally with Jordan; napping for academic reasons seems like a fantastic idea.
Your attempt to recall the visual qualities of your dreams and rendering them in video is great, but we wonder how much movies themselves have changed the way our dreams and memories look and whether that will become a device to explore in your project?
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