# 48 = where the dream ends (Reflection for Animating Stories)
To begin with the project, I feel it is essential to write down the whole nightmare first. I found even a short text, Dream usually does not make sense and come in a different piece, as it belongs to my memories, I may know it well but the audience not. Therefore, I start the project with the scriptwriting. I told myself not to put too much pressure on the overall quality of the writing because it is not the subject I capable of. Still, I do read some short creepy story, such as The Music of Erich Zann, The rat in the wall and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath (all story written by H.P. Lovecraft) for my reference, which is helpful in the writing style and learning to build up the atmosphere of a horror story. The short story was complete at the end of week 5, it is extremely rough but at least readable for me so I could have some verbal reference to rely on during the production.
My nightmare is actually caused by another piece of memory. It was a night when I am small, around 6th grade. My family usually visit my grandparents on every weekend, that night we leave slightly later than usual, and my dad will drive us home. The drive from Kowloon to Tsuen Wan does not take a long time but the radio is playing some horrible tales (and claimed as real things happened.) and it really frights me out. One really dig into my memory: the host was throwing his garbage to the collecting bin in backstair and realise a long hair, female ghost in a white dress, which can imagine as Sadako from Ringu (1998), climbing towards him like the signature scene in The Exorcist. The weird things happen, when I stand in front of my doorstep, my curiosity makes me peek through the tiny glass on the backstair’s door, then I saw a stain looks similar to a woman head on the wall. At that night, I made this nightmare, and it continuously happens until now. That is actually another piece of interesting memory which I could pick to animate with but I did not think about it until I am working on this essay.
Keep moving on the film, another part during simultaneously is some sketches about horrible things, including both imaginary creatures for the theme, other nightmares I had or imagined, and some illustration of the dream in this project. In this stage, I start thinking about the colour scheme, I can remember well how the dream looks like, everything is realistic but there are lots of wooden and coppery objects. However, when start to picking a colour on my canvas, it turns complicated, my brain is not functioning when I try to recall the exact colour, I believe the reason is I just cannot push them over the boundaries, between dreams and reality. Still, the project needs to go on. I remember a film that I watched when I am young, it plays on tv during one years’ Halloween: The call of Cthulhu (2005), it is not an amazing film in my opinion but the way using black and white to film that kind of mystery investigating story of unknown evil god actually fits well in my film, so, as a result, I stop pushing myself to think about the colour scheme, and decided to work with greyscale.
I was quite optimistic in week 7, both of the film I am working on going well. The theme and everything are really inspiring, as a result, I made them a relatively long storyboard but that momentum soon turns overly overwhelming and the project starts to collapse. The first version of the storyboard is quite straightforward. I did not even think about adapting the text into animation, I just drew everything the exactly same as the text. The outcome turns into a long, boring film, with too much scene and just far from what I could handle in five weeks so right after the weekly catch up I start working on a new storyboard. At that moment, I already being less motivated in my film still, I need to finish it. I have to think about cutting down some unnecessary scene from the first attempt, by keep thinking different, the new version turns into a whole new film.
The new story is coming with a parallel story: one is my voiceover of my nightmare (the script is almost unchanged) and the film itself is telling another story, however, by the end of it, two-line should come together. I decide to play more with the transitions between scene as dreams always have weird connections, things happen smoothly in the dream but once you rethink about it or telling to another person, it seldom makes sense and usually turns hilarious. The animation begins with a scene the main character twisted and break his neck, then turns into his notes cover with scrawls. The next scene starts to move away from the story itself but the image still have a connection with it. It is not that straightforward, it was aimed to have clues through all the film: who is the main character, what happens in the elevator, is that body bag really holding a body, it is flesh or clay. The rough line and grey tone helps to keep the mysteries. There are many sounds in my mind during the production, for instance, when the story talks about “The steel wire rope pulls up the heavy metal case, making the unpleasant shake.”, meanwhile the character in the film is pulling the bag hardly into the room, the scene will look interesting with those humming and metal parts cracking we could hear in the elevator. In the midway of storyboarding, the animation has moved far from the original version, I adapting it is the way I feel in this project. I use sculpting as a synonym the process of recalling the memories, there are loads of unorganised fragments, pulling out from my brain, as was the audience, what is inside that huge bag on the floor is unknown but when putting them together, they will slowly form as an object, a face, like the face I saw that night, it was just an illusion but it does form the whole story. The tension is building up during the middle of the film. It turns more violence, bizarre and anxious, like me staying in a elevator when they passed a specific level, it was always a terrible experience for people suffering Acrophobia like me.
In week 8, I complete to animatic and the voiceover for the film. Animation wise, considering the production schedule is rushing and tight, I film myself as reference for many shots. Throughout the process, I have continually reminded myself to slow the pace down because timing is a selection that I am weak at. Otherwise, although the animating process is slow, I do enjoy the motions in the later shots. Audio-wise, first, I am not confident with my voice and pronunciation. Alan has advised that I could try to speak in my mother language but the outcome is awkward. I rehearse the recording a few times and made quite an amount of attempts still it sounds I am extremely nervous with my shaky voice. Next problem is I mess up with the time code while animating with the soundtrack. I realised two software I am using has a slightly different calculation, the unexpected accident has dragged me behind the schedule again.
In a nutshell, I will describe the project is full of joy but also depression. I feel guilty that I cannot finish the film before the deadline but I learn the importance of preparation. This animation is the first one I made with a longer length, I believe this will be a great practice for my future projects, especially the final year film.
