as screenwriters, what stories do your half-asleep (or half-awake) brains tell you during the liminal spaces just before you get up? i don’t mean full-on dreams (or nightmares)—you’re semi-conscious but your mind has free rein.
the projects I’m working on to sell to producers are indie/ art-house/ existential dramas, but this morning, well before dawn, i woke up, then half-drifted back to sleep, when my mind projected this reel onto the inside of my eyelids:
think Gladiator but a bunch of prisoners and slaves are thrown into the arena with lions and armoured warriors on horseback. the victims are given helmets and shields to prolong their agony, but no swords. one strong prisoner stands out—he pulls warriors off their horses, jumps on the back of a lion and strangles it.
the troops focus on him and a giant manages to hit the hero square on his helmet with a man-sized battle axe. the helmet splits and falls off. the hero still lives. his wild hair falls over his face, and he grins as he flexes his arms and—snikt—wolverine claws pop out.
don’t ask me how the story ends, i woke up at this point…
3 people like this
I like your idea, James LO. What hooked me is the "but no swords" part, the main prisoner, and giant. I get ideas after waking up. I keep them in a Microsoft Word document.
3 people like this
like a dream diary ya Maurice? good call—a lot of amazing ideas get forgotten real quickly—evaporated with the morning’s first rays of light
2 people like this
It's a list of script ideas, James LO. I also add ideas to it throughout the day. You're right. I've forgotten ideas because I thought I could remember them.
5 people like this
You know, I find people who utilize dreams to feed stories fascinating. I don't dream in visuals (I can't visualize at all) so the process is interesting to me. Are your dreams fully realized like this or just flashes and impressions?
4 people like this
Elle Bolan yes my dreams are like full motion pictures visually. they are almost always without sound though but they don’t feel like silent movies. maybe because I’m used to it, the fact that they’re without dialogue or SFX seems normal to my dreaming mind.
as an avid comics reader I’ve also dreamed pages of comics which is a much crazier thing to me—it means my subconscious actually painted and lettered complete pages—that’s quite rare though
4 people like this
For me it is sometimes the opposite, when I don't sleep all the time but sometimes, I immerse myself in my films, sometimes I feel like I am there like an inhabitant and it feels like it lasts an eternity, sometimes my dreams continue a story already begun, other times a new story.
5 people like this
Holy smoke bombs that's incredible! .I can't wrap my brain around that. But I can kind of understand that it's normal because you've always dreamed that way.
No sound, huh? That's wild. And comics?? That would be so effing cool. Sounds like a whole story telling muscle just handing you material.
4 people like this
I’ve had intense, almost surreal dreams that could easily evolve into stories or films. I remember one where I was the only witness to the real killer of a young girl, and his army spent the entire dream chasing me so I wouldn’t testify in court.
Another dream felt like I was holding a deep ocean secret—something that could help half-extinct marine creatures survive. In another, I was lost in a strange land, and in yet another, dinosaurs attacked my small city.
sadly, many of these dreams disappear the moment I wake up.
4 people like this
I have the same style dreams, for years, finding my way alone or in a team through an interesting diverse cityscape, often urgently, sometimes crime, involved, meet interesting often mafia type acquaintances, overcome darker events, having fun... these dreams sometimes pick up where they left off.
By the way, if you want an answer from God about something puzzling, ask at night before sleeping, you may get the answer when you wake up.
5 people like this
Elle Bolan - My dreams are like completed parts of/or complete movies or documentaries. Did you say you don't visualize? That's incredible. I can't imagine my life not being able to.
I have three-D object visualization. Pick objects up and turn them around in your head to see what they look like from other angles. It's a trained Draughtsman's trick.
5 people like this
@David Taylor I did say that. I can't visualize at all. I get... Color washes and a sense of motion in the colors and blackness. But I cannot create mental images. I've never been a visual person. It's jarring to think people see pictures in the head like full visuals on a screen. It fascinates me. And I think it's cool y'all can do that. I've tried. Guided meditations, books, etc. But nope. Just shifting colors on black.
3D? That's... So wild. I dunno what to make of that. It's incredible.
3 people like this
Elle Bolan - Not really, its draughtsman-ship training. Begin with a cube with a hole in it and draw it in four elevations/views. Then it gets more and more complicated a shape. Then draw cones and other objects which you draw in four elevations to exact dimensions in three D too. By the time you get to drawing machined parts - e.g. tools - in four elevations you get pretty good at it. I don't think people get trained like that anymore, they use CAD design programmes. The training was so that you produced a set of drawings for things which could be manufactured. It was a very long time ago. When I was ten, at school, I wanted to be a Draughtsman/Engineer.
4 people like this
Elle Bolan - PS - In lesson ONE, the teacher said: "Every object you see around you which is not grass, trees or flowers was man-made, it was manufactured, and every single object was born on a piece of paper and a drawing board, like the one you are sitting in front of now. It is my job to teach you how to technically draw anything, do that it can be made, it is your job to learn". I was completely hooked for a few years and wanted to design new things.
3 people like this
David Taylor good lesson for us writers to remember—even if we may have trouble executing it—to turn our early drafts in three dimensions and look for structural weaknesses.
for 11 years i owned a restaurant and i would tell all my team that everything is engineering. not just the door that fell off its hinges or the roof that’s leaking. cooking is engineering. building a craft cocktail is engineering.
i believe the best storytellers are at heart problem solvers.
2 people like this
James - I have a feature set in a restaurant, may I ask you advice on the matter.?
2 people like this
PS - James - my older brother loved what you wrote. About engineering. He is ranting about you even as I type.
2 people like this
David Taylor absolutely! I’ll reply your DM
2 people like this
The problem here is that there is no real 'focus.' You're looking for a completely new view of what we already know, for that you need a mind in a very relaxed state, but fully awake, and free from prejudgment, creating irony, here like "what if history had gone haywire":
Rome, 79 BC. To end all bloodsports, Spartacus' harpastum team "Spartac" must defeat dictator Sulla's "Roma Victor" or get thrown to the lions.
2 people like this
Rutger - I am finishing a first century and the present concurrent drama TV series. My first century is astounding in respect of the story. My present was poor but is now great. // obviously I am keeping secrets. It is a big story.
In respect of the above - suggest three things I should consider please. (All others welcome to suggest also)
2 people like this
.. I have to think about those three things, David, but I've sent you a friendship request, that's a start.
1 person likes this
(1) I'm not sure if your main characters go back and forth in time, creating a time paradox, always cool, but difficult to somehow keep it grounded in ?reality?
(2) Watch "Outlander," how did they keep it interesting all those seasons, or not?
(3) No idea.
3 people like this
No. The spirits in each time exist. The characters live in their own time but are connected by prophecy, spirit and faith.
3 people like this
Ps - the title of the piece is THE FINAL WARNING. It is a multi series TV drama anchored in truth and as yet undisclosed secrets (yes - I have undisclosed secrets and am using TV drama to expose them - they are not small - it’s taken me since 2006 to figure out how to share them) —- sounds ridiculous doesn’t it — it ain’t. It is NOT religious, it’s just truth.
Are not all dramas, existential?