Audio Excerpt from Alan Watts "Out of your mind" pt2
Transcript:
Let’s suppose that you were able, every night, to dream any dream you wanted to dream and that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time.
And you would, naturally, as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure.
And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say “Well, that was pretty great. But now let’s have a surprise. Let’s have a dream which isn’t under control, where something is gonna happen to me that I don’t know what it’s gonna be”. And you would dig that and would come out of that and you would say “Wow that was a close shave, wasn’t it?”.
Then you would get more and more adventurous and you would make further- and further out gambles to what you would dream. And finally, you would dream where you are now.
Concept:
The randomness of life is what gives it meaning and excitement.
Nothing can be special if everything is. Our struggles are what helps us feel joy when overcoming them. Our imagination is only as powerful as the obstacles we have faced.
Styleframes round 1
I initially planned on a more colourful take on dreams. That they are these beautiful and vibrant worlds that we enter in our sleep. And then as we progressed into the unknown there would be different shaped 'doors' revealing new and exiting experiences.
The wishes dreamscape would be in RGB to reflect the artificiality of wanting perfection while the surprises were done in CMYK, a more physical way of interacting with the world.
I also thought about changing from 16:9 to 1:1 to show a narrowing of view and placing yourself in a box by constraining to just your wishes.
Styleframe revisions
The 1:1, inside a box idea was not working out so I scrapped it. I also began my transition to completely black and white. I was also given critique that the colour felt out of place, and that a lot of the audience felt like they were being forced to experience my idea of dreams.
I also had a better idea of how I wanted to play around with randomness and adventure in the later half of the piece, one that was more type driven. Showing things splitting off, not coming on in order or in the traditional western way.
