Thread: Lucid Dreaming Short Film

1. Yup, totally possible to fall in love with a dream character. Your emotions are amplified in dreams and since your dreams provide you with the perfect opportunity to create your ideal partner, you can very easily fall in love during a dream. Once you wake up though, aside from a lingering feeling of "Oh that was nice, wish I had that in real life," you'll have shaken it off. Unless escapism comes into play, then you might be left desperately longing to recreate that feeling or experience, then...

2. You can definitely use it to sort of get away from reality, and for a certain type of person, it can become a problem. You can also recreate the euphoric feelings and sensations of specific drugs in dreams (or create your own blend of intoxicants), so in theory, a recovering addict could use lucid dreaming to substitute their addiction. That could be a problem if they're trying to escape their reality, but it could also be used to sort of edge away from the addiction. Say you're fiending for your fix, but instead of reaching for Drug X, you just take a nap and initiate a WILD (Wake Induced Lucid Dream) and recreate the drug there. You wake up, and the craving is gone. Again, in theory, I haven't actually tested this on any addicts yet.

3. I think mainstream media covered a story on a guy who killed someone (or some people), and they said it may have had something to do with his obsession with lucid dreaming. I think they were trying to imply that it's possible that in his head, the lines between dreams and reality had become blurred. Pretty sure you can find it on Google.
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I haven't LD'ed in a year or so, I forgot how fun (and easy) it used to be. I should probably give it another go tonight. .-.
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Good luck with the film Ashley, hopefully it goes well. And though unrelated, you're kinda cute btw. Now use that boost in self-confidence to motivate yourself, and get to work as soon as possible.

Just a note about point 3: everything in excess can be harmful. Even though there are no potential harmful effects to lucid dreaming, one might take it over the edge. But that goes for ANYTHING, so it's not really any point worth considering imo.

Some suggestions for inspiration:

Shared dreaming: even though it's a concept disproved by science, it's a very interesting topic, and can give you loads of scenarios. Movies like inception but also Paprika (the animation movie) explore this and are excellent sources for inspiration.

Time dilatation: sometimes people report dreams lasting for years. You certainly know this concept from the movie area: the viewer views a black screen with the message "2 months after" and they are led to believe 2 months have indeed passed. Since you're in the movie area, you could dig some more information and find connections between this phenomenon that seems to happen in dreams as well.

Some movies for inspiration

Couple of videos of lucid dream inspiration:

The World of Lucid Dreaming - YouTube
Amazing Lucid Dreaming Video - YouTube
Lucid Inspiration (a few of my lucid dreaming experiences) - YouTube
Anamnesis | Surreal Drama Short Film - YouTube (short filme that won several awards and it's being turned into a webseries, recommended!)
Cloud Atlas - Official® Trailer 1 [HD] - YouTube (past life experiences? Dreams and reality? Loads of ideas here)

Hope this helped, any questions about any subject inside dreaming just pm, I'll try to find the other post with advice I made for a person trying to write a script about lucid dreaming

I have a lot of different concepts in mind, but I'm unsure as to how exactly to set it up in such a small time frame, especially for people who don't know much about lucid dreaming.

It's easy to understand what lucid dreaming is. The deal is, this phenomenon lacks somewhat some popularity not because of the complexity of itself (it's pretty straight foward, and in a few days you can learn everything you need to achieve about dreams.), but because people don't realize that the experience is just as real as waking life. People connect their idea of what lucid dreaming may be with their ordinary dreams, which as you know, seem nothing but fleeing memories. That's exactly why so many lucid dreamers say you have to experience it to understand. The science of lucid dreaming is also quite interesting, if you want a more sci-fiction approach there's some cutting edge ideas going on the field at the moment.

How about past lives resurfacing in dreams? It's a very interesting story and might make your short flim longer, it's actually meant for an actual film, so lucid love and shared dreaming both sounds good.

This is an idea I use in one of my books, but might also be interesting in a film. A person who is mentally ill slowly realizes that the voices in their head are in fact dream characters. As they learn to lucid dream, they begin to confront the DCs and regain control of their minds. Could be a dark moody film, or even a comedy if the DC's are a bit ziggy? What do you think?
It would be nice to see some positive media attention given to lucid dreaming and the value gained from it if it went more main stream.
Cheers
LP

Wow! Thanks a lot guys! Didn't expect so many great replies.

@GavinGill, thanks for the confidence boost, it is the best kind of motivator Thanks for all the great feedback also!

@zoth00, shared dreaming and time dilation are awesome concepts to explore. I loved the videos you attached also, gave me heaps of inspiration! Cloud atlas looks great, I've been wanting to see it for a while now but I'd never seen the extended trailer. The science of lucid dreaming really interests me also. What ideas have you heard of going on in the field? I've even considered maybe doing some sort of documentary and exploring lucid dreaming that way, so the scientific side could be a major thing to look at.

@hathor28, that is something I've thought about myself, I've tried to conceptualise it but like you said, it seems like something more for a feature rather than a short. This short would be for my film course which means I have some pretty strict time constraints.

@Lucidpotential, I really love the sound of that idea! I'd love to read your book! I really like the idea of telling a story that really shows the potential benefits of lucid dreaming also. I know obviously you're a novel writer but do you have any advice on how I could adapt an idea like this or any of the previously mentioned ideas into a short (approx. 10 minutes) film? That's the main part I'm struggling with, I can come up with interesting concepts and plots and I have a million characters running around my head that could potentially star in the film but when it comes to having to tell the story in such a short time I'm really not sure of how to do it.

How about a person repeatedly having false awakenings? You can reuse the same scene multiple times with abrupt cuts. Maybe 5 scenes, each about two minutes. With each cut, there's a tension and uncertainty about whether the new scene is another dream or if it is the real awakening. Each false awakening starts the same but quickly twists into a different mood. Maybe one is pleasant, another scary, another bizarre, another mundane. You can reuse the same supporting actors but have them take on a different character in each awakening. The idea is to showcase the wide range of experiences you can have in such a short period of time and the abruptness with which it can change.

I'm mainly thinking of the movie Groundhog Day as inspiration. I'm also reminded of an old Halloween episode of the Simpsons where Homer goes back in time and alters the past, which then alters his present. He has to repeatedly go back in time to try to correct the present, but it's different and bizarre every time.

You could also do something on confronting nightmares, though I'm not sure how exactly you would set it up. Shared dreaming sounds awesome, as does time dilation