I Dream in Cinema

The traditional film, "talkie", or "movie" is filmed and projected at 24 frames per second (fps). What you see in a theatre is actually a series of still images, twenty four of them zooming past your eye at high speed, bouncing light into your retinas, where the single images remain for a split of a second. The brain interprets the difference between these frames as fluid motion, but it is not reality, this is an optical illusion, otherwise known as Persistence of Vision. Ancient Roman philosophers, Lucretius and Aristotle have suggested that Persistence of Vision mimics the way that we perceive dreams, the way that objects, shapes and images that we see during our waking life are seen again in our dreaming one.

My girlfriend has recurring dreams of walking down the street of her hometown and then suddenly starts flying (gliding like Christopher Reeves’ Superman as opposed to Henry Cavill’s propulsive take offs and landings), while my best friend from film school had recurring nightmares of his teeth falling out (*shudder). My dreams, however, have always taken more narrative structures from grand adventures filtered through a Saturday Morning Cartoon aesthetic during my childhood, to *ahem* more romantic ventures as an adolescent, and finally to my post film school visions as the semi-adult that I am today.

I constantly have dreams that play out like movies: a nightmare about my friends and I getting murdered by a killer clown in the desert = the perfect horror film! (I can still remember what the clown looked like, a cross between Pennywise and one of those Psycho raiders from the Borderlands videogames. I dreamt about the perfect live action film adaptation of Metal Gear Solid (1998) (years before Jordan Vogt-Roberts and Oscar Isaac were attached and subsequently failed), and of course failed to remember all the plot details when I woke up! I only remember it having a gold and black lighting scheme, perhaps I was playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution (2011) at the time? I honestly believe that I am one dream away from writing the next Hollywood masterpiece!

A few weeks ago I had a writing eureka moment within a mundane dream. I dreamt that one of my many aunts from the Philippines was about to embark on her first journey writing a novel (in real life my mother has already started working on her magnum opus). Her idea? A love story of a cartoon mouse trying to make it in the Big City (maybe voiced by Sarah Jessica Parker?) and for some reason Jim Belushi was also in the dream. For added context I am a huge fan of meta movies, films about film and filmmaking, think Bowfinger (1999), Lost in La Mancha (2002), or even Adaptation (2002), many of my post film school ideas were about film school graduates trying to break into the Industry with some crazy scheme or meta film project. So the film genius that I am in the dream, I Palahniuk (Big Fan!) these streams together!

Imagine! Emma Thompson is a recently divorced housewife, she wants to write about her failed love life through the eyes of a cartoon mouse, but… (dum dum dum!) She has writer’s block, and the cartoon mouse has come to life, animated in 2D! (just like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988), and Jim Belushi stars as himself, trying to court Emma Thompson, because! Ladies and Gentlemen, The Next Richard Curtis Romantic Comedy (2026)! I’d buy that for a dollar! To Dream Me’s knowledge, there has never ever been a live action romantic comedy featuring a prominent 2D animated character, the blending of 2D animation with the romantic comedy genre is guaranteed to make millions (See Enchanted (2007)). I think I’d title it Mouse Lady… or Mouse Madame (TBC)!

Now how did I come up with this dream? I had recently rewatched the classic animated tale The Secret of NIMH (1982) with my previously mentioned girlfriend which features Mrs. Brimsby, a cartoon mouse. Jim Belushi? He cameoed in Barry Levinson’s Wag The Dog (1997), (a very poignant film where officials in the US government manufacture a fictitious war to distract from a presidential sex scandal, does that remind you of anyone?) And Emma Thompson? She’s the obvious choice for the role!

In a more recent dream I was back at film school and one of my classmates had the luck of casting Adam Sandler in his true crime short film which would hopefully become a feature ala Narc (2002), all I remember is the film’s title: The Boston City Skyrunners (2026) which honestly sounds more like a local drone racing team than a gritty crime story about serial killers, or kidnappers. A character in the dream claimed to be an ex-law enforcement officer from Boston and said that “skyrunner” was a criminal term.I actually looked this up when I woke up, but could only find a TV movie, Skyrunners (2009), and a Merrel sponsored hiking race. Sadly I have no idea what images in my regular life influenced this dream, but I think the title is catchy.

In conclusion, I have yet to generate that multi-million dollar film idea, but who knows? Hollywood will keep whispering its secrets while I close my eyes at night. So keep sleeping fellow readers, will you be the next Dreamer?