Statement Of Intentions - 'Dream A Little Dream'

Statement Of Intentions.

My production aim is to produce a stop-motion film of about 1 and a half minutes. Titled ‘Dream A Little Dream’, it is about a young boy who falls asleep and experiences three dreams that portray three separate, strong emotions through objects and people. (E.g. frustration uses food – he cannot eat the food he wants to.) He then wakes up at the end of the film feeling confused and intrigued about all his odd dreams.
‘Dream A Little Dream’ is aimed at all audiences, of all ages, because I think that the almost comical portrayal of the emotions will appeal to children, and the formalism will interest adults. Altogether, though, I feel that children ranging from roughly 5 to 17 will enjoy it most.

The main influences for my production are dream-like and surreal films that are unusual but interesting and can have several different meanings to it. Examples are productions such as ‘Alice’ by Jan Svankmajer. My animation also includes a nightmare-ish scene, and I want to take aspects from films by the Quay brothers, because their menacing scenes include techniques I would like to copy, such as losing teeth. I like this idea because it is a common nightmare that every adult/teenager in the world is meant to experience at least once, so when they watch it they will be able to empathize and it will provide a link that will attract them more.

I want my production to have a mix of my influences, but also include my own original ideas, taking aspects – to do with camera work, sound, editing, lighting and general mise-en-scene – from each. Hopefully, by merging these, I will create a film that is conventional, but also different so that it is new and exciting.

My budget is not very high, so ‘Dream A Little Dream’ will not be as lavish as I would have liked (e.g. better locations, props, more advanced sound technology etc…) but what can be improved by money, cant be changed that much and wouldn’t make much of a difference, and I am fairly content with all my locations.

I want to use a diversity of shots, or using interesting shots that aren’t typical and boring. By doing this I hope to make the production more interesting and clear for the audience. This also can create a dramatic effect.

I plan to use stop motion to shoot ‘Dream A Little Dream’. This is a new experience for me, but I will try out techniques and ideas in my preproduction. I want to finish the filming, and then add Foley noises, such as breathing and hands slamming on the table. Finally, I want to add background music, different themes for each dream, and twinkly, slightly eerie noises for the sleeping scenes.

The genre (besides animation) is generally fantasy, but with aspects of comedy and formalism. I wanted to include pieces of genres that the audience would react well to, and make the film more interesting to watch. The comedy genre is due to the over emphasized body language and the comedy portrayal of the emotions (such as the food disappearing in a comical way.)

To show the transition between the ‘fiction world’ (his dreams) and reality, I am going to use a fade transition, and mess up his bedcovers, to show something is about to happen.

To keep on schedule, I am planning to use the application 'Gantt project'. I am using this application because it is easy to use, and very informative. To get my ideas to make sense, I will make a mood board, which will help to develop a final idea. I also want to create storyboards, scripts and a synopsis so I can be completely organized.

When I have finished filming the production, I want to edit using the application 'Final Cut Pro'. I want to because it very easy to use once you work it out, and it has lots of facilities that will aid me to make my production the best it could be.