watch To Live in Dreams (short film)

My newest short. Tells the story of a soldiers' purgatory: their dreams. It rendered at a weird aspect ratio again, however, it still tells the story...thoughts and constructive criticism are always welcome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO5BNxPt0oM

...I didn't get it. Soldiers dream things we can't imagine? Well alright then, but I don't see the point of making a film about it.

Nor did I fully understand the things you shot for it - sure, a soldier walking about and the sun is shining, etcetera etcetera, but the girl?

When asked when to use narrative, someone on this board said "If you can't tell the story without it, then don't use it" - and without the narrative, this film doesn't have anything to it. Also, for something that's trying to be deep for whatever reason, it's incredibly short.

See, if I had done something like this, I would have started off the film with the funeral of a soldier, and one of the people inherits his diary. As the person reads through it, that's when I'd start cutting in the shots of the soldier whilst he was alive and using the narration, but then I'd also link the narration to what was being shown. If people wanted a story told only through sound, they'd buy an audiobook, not watch a film.

The soldier's dream being something we can't imagine is the literal view on the narration. The symbolic view of dreams and soldier's differing is supposed to show the gap between what soldier's experience (war, death) and their alienation from society after going through the traumatic experience of war, and their return to normal life. I agree with your point, without having the narration, the narrative or story aspect does not deliver visually. However, being thrown together in a day I think this project could have been a lot worse haha. I like your idea about showing the soldier's funeral, etc.

Thanks for the input

ThatGuyFromThatPlace said:

Also, for something that's trying to be deep for whatever reason, it's incredibly short.

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A film does not have to have a certain length to be good. Personally, I think this film was pretty well executed (especially produced in a days length). Even if it was deep, it still made sense to me. I thought the narration was very well written and although you could have chosen a few different shots at times, many of the shots were very fitting.

@ThatGuyFromThatPlace your criticism is useless without including something that he could do better. A lot of the filmmakers on this forum are new to the industry and are still in the learning process. Instead of bashing what he did and saying what you would have done with his idea, try giving him opinions on what he could do better.

just as joure Love=Hate, the narrative part is the strongest part of joure movie. Its very well spoken and its ful of emotion.......But, I don't agree with the story. I think it's not true...

I dont know if thats a problem for jou? That the audience dont believes the narrative part?

WGCProductions said:

@ThatGuyFromThatPlace your criticism is useless without including something that he could do better. A lot of the filmmakers on this forum are new to the industry and are still in the learning process. Instead of bashing what he did and saying what you would have done with his idea, try giving him opinions on what he could do better.

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I know a lot of the people here are new, I didn't "bash" what he said, I pointed out the things that I thought were bad about it, which itself is telling him what he could do better. Saying what I would have done with it was a way of helping him better understand what I meant in the paragraph above it when I said, essentially, that without the narration over the scene the film has no sense to it. He's just as welcome to avoid my advice if he wants to, I'm not expert on it, it's just my feedback after watching it. Relax.

As far as agreeing or disagreeing with the narration, I personally feel as a filmmaker or doing anything creative whether it be writing, painting, etc, one of the main goals is to make the audience respond a certain way, whether that response be utter disagreement, sheer approval, or even a nuetral feeling, then at least it has affected them in some way. My two films (love=hate, and this one) are shown rather subjectively; I have taken a drastic twist on the subjects and showed them in a new light. Basically I just wanted viewers to think about the topics differently than they might normally, and sort of make them think out of the boundaries, and even maybe reinforce their already present beliefs about the topics. As for the shots I filmed, I do agree some of them do not fit with the storyline, part of that is experimentation, and the other lack of time. These films are mainly just me messing around with the camera and trying different techniques I have picked up from film school. I have other films I am in the process of finishing pre-pro for that are going to have more thought in the shot planning, etc. Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I'm still learning about film (first year of film school this year ) and am making the switch from an author's view to trying to deliver my stories to the film medium (also could be why the narration is so strong?)